"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

Look what’s blooming in my house this week.

I promised to let you know when the other Amaryllis bloomed and bloom it most certainly has. It was labeled correctly and it has turned out to be Gervase. 

 

I wanted to show off a few of my other plants that are blooming right now.  The first is a particularly fine example of the humble African Violet, or Saintpaulia.  African Violets are easy to propagate and fairly easy to grow (once you figure out that they don’t like getting their leaves wet, and so they should be watered from below).  African Violets  are commonly available and inexpensive, so are often thrown away when they’ve finished blooming.  Although common, it isn’t easy to find named varieties of African Violets unless you buy from collectors.

We bought this African Violet from a specialty vendor at Canada Blooms one year. I actually bought it as a present for a friend and stole a leaf so I could grow one for myself.  I remember waiting for the bus after the show and a lady in the line-up asked me why I was wasting my money buying expensive African Violets from the show, when I could get them more cheaply at the grocery store. I didn’t want to waste my time arguing with the woman, she had obviously made up her mind, but the reason why I bought this (and other African Violets) from specialty vendors is because they are special. They seem to flower for much longer periods and the flowers are outstanding. This one has huge purple flowers with white frilly edges. What do I mean by huge?  Look at this.

Two and a half inch flowers!

 

And finally orchids.  Who can resist the lure of the Phalaenopsis or moth orchid. They are now so common and so cheap that they’ve become throw away plants too.  It is tricky to get them to bloom again and over the years I have resisted the temptation to buy orchids because I  just couldn't seem make them re-bloom.  Last year my best friend gave me a lovely little orchid and this time I was determined to try to make it re-flower.  I took the advice of Ed Lawrence, who does the gardening phone-in show every Monday at 12:30 p.m. on CBC Radio 1, who explained how to make the moth orchid re-bloom.  It has a lot to do with light levels, but more importantly you need to give a period (I think about a month will do it) where there is a 10 degree difference in temperature between day and night. I guess that is to simulate what happens in the jungle where they are native.  Ed then explained that one trick to achieving this is to water the orchid by placing ice cubes on their roots. Apparently the icy water is enough to create the temperature difference.

And it worked!  Look at this. 

 Apparently, this only applies to the moth orchid. I hope this wasn't a fluke as I bought myself another orchid last week! I'll let you know how it goes.

Flowers that bloom in the winter are always welcome

I love Amaryllis.  

I know, I know, they are big, blowsy, unsubtle flowers, but I still love them. I love them because they are so big and they really cheer you up when the nights are long, and flowers are but a memory of warmer days when you don’t have to put on your coat and boots to leave the house.

The Amaryllis that is commonly grown as an indoor flowering plant is actually a Hippeastrum – a member of the Amaryllidaceae family - a large genus of ornamental bulbs which are native to South and Central America and the Caribbean.  Strictly speaking, Amaryllis refers to a smaller genus of flowering bulbs from South Africa, which grow outside in the ground. Things got very mixed up and now "Amaryllis" has become the common name for the Hippeastrum – and the common name for the Amaryllis is “Belladonna Lilly” or “Naked Lady”.  It’s all very confusing, and we may have to have a lesson in taxonomy, but that’s for another day.

South African Amaryllis growing in California (Thanks to Wikipedia)

The two flowers share very common attributes though. They both are flowering ornamental bulbs (which means don’t eat them) and the flower (or flowers - as there is often between 2 and 15 flowers on a stem) usually appears first on a long stem (spike, or scape), followed by the leaves once the flower has died. (As a fascinating aside, the Dutch growers produce Hippeastrum where the flower spike preceeds the leaves, and the South African growers produce Hippeastrum where the leaves coincide with the flower spike production - a wonderful clue as to the bulb’s provenance). The leaves then fuel the bulb to make next year’s blooms. The flower spike can be very long (as much as 3 feet) and sometimes the flowers are so heavy the spike will keel over. I’m sure you’ve seen Hippeastrum that need a good staking.  You can see where the common name “Naked Lady” came from.  I have a very good gardening friend who likens them to strippers on a pole. I can see what she means, especially if you don’t grow something else in the pot with them to disguise their nakedness.

I love buying the huge, heavy bulbs in the Fall. If you are lucky, you will get what you think you bought, but often you get a surprise. Even from the boxed sets that come complete with pot and soil. Most people who buy them this way don’t really care what they get, or even know if it’s the wrong variety.  How did I know that the beautiful white Hippestrum that my son bought me for my birthday wasn’t "Apple Blossom"?   

"Apple Blossom". One of my favorite varieties and one of the few Hippestrum that is scented.

Well the first clue was "Apple Blossom" is a lovely subtle pink and secondly, "Apple Blossom" is scented, (it is one of the few that actually produce a scent) and this one was neither pink nor scented (I think it was "Picotee", so I've included a picture).

Picotee

And this year?  I bought 2 Hippeastrum from the Montreal Botanical Gardens in October. They were not varieties that I was familiar with.  The first variety was named "Gervase" and the second "Black Pearl". The labels were tied to the bulbs.  Just in time for Christmas, the first of the 2 bloomed. And what a surprise, it was neither "Gervase" nor "Black Pearl", but "Monaco". 

"Monaco". White and pale green throat forms a star in the centre of a red bloom. Stamens are also red. No Scent

I’m not displeased though. It’s a really beautiful bloom. The second Hippestrum has just poked its flower-head out and I’m waiting with bated breath to see what this one will be.  I'll let you know.

Note:  Thanks to a very, very good Wikipedia article which taught me the difference between Amaryllis and Hippestrum.

 

What happens in between?

Considering that we only go up to the lot a few times a year, you may wonder what do I do for the other 11 months of the year?  Well, partly David and I go and visit other gardens for inspiration (and that's another blog post in itself), but when I'm at home in our little apartment, I look after my house plants.
I've given up counting them all, and I must admit they are worrisome when it's time for me to go to the lot and visit their brothers and sisters who live outside, but on the whole they don't ask for much and they give a lot in return.

Here are a few of the more unusual beauties:

This is a Walking Iris (Nerine). The flowers bloom for a day and are lightly scented.
It flowers in February, which is very welcome in that dour month.

Stapelia Variegata in bloom. This succulent attracts pollinators by giving off the scent of rotting meat.  Actually it doesn't really smell at all. Thank goodness!

Strawberry Guava fruit. They are tiny and smell like strawberries.
They have lots of little tiny seeds and not much flesh.
The plant has lovely peeling bark on the trunk.

Hibiscus are very common as houseplants. The flowers only last for a day.
In Bermuda they grow them outdoors and prune them as hedges.
This is a white hibiscus grown from a cutting. I love the red whorls in the centre.