Lots of potted plants you buy are really 'designed' to be a one-off. Many people, like me, think that things like orchids and amaryllis (often gifts) are just supposed to do their thing and then be binned - far too difficult to do anything else with?
Not so, I have just discovered......
I had a Tesco orchid (phalenopsis) which bloomed beautifully and for a long while and then was reduced to a few sad leaves and a short stump. I kept it as I had a sad little landing window sill with nothing on it. It got very little water and virtually no feeding. This seems to be roughly the right thing to do. Look what I have now........
I solemnly swear it has thrived on neglect.
In exactly the same vein I had two Ikea (£3?) amaryllis at Christmas that did their glorious thing and I was curious as to what they would do if I just kept them going. Mine have done this....
They must be well over three feet tall, strong as an ox and glorious blemish free deep green leaves. The googled advice to get them to flower again this year is to chuck them in a darkish, coolish place at the beginning of September and let the leaves die off, re-pot the bulb in an inch of fresh compost and bring back in when temperature goes below 10 degrees centigrade.
I haven't the heart to dump this one but I will, cruelly, experiment on the other..... watch this space.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To prevent spam your comments come to me first. I will be as fast as I can to post them and reply. Please do leave a message.