Tag: Amaryllis

The Hippeastrum Flop Crisis

Our Hippeastrum/Amaryllis flowers are doing the flop. Whether you want to call it a Hippeastrum or an Amaryllis, they both flop. I think it’s because they both have hollow stems and heavy flowers. I read that Tulips flop for the same reason. They’re doing pretty well; the tallest one is up to nearly 30 inches.

The flower as it grows starts to bend in one direction or the other. We saw this a couple of years ago with our first Hippeastrum. In the beginning, we thought turning it one way or the other towards or away from the sunlight or the space heater would make a difference. Looking back on it now, I don’t think it did. We ended up staking it using a zip tie and a wooden dowel.

Sena stakes our new flowers using zip ties and long metal rods topped by a Christmas tree ornaments you stick in the dirt. The effect is comical, and it makes both of us laugh out loud.

I checked around on the web and found articles and YouTube videos about how to fix the Hippeastrum flop. One even suggested using a wire coat hanger. You can do this if you’re handy with tools. Or you could get a Christmas cactus.

We’re not doing wire coat hangers.

Addendum: Sena tried to replace the zip tie on the biggest plant because she’s ambivalent about the look of them. OK, so she’s not ambivalent; she was “bent” on finding a different staking method. So, she cut the zip tie and, wouldn’t you know, that’s a good way to tell if the stem is really hollow. She accidentally cut it open. It started to leak fluid. She quickly applied a Christmas tree ribbon bandage, one with blood red cardinals on it in fact. We hope the wound is not fatal.

Another Addendum: OK here’s the last adddendum. It’s a set of crude drawings meant to show how to pronounce “Hippeastrum.” I’ve previously pointed out there seem to be two ways and I don’t know which one is preferred. If you know, shout it out. This is a trick I got from Svengoolie, the star of his TV show of the same name. You draw cartoons that are clues which are supposed to translate to a real word. Sound it out. Hint for the first picture; it’s from the 1960s.

Amaryllis Star of Holland On the Comeback Trail!

Today, Sena got another Amaryllis Star of Holland bulb. We got one a couple of years ago and it grew like you wouldn’t believe.

The last time we got one, the stalk grew to about 18 inches and sported spectacular blossoms. The stem tended to bend this way and that for some reason.

I wrote the fractured story from Greek mythology about the Amaryllis in 2022, which I’m pretty sure you’ve forgotten by now. I’ll just remind you:

“A little story from Greek mythology says that a maiden named Amaryllis had a monster crush on a shepherd named Alteo, a first-class heel who ignored her but loved flowers. She tried stabbing herself in the heart every day with a golden arrow for thirty days but at first that only led to a lot of trips to the local emergency room. But on the thirtieth day, a gorgeous flower grew from her blood. That’s the only thing that got Alteo’s attention; can you believe that jerk? They got married and honey-mooned at Niagara where they both got smashed on fermented winterberries, jumped out of the Maid of the Mist boat, crashed into a rainbow which turned out to be a wormhole portal to another galaxy where they finally sobered up by eating beef jerky from Sasquatch, who is an interdimensional creature as everyone knows.”

You can check my sources for accuracy of the yarn-if I were willing to give them to you, which I’m not.

We’re eager to see how things go this year with the new Amaryllis.

More Crazy Announcements!

Here are crucial announcements.

Sena bought me Bigfoot pajamas. They clearly show Bigfoot doing the Patty walk, which refers to the historic sighting of Bigfoot caught on video decades ago in the Patterson-Gimlin film.

The Amaryllis leaves have grown to about 11 inches! There is no flower.

Cattle ranchers are now putting diapers and masks on their cows to reduce methane emissions. Soon there will be statutes requiring humans who fart and belch in public to take Beano gummies several times daily. You know who you are.

Amaryllis and Zygocactus Repotting

Remember that gorgeous Christmas Amaryllis flower? After it leaned over so far, we had to retire it, so to speak. We didn’t throw it out, but Sena kept it and performed some kind of miracle.

Apparently, she resurrected it by giving it a little water. A couple of new leaves grew a few inches overnight.

She knows that gardeners tell you to bury the Amaryllis bulb outside after the flowers die. I guess in the following winter you dig it up, put it in a new pot and a new set of blossoms should grow. She wanted to transfer it to a different pot instead, one with holes that will let the excess water leak out.

She was very industrious. She also repotted the Zygocactus. That’s the holiday cactus, another houseplant she got for the Christmas holidays.

And the most important question: how are extraterrestrials involved in this urge to repot? ? By the way, I was not involved in the repotting project because I’m allergic to gardening. I did make a YouTube video of her working on it, though.

Amaryllis Blooming

The Amaryllis today is blooming like crazy. A new bloom opened today right next to the one that opened yesterday. Now there are two buds in the shade of the two open flowers. Will that stunt the growth of the buds?

Should I worry about what’s in the shadows or be glad for what’s out in the light?

Amaryllis Bending at Will?

The Amaryllis Star of Holland is starting to act a little strange. Last Friday night it bent way over, seemingly away from the ceramic space heater in the sun room. I had turned it on for a half hour before going in and kept it on for about 15 minutes before turning it off—out of concern that the plant was reacting adversely to the heat. The next day it straightened up.

Friday night I was listening to the blues on the radio. Was it leaning toward the music?

And then it started bending back and forth, seemingly without rhyme or reason. It doesn’t consistently bend right or left based on heat, light, or sounds.

Maybe it’s exercising. I wonder if an extraterrestrial is bending it to its will. I would think the plant is big enough to defend itself. It’s a little over 17 inches tall now. I wonder if it’ll get tough and demand that we feed it raw meat, like something out of Little Shop of Horrors?