Amaryllis

...Amaryllis.

Amaryllis or Hippeastrum?

What is in a name? Well the true Amaryllis Belladonna is a different bulb altogether. This Amaryllis has Hippeastrum as it's botanical name, which means Knight Star, another romantic sounding name I think.

So, what is it?

A flowering bulb.

Flowering bulbs include some of my favourite flowers and plants, this one I don't generally plant ...
...compost. Often when you buy amaryllis they come in a box with a small bag of compost and sometimes even a pot. My mum has had a couple though that fell over when planted in the supplied pot so now I always plant them in a pot a bit bigger than suggested as this gives them more stability. Stand the bulb on the layer of compost and fill the rest of the pot round the sides of the bulb. Now this is where Amaryllis differs from most of the garden bulbs ... more

Amaryllis! What a lovely word! I love the way it rolls from the mouth; it was a popular Greek name for women in ancient times. I would have loved to be called such a romantic sounding name as Amaryllis.

Amaryllis or Hippeastrum?

What is in a name? Well the true Amaryllis Belladonna is a different bulb altogether. This Amaryllis has Hippeastrum as it's botanical name, which means Knight Star, another romantic sounding name I think.

So, what is it?

A flowering bulb.

Flowering bulbs include some of my favourite flowers and plants, this one I don't generally plant in the garden but grow indoors to brighten the darkest days of winter. A tender bulb, which started life in the mountains of South America. I am not sure though how it came to grow in parts of Africa. My uncle spent a large part of his life in such exotic places as Tanzania, and I vaguely remember him laughing one winter when my mum was growing one of these bulbs on the windowsill, telling us that they just sprouted from the ground after a dry spell and he found it so funny that here in England we were growing them one to a pot on the windowsill in the hope of a beautiful flower in time for Christmas.

What do they look like?

For a bulb they are quite big, I have been looking at different places on the internet where you can buy them, and none of them are sized, but they range in size from a medium to very large onion and look a little similar. Not to be confused with an onion though because the bulbs don't smell and I know of no irritants to skin or eyes. The bulb is denser than an onion and rather like a large daffodil bulb with a dryish skin on the outside.

When you buy them they usually have a few old roots hanging from the base of the bulb, these don't sprout and grow from the ends so the dried out ones can be pulled off before planting.

How do you grow them?

This is the easy peasy bit. First you get a flowerpot, a fairly large one will do the job perfectly; fill the bottom half with compost. Often when you buy amaryllis they come in a box with a small bag of compost and sometimes even a pot. My mum has had a couple though that fell over when planted in the supplied pot so now I always plant them in a pot a bit bigger than suggested as this gives them more stability. Stand the bulb on the layer of compost and fill the rest of the pot round the sides of the bulb. Now this is where Amaryllis differs from most of the garden bulbs that I plant outside. You need to leave the top of the bulb poking out of the top of the compost. I don't know what will happen if you plant it too deeply, but maybe without the light it won't come into flower.

Water until the compost is damp and keep a little on the dry side until the bud starts poking out of the top of the bulb.

This is where it gets interesting!

Once the bud has started to show at the top of the bulb the fun starts. You can almost measure it hour by hour and definitely can measure it's growth day by day, something like an inch a day I have recorded. It will grow anything between 10 inches and almost two foot tall before the bud splits and the individual flowers open.

The flower.

Six petals, central stamens, standing on one thick stalk. The stalk is fleshy and can bend or break when very tall, so it might be a good idea to put a thin stick beside the stalk and tie the two together.

Colours.

Many but not varied. Red, pink, white and variations of all those. There is one red, which is rather more of a deep orange, and I think there may be a yellow one. My uncle said all the ones in Africa were yellow, which surprised me, but then gin was very cheap where he lived so his memory might have been flawed.

Nowadays you can buy Amaryllis that are pure white with a thin red picote edging each petal. Some of them have white in the centre of the flower and some are somewhat striped.

Where do you buy them?

The one I bought my mum last week came from Woolworth's and was £2.49 which really is very cheap for something that lasts several weeks and has a huge interest value. Of course, the bud isn't showing yet and she is beginning to get a bit impatient. Co-op at the moment has them for £3.99 buy one get one free. All the big supermarkets will sell them gift boxed for Christmas. Boots have them with ceramic pots and glass vases, I wouldn't recommend spending a tenner or more on one in a glass vase, I have never had success growing them this way. Most garden centres stock them and the price and size varies. The bigger the bulb the bigger the price. In theory it should mean the bigger and more numerous the flowers but I found it is rather hit and miss, you can buy a huge bulb and plant it in good potting compost and not get a very good show of flowers and you can buy a smaller bulb from somewhere like Woolworth's and it can grow two stalks with four flowers on top of each.

So, once the flower is finished, what then?

The leaves will grow and continue to keep watered while they grow, you can put it outside in the garden once the threat of frost is over and leave it to mature out there. Let the plant dry off at the end of the summer and leave dry to rest for about 10 weeks, if you can keep it fairly cool at this time all the better and then re pot and start into growth once again. It might flower again, it might not, rarely is it as big and beautiful as the first time though. Bulbs grown for sale are grown in optimum conditions which are difficult to re create in the average garden or house.

A couple of oddities.

One year, my Amaryllis was tall, the buds opened and it looked beautiful when it fell over for me to discover that it hadn't a root to it's name. I didn't know what to do with it so propped it up at the side of our pond and there it stood to attention and the flowers lasted weeks.

One year, not knowing what to do with the Amaryllis once the flowers were over and the tall strap like leaves got in the way of the window I put one in the garden. I don't recall seeing it the next year but the year after that it came up and flowered at the end of May. We live on the south coast and part of my garden is quite sheltered and sunny but with the climate changes we have seen I think maybe this might work again. Next spring I will plant another one and see what happens.

One year I sent one to my sister in Scotland for Christmas and she was so impressed with the flower that she painted me a picture of it when it flowered and that painting hangs on my sitting room wall, one of my sisters originals which I am proud to own.

Buy one for a friend or relative for Christmas or buy one for yourself to grow on the windowsill for a splash of bright colour in the depths of winter, which gives you a feeling that spring is not far away.

Enjoy…

 

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