Gardendaze

Okay, I did it. I really wanted to make sure that I got a white amaryllis this year. So when I saw this at my grocery store, I fell for it.

No variety specified, but okay.

This is what I found when I opened the box. Pretty impressive if I were giving this as a gift.

This is what I found when I took off that nice aerated cover. Ugh. The bulb is entirely buried–at least one third should be left exposed. And the mix is this impossible to re-wet peat.

I ran water through the potting mix several times. Of course it ran straight out the bottom. Then I thought that I would try to scrape some of the mix off the top of the bulb. That’s when I realized that despite my best attempt to moisten this container wasn’t going to happen.

So I re-potted it into a clay pot. You can’t quite tell that I have left some of the bulb above the potting mix because so much of that peat still clings to it. It will eventually wash off, but I am not a fan of over-saturating bulbs.

I am sure this will turn out fine–it has the tips of two flower stalks already showing.

And as a boxed amaryllis goes, this is definitely better than most. Now, if it just turns out to be white, it will be a home run!

Like last Friday, I thought I would focus on a plant that you might be happy to have in your home long past the holidays, and yet has enough red and green coloring to do double duty as a Christmas plant.

I write about these plants a lot. This is an aglaeonema, or Chinese Evergreen. As a general rule, I avoid common names and try yo use the botanical ones, particularly when they refer to a place so as not to avoid offending anyone. But correct botanical names also assures you that you are going to get the correct plant when you go to the garden center–or are searching out a particularly unusual plant online.

I have several of these plants and honestly, this is the least colorful of them, if you can believe that! Or perhaps I should say that this is the one with the most muted colors. The others are far more colorful–but not in a holiday way.

This one–it’s probably ‘Silver Queen’ but since I got it at a box store, it came with no cultivar designation–another reason to shop at garden centers. You know what you’re buying! Anyway, this plant would also make a lovely, understated holiday statement.

My red variety is ‘Siam Aurora,’ and it too is one of the more muted reds out there. Breeders have developed splashier, more vibrant coloring for these–but this is fine for me.

These are easy care plants. I have had the red plant at least 5 years, only re-potted it twice and it has never had any issues with insects or disease. None of my aglaeonema have had any issues, in fact.

I keep them in west or shaded east windows. They like bright, indirect light.

So if you are looking for a plant that you can enjoy either with–or instead or–poinsettias–give aglaeonema a try. You won’t be sorry.

Yes, we are getting closer to the holidays. Thanksgiving in the United States is next week–it’s later this year–and between that and pandemic induced stress, some people have just jumped right over Thanksgiving into our biggest retail holiday, Christmas.

Of course, many will argue that “Christmas creep” gets earlier every year–but let’s keep that out of gardening. I am more interested in showing plants that will work for you that are not poinsettias.

There is nothing wrong with poinsettias, mind you. It’s just that many people choose not to grow them. Personally, I have trouble with them in my cold house. They are native to Mexico. They don’t do well in a house in New England kept at 62 degrees.

But the lovely stromanthes, above, has no trouble with my cooler home. I have read that they are finicky but this plant has proven very trouble free for me. I keep it in a western exposure indoors and take it outside to a shaded eastern exposure for the summer.

It’s only been re-potted twice probably in 10 years, so it’s a slow grower for me. It’s never had an insect issue.

And, while I am not one of those who posts videos, I will tell you that its leaves do move in relationship to light. I can hear them, and then I will look over and see them settling. So that’s just a neat aside.

This is a close-up of the leaves. They are just lovely. The back sides are solid maroon.

This plant would make a nice, untraditional holiday plant. And unlike a poinsettia, you will not mind having it around the rest of the year.

On Wednesday, I had a photo of the first of my Christmas or Thanksgiving or Holiday or whatever else you want to call them cactus starting to bloom. Their genus is schlumbergera. Some people, including me, on occasion, call them zygocactus.

But to call them any sort of “cactus ” is really misleading. It’s about as misleading as attaching a holiday to the poor plant’s name! For example, the plant that I showed just beginning to bloom on November 11 of this year was in full bloom on the second weekend of October last year. So that would make it the “Indigenous Peoples/Veterans Day ” cactus. Hmm. I think not.

So if they’re not blooming for a specific holiday, what are they blooming in reaction to? Conventional wisdom says light and temperature but I have to believe that it’s strictly temperature. After all, the light doesn’t change from year to year. In fact, this year, to test that theory, I did exactly the same thing with these plants: putting them outside in the same spot and bringing them in at the same time and placing them back in the same windows.

And they are blooming a full month later–for the earliest among them. So I am going with temperature as the trigger. As soon as we had that very cold spell (and the snow) they set their buds.

At different latitudes, and in places without as much temperature fluctuation, your experience may be different. But that’s part of the joy of growing–and getting to know your plants.

It’s the time of year when amaryllis and paperwhite kits are showing up in all the stores. You can get them at the grocery store, the hardware store, a big box store and just about any place else you go. Or you can go to a garden center or order them from a bulb grower and pay maybe twice as much. Why would you do that?

There’s a bunch of reasons, actually. You might want a particular color. (Remember me, wanting the white amaryllis last year, so I bought it at a garden center and it turned out to be that amazing funky red? Lesson learned. I ordered white this year from 2 separate bulb growers).

But despite my experience last year, I am not sorry about supporting an independent garden center and never will be! We have to do all we can to keep them in business or there will be no garden centers left to shop!

Both bulb growers and garden centers offer far more numerous choices, colors, varieties and selection of amaryllis than anywhere else. Garden centers may even have some already planted if you want to give one as a gift. Something pre-planted and already growing makes a nicer gift than just a bulb.

Finally, there’s the size of the bulb. When I received this bulb, I was advised to plant it in an 8″ pot. Those kits come with 6″ pots–or smaller. That tells you that the bulbs are smaller–and they have to be to get the bulb, soil disk and inner and outer pot all into the box.

So while initially it seems that this bulb is more expensive, it’s going to yield more flowers–and produce more over a lifetime, if you’re interested in that.

Since I save my amaryllis from year to year, I am interested in lifetime productivity. These, as well as others you don’t see, will bloom for me again next year.

So with amaryllis it pays to start off large. Don’t skimp on the bulbs.

Yes, these two house plants are still on my glassed in porch. They are supposed to be chilling down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Nature isn’t cooperating with me this year, although we will get there eventually. I just hope that I remember to bring the plants in at that point.

Clivia miniata are tough, long-lived house plants. They bloom in flower spikes of orange or yellow in late winter if you can get them to bloom. Otherwise, they might bloom naturally for you in summer–or maybe not at all. That’s why I called them “challenging ” in my title.

To get them to bloom in late winter, the trick is to stop watering in October. Keep them cold. Let them get as cold as 40 degrees.

In mid-January, warm them up a bit (to the mid 60s) and begin watering. If they are going to bloom for you, a bloom spike should form shortly. If it doesn’t happen, continue to water until summer–or whenever you can set them safely outside. That’s the second opportunity for them to bloom.

Clivia like to be tightly potted so don’t repot until they are almost breaking out of the pot.

And if these plants take a year–or two–vacation from bloom, enjoy the lovely foliage!