Amaryllis 'Apple Blossom'

This post will be the first of many to come about one of my very favorite plants - the Amaryllis! I love growing this wonderful bulb especially in winter since most color is gone. These amazing bulbs really light up the place! Luckily, they are usually only usually offered commercially in late fall and early winter.

The bulbs are commonly referred to as Amaryllis, but they are really Hippeastrum of the Amaryllidaceae family. I won't get too technical as I am still learning myself, but I certainly enjoy the blooms!

This was my very first Amaryllis bulb from Christmas of 2005. I purhased it at a grocery store (believe it or not) and potted it in the regular pot it came with, then I placed it in a sunny south facing window. The results were amazing to me and thus started an addiction to these wonderful bulbs. My collection has now grown to over 50 and still adding. I think you will see why below!





After growing for about a month or so, the blooms emerged!











As you can see, there wasn't a bad angle of this bloomer!













I am hooked on these amazing bulbs and have been growing them ever since. I have many, many more to share! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Re-creating the outside pots...long overdue!

I absolutely love to create gardens in containers! The possibilities are endless by mixing and matching all sorts of different colors and textures of plants! I have these wonderful pots out on my balcony/fire escape that I am having fun re-creating as the seasons change. Our weather has been so hot and then cold, that I had been bringing them in and them leaving them out. Changing them was something I have been needing to do for some time! I decided to photograph my before and afters and share them here. Please excuse the mess as I had to do all of this inside on my handy orange plastic tarp.

In the following photos are Cannas 'Maudie Malcolm' that bloom a bright pink color mixed with Daylily 'Bitsy' which are bright yellow and re-bloom nicely. They look very bad in this photo since they have been in and out for cold spells, but during the summer and fall, they looked amazing. I should have snapped a photo then...





I carefully removed both of them and re-plant the cannas into two separate pots. One will be planted in the ground and the other will winter in a bright window. I want to make sure to keep some alive just in case the ones in the ground don't make it through the winter. They are hardy here in zone 7b, but sometimes you just never know. The daylilies will go into the ground as well as they are very hardy.





The other pot has an Arborvitae which is very hardy and evergreen mixed with 2 types of Lantana. These bloomed and bloomed this summer! I am going to carefully remove the Lantana and place in pots to try to over winter indoors next to a bright window. If they make it they make it, if not, I can easily replace them next year. I just love the color combo they produced.











Once I have the Cannas and Daylilies removed, I now place my new materials in. The first step for Spring color will be to hide some nice Daffodil bulbs in there. I LOVE Daffodils! They are so easy to grow as you just plant them and forget about them. They know when to come up and put on a great show! I am planting annuals that tolerate the cold on top, so the Daffodils will poke through when it starts to warm up a bit usually around March. I am using the pretty common 'Dutch Master' yellow Daffodils around the outside in the pot with the Arbortivae and the same plus double white 'Calgary' Daffodils from Biltmore in the middle of the other pot. I think the effect will be quite pleasant in the spring!





I will just plant Pansies and Dianthus around the Arborvitae for nice winter color. Both of these plants tolerate the cold and bloom quite nicely.



The other pot will get just a mix of Pansies and Dianthus all mixed together. The display will be complete in Spring when the Daffodils make their grand entrance! I can't wait to see it!

The perfect way to start my brand new blog! SNOW!

Could it be? Yes, I think it is. Snow, that is! It began before first light and moved quickly from the west. The snow blanketed the ground in areas further to the north and west of Raleigh, but we only received a flurry. By the time the sun was almost up, all the flurry had finished. I was able to snap this photo as proof!



We haven't seen much of any snow here in North Carolina in the past several years, but things are looking up! Today marks the second time this year we have seen snow flurries and we are still a month away from the official start of winter. Is this an indication of what is to come? The prediction is that we will have yet another mild winter, but these unseasonably cold spells and snow flurries may suggest otherwise. I guess I won't be able to wear shorts to Thanksgiving lunch this year like I did last year...