Most of the Central Texas bloggers will be posting about yesterday's wholly unexpected and totally bizarre snowfall, although I expect our friends in more northerly climes would quibble about our calling it that. Nonetheless, to experience snow flurries at all is out of character for us and to experience them before our average annual first frost date is just plain weird. Here on my corner of Katy, the flurries were so light as to be too miniscule to capture on camera. So I thought I'd share something else unusual here: the beauteous blooms of two very different Amaryllis.
I purchased the charming Chico from Easytogrowbulbs.com. Isn't he the cutest thing? I love the way his blossoms twist and turn. What a character he is ... he makes me smile every time I look at him.
For sheer drama, though, I am in complete and total awe of Red Pearl. This photograph is the closest I've come to capturing her amazing depth and intensity of color. I've never been that big a fan of red Amaryllis but I am SO glad I took a chance on Pearl! Not only are her blooms immense, but they're such a deep rich red they're almost black. She has four huge blooms on one stalk and another stalk is close to budding out. She is definitely a gem! While I purchased this bulb at Enchanted Forest, I did a Google search and found several sources for it online.
As for the rest of my Amaryllis, La Paz has 4 blooms open on its second stalk and the 3rd stalk is budding out. That's LaPaz in the back of the lineup. Melusine is the middle child, preparing to burst forth with her first blooms, and that tiny little guy in front is Moonlight.
Papilio is also growing more slowly than his compadres. I'm willing to wait for him and Moonlight: every child is different, after all, and their times will come, too.
I purchased the charming Chico from Easytogrowbulbs.com. Isn't he the cutest thing? I love the way his blossoms twist and turn. What a character he is ... he makes me smile every time I look at him.
For sheer drama, though, I am in complete and total awe of Red Pearl. This photograph is the closest I've come to capturing her amazing depth and intensity of color. I've never been that big a fan of red Amaryllis but I am SO glad I took a chance on Pearl! Not only are her blooms immense, but they're such a deep rich red they're almost black. She has four huge blooms on one stalk and another stalk is close to budding out. She is definitely a gem! While I purchased this bulb at Enchanted Forest, I did a Google search and found several sources for it online.
As for the rest of my Amaryllis, La Paz has 4 blooms open on its second stalk and the 3rd stalk is budding out. That's LaPaz in the back of the lineup. Melusine is the middle child, preparing to burst forth with her first blooms, and that tiny little guy in front is Moonlight.
Papilio is also growing more slowly than his compadres. I'm willing to wait for him and Moonlight: every child is different, after all, and their times will come, too. 
Comments
Gail
Brenda
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Yours are so pretty.~~Dee
Hope you had a great weekend :)
Frances
EAL, I'm delighted to serve as an inspiration (instead of the usual "don't let this happen to you" warning, LOL).
Kathy, I didn't expect these to take off as fast as they did. I hope you'll try again so you can have something to cheer you through the long winter.
MMD, now I have to figure out where to put these in the garden!
Brenda, pot 'em, water 'em, forget 'em seems to work!
Carol, you still have the blooms to look forward to! Anticipation is part of the pleasure.
Dee and MA, both of Chico's stalks are in bloom now and and it's just an explosion of petals!
MT, hope you're surviving the current cold spell OK! I think you probably need MORE amaryllis.
VP, same goes for you. I think more Amaryllis would be a good thing for Chippenham.
Pam, easytogrowbulbs.com ships into January and they still have a good selection. :-)
Frances, you need to answer the call of Chico and La Paz! I still hear Lima and Ruby Meyer calling to me.
I've never seen an amaryllis like Chico. It's beautiful! Is it grown like other amaryllis bulbs? I don't know anything about Easytogrowbulbs.com -- are you happy with the company?
I was wondering if you've ever grown amayllis from seed. I got some seeds from a seed exchange many years ago and raised one plant. I read that they take 6 years to flower, which is what mine took, almost to the day!