Amaryllis Gone Wild

Don’t you just love it when you buy a plant and it rewards you by thriving?

Below is a photo of a pot of amaryllis blooming in May and June.  At last count there were 40+ blossoms that came and went.  Considering how large and showy they are, that’s a startling amount of eye appeal when you consider it all started with one lowly $4 bulb.

Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants
Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants

I bought it for my mom at Christmas a few years back.  You know, one of those bulbs you force and sometimes toss after the holidays? But I’ve never been one for tossing.  I repotted the bulb in a large pot and fed and watered it all that next summer.  The following spring the bulb had split and I had not two but THREE lovely stalks of blossoms.  The original bulb  had not only split but was large enough to send up two bloom stalks.

Huge red Amaryllis blossoms
Huge red Amaryllis blossoms

It just kept getting better and better.  As a reward for occasional feeding and watering, the bulbs continued to split each year until now I am forced to remove and re-pot them.

© Wade Kingston