She bloomed earlier this past spring... and was quite gorgeous and giving! And now, she's getting ready to grace us with her beauty again! I'm so thrilled! This is the very first bulb I've had bloom twice in one year for me! Yay!

I must be doing something right... although, I can't imagine what that might be, because Lady Jane sits in a pot on the north facing windowsill, is quite pot-bound, and needs new soil!

I'll get a picture as soon as I can, so you can see the fat little bud poking its nose up!

I'm just so excited, I had to tell you guys! :-)

Happy Halloween! And as always... Happy Gardening!

I was thinking to post also about my white large blooming hippie, which is too getting ready to bloom for the second time this year. I bought it as pot plant last february. You know how it goes, was potted up in the usual cheap (and unsuitable) coir mix. As soon as it was done blooming, i repotted in good growing medium and fed it well. I got my bulbs inside for the cold period. This one lost its leaves and a week ago i discovered something that looked like a scape emerging. At the beginning is a bit difficcult to tell wether it is a leave or a flower spike. Well, it is a flower spike, yeah!!

This "mistery" amaryllis was purchased as large-blooming white. I think it is a Christmas Gift, since it looks exactly as the picture on Veronica Read's book. It has the most classy, regal looking flowers you can imagine. I'm used to see hippeastrums, but when it's first flower opened i couldn't get my eyes off it. Really gorgeous. It's not a big bulb, though. Maybe this is why it was not attacked by the NBF. Thank goodness!

Happy halloween to you too!

~Lourdes~

As you can see, the soil level within her pot is quite low. The soil has collapsed due to decomposition. She is potted in a cocopeat/potting soil mixture. It took less than a year for the cocopeat mixture to collapse from about one inch below the lip of the pot, to what you see here. I would not recommend this medium mix for indoor container growing.

After she blooms, I'll be re-potting her into my new medium. I'm sure she will be thankful for the aeration this will provide.

I just can't wait to see her bloom again! Twice in one year... wow!

I agree with you Jodik, this cocopeat thing is so not suitable... i experienced it a few days ago. Moisture is very unevenly distributed when you water, some parts being bone dry and others being sogged. This is when you water just a bit. If you give more water it all becomes completely sogged. I don't understand why they provide this kind of soil with amaryllis kits. Maybe it is cheap, and maybe they do not want you to succeed, so that you have to buy a new amaryllis next year LOL. I'll be talking about it soon. Since i couldn't resit temptation and bought 4 Aldi kits with different amaryllis.

The amaryllis virus attacks again...!!!

The bottom line is about profit margins and greed, and making the company's shareholders more and more money. I'm very down on major capitalism lately, because I see it destroying our country and our way of life... even though a free market is good. But once you take the honesty and compassion out of it, it's no longer good, nor fair.

Ok... enough ranting!

Let's just say that we've become a disposable society... everything is manufactured to be thrown away once it's used, and new everything purchased again. And I think this applies to our bulbs, too.

In any case, I immediately get rid of the plastic pot and the cocopeat disk that come with bulb kits. I use unglazed clay pots and my own custom mixed medium. I'm having much better results now that I've learned how to grow healthy roots, which in turn support healthy plants.

You could post on Craig's List... or hang an index card up with your request at the local grocery store... there are probably several places you could put a card up requesting bloomed out Amaryllis bulbs after the holidays.

I wonder how many people would respond? I imagine a lot of them go right in the garbage can, or on the compost heap! What a waste!

One word of warning, though... don't get caught dumpster diving, because legally, the trash belongs to the trash collection company that owns the dumpsters... and if they want to be (insert derogatory word here) about it, they CAN prosecute for theft. I know... it sounds silly, but it's true.

Many years ago, my husband and his buddies used to check the dumpsters behind the local Radio Shack, looking for radios, phones, wire, and other electronic parts to scavenge and fix... and they got busted. The garbage company almost pressed charges, but since they were only teenagers, they let them go with a warning.

I would definitely still scavenge plants and pots out of the dumpsters... just make sure no one is watching! :-)

Most of the dumpsters behind the stores here are those compactor types... you can't just lift the lid and go "shopping"!

We are such a wasteful society... everyone complains about pollution and being "green", but they won't let you recycle throw-aways from stores... it makes no sense.

I love shopping at garage sales, second hand stores, flea markets... and I've even stopped along the road and grabbed a few things that were left out for the trash man! One man's trash is another man's treasure... and I like to know that some things have more than one life, and more than one use.