My View of Life on the Dock
The first of our amaryllis, planted about a month ago, are blooming, and just in time for the holidays! This variety is Amaryllis hippeastrum ‘Papillion,” and is one of the prettiest I think. ‘Papillion’ has three separate stalks, which means three bunches of flowerheads! 
Amaryllis hippeastrum ‘Papillion’
Chinese Paperwhites for fabulous fragrance
Double Exposure Paperwhites and Snow Globe
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) are another simple to coax into bloom bulb. I find ‘Ziva’ to be the most fragrant and ‘Galilee’ a close second. The ‘Chinese Sacred Lily’ (Narcissus tazetta var. orientalis) is almost as easy to force and has a sweeter, though no less potent fragrance. The scent is a dreamy blend of orange and honeysuckle. They are also a member of the tazetta group bearing multiple blossoms atop slender stalks, with white petals and cheery yellow cups. The ‘Chinese Sacred Lily,’ brought to this country by Chinese immigrants in the late 1800s, is traditionally forced to bloom for New Year’s celebrations.
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta)
With both paperwhites and ‘Chinese Sacred Lilies,’ place the bulbs in bowl or pot and cover with stones. The emerging green tips should be poking though the stones. Water up to the halfway point of the bulb and place in a cool dark room; an unheated basement is ideal. Water periodically and within a few weeks, new growth will be visible. Place the bulbs in the room away from strong light, continue to water as needed, and once in bloom, they will flower and scent your home for a week or more. Beginning in November, we maintain a continuous flow of blooming narcissus by planting a new batch every two weeks or so.
The above excerpted from Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! ~ Notes from a Gloucester Garden!
Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! sells for only $14.00 on Amazon, which is a $21.00 value off the publisher’s list price of $35.00.
Click here to purchase a copy of Oh Garden.
Readying Home and Garden for the Holidays ~ Its that time of year and with my daughter coming home this weekend for an early Thanksgiving dinner (she has to work on the real Tday), I am scrambling to get the house in holiday mode between work days and final moments of filming, while the warmer temperatures hold.
Liv was so upset when she told me had to work on her very favorite holiday and said she simply could not bear to not be at home for Thanksgiving. The reason she gave was because of the scents permeating throughout the house, that of yummy food cooking combined with the sweet fragrance of the flowering bulbs that we grow during the winter months. After she expressed those sentiments, how could I not promise to cook two turkey dinners, the first to come next week while she is home.
This weekend I’ll be planting the last of the spring ephemeral bulbs outdoors and indoors, potting up the amaryllis bulbs for winter cheer. I love the flowers of amaryllis so much so that they are grown in all the rooms of the house.
Amaryllis in the living room,
amaryllis in the kitchen,
and even in the bathroom, we grow amaryllis!
How to Grow Amaryllis ~ Excerpt from Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!
Living in New England the year round, with our tiresomely long winter stretching miles before us, and then a typically late and fugitive, fleeting spring, we can become easily wrapped in those winter-blues. Fortunately for garden-makers, our thoughts give way to winter scapes of bare limbs and berries, Gold Finches and Cardinals, and plant cat- alogues to peruse. If you love to paint and write about flowers as do I, winter is a splendid time of year for both, as there is hardly any time devoted to the garden during colder months. I believe if we cared for a garden very much larger than ours, I would accomplish little of either writing or painting, for maintaining it would require just that much more time and energy.
Coaxing winter blooms is yet another way to circumvent those late winter doldrums. Most of us are familiar with the ease in which amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulbs will bloom indoors. Placed in a pot with enough soil to come to the halfway point of the bulb, and set on a warm radiator, in several week’s time one will be cheered by the sight of a spring-green, pointed-tipped flower stalk poking through the inner layers of the plump brown bulbs. The emerging scapes provide a welcome promise with their warm-hued blossoms, a striking contrast against the cool light of winter. Perhaps the popularity of the amaryllis is due both to their ease in cultivation and also for their ability to dazzle with colors of sizzling orange, clear reds and apple blossom pink.
Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! sells for only $14.00 on Amazon, which is a 21.00 value off the publisher’s price of 35.00.
Click here to purchase a copy of Oh Garden.
Good Morning Gloucester 