I like big bulbs and I cannot lie

Last week (or the week before maybe) I reminded you to plant your amaryllis bulbs. Well, folks, this is why you should do what I say, not what I do. Because I planted mine this weekend. There might still be time for them to be looking OK by Christmas, but I'm definitely pushing it.

Anyway, I got six bulbs all planted up (in dirt, I don't have a lot of luck planting bulbs in just rocks like some people do) and they are now enjoying a good view of the deck from the back room.

A couple of them were obviously ready to be planted ad they were already working on sending up shoots.

It reminded me, though, why I hate Miracle Gro potting soil so much. It was the only potting soil I could get my hands on at this point in the year so it had to do, but it is almost impossible to get that stuff damp. There is so much peat in it that it seems to be water resistant, which is not helpful when you're planting huge bulbs in very small pots.

Anyway we'll keep on eye on them. I have a few new varieties in there this year so it will be fun to see what they look like. And not a one of them is red.

The gardener needs the plants more than the plants need the gardener

When I posted about the amaryllis that I forgot about in the basement that bloomed its little head off anyway, someone pointed out that it's rather ironic that we try so hard to make some plants grow and then others just go ahead and do it even when we mistreat them.

Never was that more true than in the case of the dogwood in my window box.

Before I go any further, you know that I'l all about keeping it (mostly) real, right? Well this post is going to highlight two rather embarrassing situations at my house: dirty windows and inappropriate seasonal decorations.

Anyway, I'll just get the confessions over with. Yes, as of last week (the situation has since been dealt with) I still had my winter decorations in the window box. I just stuff a bunch of red twig dogwood sticks and pine boughs in my containers for winter as a free and cheery decoration. (By the way, they are decidedly LESS cheery come May.) Anyway, a few weeks ago I noticed something interesting as I looked out the kitchen window (which the window box is mounted under.) There were buds on the dogwood!

 

Here's the view out the kitchen window since November.

 

If you look closely you can see the swelling buds on the red twig dogwood branches.

And here's a close-up (of the leaves, not the aforementioned dirty windows, which, by the way, I should get a pass on because we're still dealing with the mess from construction. Or something like that).

 

These are dogwood twigs that I cut myself and stuck in the dirt left in the window box in November. They were never watered or treated humanely. And sure enough, I looked again and those buds were opening up into leaves. This didn't happen with any of the dogwood twigs I had stuck in other, less protected containers.

When I pulled them out of the dirt there were no visible roots on the twigs, but I'm sure they would develop if given the opportunity.

Plants never cease to amaze me. We spend so much time coddling them and sometimes they don't need us at all.

 

The flower that wouldn't be stopped

Four gorgeous flowers on this 'Red Peacock' amaryllis.

Zoom out a little and you see the bulb did this all on her own. It's still in the paper bag it came in!

For several years I've purchased amaryllis bulbs from the yahoo plant co-op I'm a member of, potted them up and given them away as holiday gifts. They are really wonderful because they are some unusual varieties that people can't get at a big box store. Unfortunately, the holidays were a bit of a fire drill this year. You might recall that we were mid-construction (well, mostly we were just irritated because we had planned on being finished in November but were no where close) and didn't even put up a Christmas tree and well, the box of amaryllis bulbs was forgotten in the basement.

A couple weeks ago I found it and was shocked to find a stem sticking out of the box. I brought the optimistic bulb upstairs and planned to plant it, where it was forgotten again. Well, this bulb was not happy about being forgotten and apparently was determined to shout, "Hey, look at me!"

So that's how I got this beautiful stalk of flowers, growing out of nothing but a paper bag.