"Colours are the smiles of nature." Leigh Hunt

It was a nice treat to see the Gervase Amaryllis sending out a second flower scape. It was doing very nicely and growing quite tall (Gervase has a 2.5 to 3 foot stalk).  Then one morning I went to look at it, and the stalk had fallen to one side and cracked right across the base!  There was nothing for it but to detach it and treat it like a cut flower.

I filled a vase with some warm water and flower preservative, then re-cut the stem to a better length. Next, I inverted the flower and filled the hollow stem with water. I plugged the hole with my thumb and quickly re-inverted it into the water in the vase. If that is a bit tricky for you to do, you can always fill the stem with water and them plug it with a cotton ball. This helps against the dreaded air bubble in the stem which prevents the flower from drawing up water.

Hopefully, the flower would now have a chance to fulfill it's potential.  It had 5 buds, and when it bloomed it had a real surprise for us!

Remember that Gervase is a lovely red and white candy-striped Amaryllis.

 But the next bud was totally red (bottom right).

And then in between was a bloom that was half red and half striped!

So there are 2 solid red blooms, 2 red and white striped blooms and 1 half and half!

And to cap it all, the bottom of the cut stem decided to go rococo on me.

David and I have been very entertained by this antics of this plant.

Photo Credits:  David Kelly