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Was at the local hardware store today and saw that amaryllis are now IN. I didn't buy one as the bulbs in the boxes were about the size of tulips. The smallest I've ever seen but am sure I can find a more normal size somewhere.
Anybody up for having an amaryllis grow op challenge?
If 'yes' I'll be out to buy one And will document it growing.
On another note - of the ones I saw today there was red, pink and two colour PLUS another new one (at least new to me) called PICOTEE. White with a small red fringe all around the edges.
I did plant mine out in the garden last year as it had performed poorly last time so I thought it may need to build itself up. I must say that I had forgotten about it, but fear it may have died off with all the bad weather we have had this year, so must see if I can find where I planted it. If not and I see them for sale anywhere I will get one although so far I have seen nothing in the shops I usually frequent.
Amaryllis are just arriving here but the one I looked at came in the smallest box I've ever seen so I opened it to look and honestly the Amaryllis bulb inside looked about the size of a hyacinth. It looked like a midget strain! It would have taken 3 to 5 bulbs to have made a decent display.
Lots of other stores get them in so I'm going to go and see what I can find. Not sure what colour I'll go for either. I tend to like the solid reds but the striped pink have made an appearance here too.
I had 3 that I'd kept over but this past year was so awful they passed. Was a long tortuous passing too but they all (3 of 'em) gave up the ghost. Two of them did send up a couple of leaves only but they quite quickly yellowed and fell over and definitely did not give the appearance of strength and/or of ever going to flower again. I opted to actually donate them to the compost cause they were not worth the garden space and the weather sure wasn't making it easy on them either.
I don't think "I only have Green Thumbs Grandad" will want to PLAY WITH US Maybe but he hasn't shown an interest previous but maybe RS and MD will give it a go with us.
Mad Dilys wrote:I just checked the pots of Amaryllis out in the garden, only to find a large bulb shaped hole in each pot. Obviously the snails have had a field day.
My entry is called "MINERVA." Not named by me but that is the name of the 'colour'? of my Amaryllis. Went to the grocery store today and outside was a brand new display of bulbs.
I stood for awhile opening boxes as I usually like the all red ones called "Red Lion" but of the 3 or 4 boxes of them I opened the bulbs were kinda pathetic. Bit to the soft side so I put them aside. I looked a few "Apple Blossom" which were the pink Amaryllis but they looked about the same as the Red Lion and pink just didn't strike my fancy.....sooooooo I opted for "Minerva" which is a red and white.
The Box:
The instructions (and right now the container is on the counter with the growing medium soaking up the water)
The bulb - about 3" diameter which isn't the biggest and best bulb I've ever seen but a respectable size to compete and WIN WIN WIN!
TAH DAH! Here we go - in the pot, on the table and ready to grow grow grow!
So - I'm STARTING mine on Wednesday Oct 25th 2017 at 5pm. No sign of any leaves or buds so will report and chart soon as they start to appear.
Am hoping for 2 stalks and 4 flowers per stalk.
On another note the growing medium is like extremely coarse peat moss so much so I'd almost call it ground up coconut shell shreds. It was packaged in a disk with instructions to soak in warm water 'til it expanded and then plant the bulb. There was no hole in the pot and whilst I thought about poking a hole in there then I wouldn't have been able to expand the growing medium.
Other plants I've bought over the years have usually had earth, soil, dirt in a bag inside a pot inside the box and it has always been soil mixture with perlite etc. Can't see how this one will hold any nutrients but if I can over winter this one it'll go out (again) into my garden to see IF it'll continue to grow .......
Mad Dilys wrote:I just checked the pots of Amaryllis out in the garden, only to find a large bulb shaped hole in each pot. Obviously the snails have had a field day.
Oh dear! that rules you out then
Maybe, we'll see.
However I doo have seeds from my plants of this year, both cross pollinated and self pollinated. One of my friends has raised some, but of course it's going to be a few years before they bloom.
@H - They should be arriving soon. We're JUST getting them in here and I'm also of a mind that we might even be early in getting them. I kinda think that usually I don't even see them until mid-November cause they're usually sold to be blooming for Christmas. I'm pretty sure planting them now will get them blooming mid-December.
What caught my attention most was the small size of the ones in that Building Supply store when I first saw them. Usually the boxes are huge but these boxes were tiny (and so were the wee bulbs).
Course I've also been thinking that maybe they were a new hybridized Amaryllis meant to be small.
I have, in the past, seen some bulbs that were easy 6" diameter.
Am hoping for a nice bloom from Minnie aka Minerva And am really hoping for two stalks of flowers as well.
I don't know! All this horticultural stuff going on here, I am right out of my depth, BUT, having just returned today from a 12 night cruise off the west coast of Africa, I could have been converted. The guest speaker on the first week was Chris Beardshaw the acclaimed gardener. We only went to one of his talks and, although quite interesting, it did drag on a bit.
I shall tell you about our trip in a day or so when I have had a chance to sort out a few piccies. What I will say is that we made 5 ports of call and although cruise ships tend to just 'Cruise' rather slowly, we still travelled 3399 nautical miles which is about 3912 statute miles. More to follow...............
@Grandad - can't wait to see the pics and hear about your cruise!
Some Gardener speakers CAN go on a bit. I go the local Horticultural Club and they definitely limit the amount of time the monthly Guest Speaker can talk (otherwise some could go on forever and forever)
AND
You and Mrs Grandad ARE more than welcome to join our Amaryllis challenge You really only have to buy one and put it in a pot. Believe me the plants are totally primed to DO the rest and they are also truly gorgeous soon as the bloom.
OK, you have persuaded me. I have just ordered a Hippeastrum Amaryllis Minerva bulb on Amazon. I don't need a kit as we have pots and compost so, count me in.
Well done Grandad and you also solved my own problem of availability I had never thought of using Amazon, so just been online and ordered one up for myself, so hopefully I will have mine to start growing sometime next week, by the way I chose the one called 'Tres Chic' as I liked the dual colour.
@Grandad - HEY HEY HEY!!! Way to go!! Am sure you're going to LOVE Minerva aka Minnie! They come with huge roots but are actually put into fairly small pots. Mostly just big enough to hold them upright. The pot I got this year didn't even have a hole in the bottom to drain the water. Mostly once they're planted you just soak 'em (which I think prompts them into growing) and then only water a little bit once the flowers are out.
Mine hasn't moved at all 'yet' but once these guys get going they do grow fast and are really very pretty and do remind of Christmas.
@H - The name of yours in very interesting - "Tres Chic" ...... hmmm. Not a name that I've seen here but going to be interesting.
Hopefully MD, RS and Kiya will get on board too with different varieties. Be interesting to see 'em all.
Last year I had a two tall ones, each with two stems, another of the same variety and a little short, luscious red with small single flowers the final one should have been like the first two - a fine heavy bulb and it had lots of leaves and no flowers at all!
I got them all at various times between November and January from Tesco supermarket and they were about £5 each already planted in a china pot.
I see the large bulbs on t'internet are advertised at between £9 and £12.50 which seems a bit steep. I'm going to ring my favourite fairly local Garden Centre and see if they have any in stock yet as I've been delighted with my Begonias and Mandevillas this summer from there.
Great if you are getting involved as well MD although I would agree that they do seem a bit pricey online, I had to pay £3.99 on top for delivery on mine as it wasn't available with Amazon Prime. I suppose I could have looked around, but then it may have been a bit late to start it off, in any event I will still get a lot of pleasure in seeing it grow and hopefully bloom as well as it being something for us all to chat about. You will also need to get to grips with uploading a few piccies, but don't worry we will help you in that.
As I was the tortoise in the challenge last year I am going to re-awaken my two bulbs soon and see if I can keep up with you other 'Green Fingers' ;)
As an aside, I did say a couple of weeks ago...
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Leave it in the pot and dig it into the soil until around September
I'm sure everybody on here is tired of me giving my annual I planted an amaryllis & how do you keep it growing? ;)
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And so I go down to the store and all the bulbs are terrificly huge, healthy and I put one in my buggy. Am wandering around looking at all the other garden stuff when DUH!!! I'm NOT in Canada and I...
And will document it growing.
