Many long years ago, an old lady I knew gave me some seeds from her amaryllis. I planted them. And I have two bulbs from them. They are many years old now, a good size, but still haven't bloomed for me. Of course, I don't put them into the cold rest they prefer... I just don't have the basement which they would love.
I have a great window sill in my office. It faces south, and I get light in the afternoon. I took one of my larger Amaryllis bulb to work and set it on my window. It grew great big leaves. And then in the fall, the leaves died back one by one. That is a sign that it wants to go into the resting phase. I covered the pot and placed it into the corner on the window ledge, where it was fairly cold, and left it there for a couple of weeks. Then it decided it wanted to grow new leaves... and I pulled it back out into the sunlight. There was no flower stalk.
This year, when the leaves died back, I was determined to get it to bloom! I covered it with a plastic bag, and stuck the whole pot into the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet. It would not be very cold there, but cooler than anywhere else. And it would be left undisturbed. Every 2 weeks or so, I would check on it. And as time went by, I eventually noticed a tiny leaf coming out. I could see it was not a flower stalk. This was not good. The flower should come out first, and then the leaves later. So I put it back into the drawer and left it for another week. I was not too pleased with it.
One Friday, I remembered it. I wondered what it was doing. When I opened the drawer, I could see there was some growth... there was something protruding and pushing the bag to one side. I opened it up and saw it was a flower stalk!! Iit was about 25 cm (10") and had to lay horizontally! The poor thing! And it was white, because of the lack of sunlight.
I put it on my desk, and left it for the weekend. When I got back Monday morning, it was all green and standing straight upright! Gotta love the way nature works.
I put it back on the window sill, and let it have some water and sunlight. That flower stalk kept on growing steadily upwards. I was anxious to see what colour it was, because since I've had it, it never bloomed and I was not told what colours they might be. This is so very exciting!!
Finally, the bud was quite full and opened slightly showing me the innards. I could detect deep red. That was going to be great!
Last week, the bud opened, and revealed four blossom buds. They were a deep red, not maroon, not orange, but a really nice red. By Friday, the bud had fully opened, and revealed four great big flower buds! Oh, and it was going to open up on the weekend! I will have to come in on my days off to see it!I came in on Monday morning to be greeted by the most beautiful gorgeous gigantic blood red blossoms!! Four perfectly and fully formed blossoms in the most vibrant red I have ever seen!
Oh I am so happy! This is such a marvel! I feel reallly blessed to be rewarded with such a miracle of the formation of this intricate and beautiful flower from a simple bulb. I never cease to be amazed at how incomprehensible our world is.
Here is one pic of the blossoms. Red is such a hard colour to capture with the digital cameras, but this one is close. I was not able to show you the majesty of all four flowers, so only one will have to do. I could not be more pleased.
May I extend to you all a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the New Year.
