In my working years, I always had a group of African violets in the window.  They didn’t need much of anything but water, and they were there to cheer me up on dreary winter days.  They even did double duty as table decorations if someone came to dinner.  That all changed when we retired.  Going South for two or three months in the winter wasn’t conducive to indoor gardening.  But there comes a time when you can’t make that long trip back and forth every year.  The good news is that you can have indoor plants again.   Attention winter flower  gardeners! Now is the time to pot  your amaryllis bulbs.

When the pandemic came along in the winter of 2020, the plants that kept me going were the amaryllis  I’d saved from last year.  They aren’t like any other indoor plant..  They’re  magical and mysterious, and  only bloom for a short time.  But when they  blossom on a freezing day in February, they will lift your spirits like no other.  Because they’re  gorgeous.

This is  the month for amaryllis  lovers to  get busy.  Right now, I have ten bulbs stored in the basement from last year’s crop.  There’s plenty of potting soil in the garage, but I must think about pots.    I have lots of those little plastic flower pots, but a few of them are black.  Ugh.  That’s not very decorative.  Took them out on the deck and sprayed  them with some bright green paint left from last spring. Now is the time to plant.

You want some amaryllis blooming for Christmas, and others to come out all winter until  daffodils bloom in the Spring.  Here’s the trick.  Once you plant the bulbs , you  stagger their growth,  which won’t happen until the potted bulb is  heavily watered, just that first time.  And then you wait.   It takes 6 to 8 weeks for leaves to emerge before the flowers actually bloom.   During that time, it will need very light watering, only once a week.

I’ll start one pot every week beginning  in late October.  If I’m lucky, four or five will  be in bloom during the holidays. Come January, I’ll start  one more.  Then another in February. .  Sometimes, an old bulb will let you down.  It may only produce leaves, or not grow at all.  That’s part of the mystery.

Toward the middle of December, stores like Menard’s and Wal Mart are selling amaryllis bulbs at half price.  So of course, I’ll replenish my supply and rotate their growth during the winter months.

Attention winter flower gardeners!  Get those Amaryllis bulbs out of the closet.