A recent gardening discussion among friends brought forth the question of what to do with amaryllis once they have finished blooming. First of all, do not throw out the bulb! Your amaryllis can bloom again. When the plant has finished flowering, cut the flowers off; and then when the flower stalk loses its vigor, cut it back to the top of the bulb. Keep on watering it and caring for it like any other plant until the leaves start to fade. Then, cut the leaves back and store the bulb.
This is the part that seems to be a worry, but it really isn’t. Place the bulb (we can keep it in the pot) in a cool, dark place for at least six weeks. Then bring it out, begin watering, and growth will begin again. From this point, it will be approximately eight weeks till the next blooms.
If you are very ambitious and want to take your bulb out of the soil for storage, you can store it in the fridge. But remember, it you keep apples in the fridge and tuck your amaryllis bulb in there as well, the gases given off by the apples will cause your amaryllis to be sterile. So a cold, dark spot in the basement is probably your best bet!
Not so difficult and well worth the effort for the beautiful show that amaryllis bulbs give us.
Friends have told me of amaryllis bulbs that are years old, so don’t give up on them after just one flowering season!
I wanted to tell you about a beautiful gift we received from some very dear and thoughtful friends: it’s an absolute treasure called “The Whole Seed Catalogue” from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This amazing catalogue is the size of the long-ago Christmas catalogues, and ten times more interesting! It has full color pictures, and hundreds of plants! The variety of seeds available is astonishing; I pored over the “bean” pages, of great interest to me after the success we had with the wonderful heirloom seeds purchased at the seed festival several years ago. My Mom would have loved looking at the pages and pages of tomato seeds, with sizes from small cherry to big, one-slice-sandwich size and beyond! This catalogue has many exotics such as the travelling tomato that we chatted about once upon a time. It’s just amazing!
What I love most about this catalogue is that it is a great resource: a beautifully illustrated educational tool that describes the new plants and new varieties and how they grow. It’s great garden reading, a chance to learn more from the comfort of our armchairs on a snowy day! If you want to check it out, visit www.rareseeds.com
Browsing through that delightful catalogue reminded me that we should renew our promise to ourselves to try at least one new thing every gardening year. By all means, grow all your favorites and all that things that have done well for you in the past; but please, please try a new plant! It might become your next favorite thing! And even if it doesn’t do well, the season will have been a great learning experience. So what do you say, should we make that our “gardening new year’s resolution”?
Hopefully another resolution will be that you might come to Yorkton and District Horticultural Society meetings! Our first one of 2017 is on February 15. New members are always welcome! See what’s new at www.yorktonhort.ca This time before spring is the time to plan, to dream, and to consider the successes and failures of last year’s garden. Even a very small garden can bring great satisfaction and beauty, so let’s start making plans! Have a great week!
