Here's 'Green Goddess', the second of the two amaryllis bulbs (the other being 'Pink Floyd') I picked up in December. The Green Goddess bulb was already sending out a flowering shoot when I bought it, and was in full bloom (two four-flowered stalks) through Christmas and New Year's. When the flowers were done and cut down, three leaves of foliage came up, and then...what's this? Another flowering stalk, six weeks later. Oh, no. I'm being sucked in, headlong, into a Dysfunctional Relationship. Because I'll want to see these blooms again next year, and especially those of the Floyd. Which means another attempt at the art-science-voodoo of keeping and reblooming amaryllis bulbs. Oh, but it will be different this time. I'm motivated. I've gotten great advice in the comments to this post from Cold Climate Gardening's Kathleen Purdy. And, for comic relief, I can turn to Thalassa Cruso in The Gardening Year (pub. info. here), who sandwiches several pages of precise and helpful instructions on growing amaryllis between an opening salvo of exasperation:
I am, of all things, being harassed by amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulbs, probably because these are not great favorites of mine. In spite of their spectacular bloom, I have never cared much for this particular bulb. Their enormous size is a problem in the small pots their culture demands, the flowers do not last very long nor, to my mind, combine well with other potted plants.and, in the end, grudging admiration for the plant:
No matter how you look at it, carrying on an amaryllis is a long-drawn-out job, but if you have room, and patience, it is worth trying to get more out of such an expensive bulb. The fact that seven flourishing potfuls are more than I can handle is surely no reason for anyone else to condemn a worthwhile plant!
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