Sun red at morning, saliors take warning....sun red at night, sailors delight. Or so the old saying goes. We had a beautifully red sunset last night, so I'm looking for a great day ahead. Right now, a brisk wind is blowing from the west and my trip to the mailbox was a fast one.....I didn't take time to put shoes on and my sockless feet didn't want to stay on the frost covered cement very long.
Some plants always seem to amaze me. Take the amaryllis for example. My Mom has bloomed amaryllis bulbs at Christmas time for years. While working at the garden center store a few years ago, I was able to bring a giant bulb home, that was a left over, once the sales season was over. It has been a prolific bloomer the last 4 years. When I took it out of the pot for it's resting period this spring, I noticed another bulb starting to grow off of the main bulb. It had been developing under the dirt while in the pot. It was about the size of a ping pong ball, only oblong like an egg. I broke it off the main bulb, with the idea of potting it this fall with the main bulb to see if it would bloom too. Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. I grabbed the pots and bulbs, thinking that the timing was right to get them potted and have them blooming just about right at Christmas. To my surprise the big bulb had put on another small bulb, while laying dry, out of the dirt, during it's resting period. This new bulb is about the size of a sewing thimble. So, I broke it off too and planted all three bulbs, the giant one in a pot by itself and the 2 smaller ones in a pot together. A good watering and then placed them on a desk up against a south window with great sunlight coming in. By Wednesday morning, all three bulbs had started to peek their leaves out of the top of the bulbs. This morning, only 3 days after potting and watering, the giant bulb has already grown it's first leaves out about 1 1/2 inches, and the smaller bulbs are growing leaves out too. What tremendous energy this little bulbs must store up and then expend! The giant bulb will put our 6-8 leaves and then put up 2-3 stalks that will have up to 4 blooms on each stalk. I'm not sure how many or how big the blooms will be on these small bulbs, but I fully expect them to produce at least 1 each, until they grow a little. Once the blooms have all died off, the leaves remain and I continue to water them occasionally until sometime in May. Then I will take them out of the pots, take all the dirt off of the bulb and the roots and put them somewhere cool and dry for them to rest......until it's time to start the whole growing, blooming process over. What really amazes me is the energy requirments needed for this process and the ability of these bulbs to expend that energy and then renew it for the next season.
OK, this was long and probaby boring to most of you, but I was just completely taken this morning, by their progress in only 3 days.....enough so to write about it.
Nature continues to AMAZE me!!
TGIF!
Some plants always seem to amaze me. Take the amaryllis for example. My Mom has bloomed amaryllis bulbs at Christmas time for years. While working at the garden center store a few years ago, I was able to bring a giant bulb home, that was a left over, once the sales season was over. It has been a prolific bloomer the last 4 years. When I took it out of the pot for it's resting period this spring, I noticed another bulb starting to grow off of the main bulb. It had been developing under the dirt while in the pot. It was about the size of a ping pong ball, only oblong like an egg. I broke it off the main bulb, with the idea of potting it this fall with the main bulb to see if it would bloom too. Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. I grabbed the pots and bulbs, thinking that the timing was right to get them potted and have them blooming just about right at Christmas. To my surprise the big bulb had put on another small bulb, while laying dry, out of the dirt, during it's resting period. This new bulb is about the size of a sewing thimble. So, I broke it off too and planted all three bulbs, the giant one in a pot by itself and the 2 smaller ones in a pot together. A good watering and then placed them on a desk up against a south window with great sunlight coming in. By Wednesday morning, all three bulbs had started to peek their leaves out of the top of the bulbs. This morning, only 3 days after potting and watering, the giant bulb has already grown it's first leaves out about 1 1/2 inches, and the smaller bulbs are growing leaves out too. What tremendous energy this little bulbs must store up and then expend! The giant bulb will put our 6-8 leaves and then put up 2-3 stalks that will have up to 4 blooms on each stalk. I'm not sure how many or how big the blooms will be on these small bulbs, but I fully expect them to produce at least 1 each, until they grow a little. Once the blooms have all died off, the leaves remain and I continue to water them occasionally until sometime in May. Then I will take them out of the pots, take all the dirt off of the bulb and the roots and put them somewhere cool and dry for them to rest......until it's time to start the whole growing, blooming process over. What really amazes me is the energy requirments needed for this process and the ability of these bulbs to expend that energy and then renew it for the next season.
OK, this was long and probaby boring to most of you, but I was just completely taken this morning, by their progress in only 3 days.....enough so to write about it.
Nature continues to AMAZE me!!
TGIF!
shayne:
the sun is red this morning at 7:30 ish am. good thing i'm not sailing...