by Lori Rose
One year, a friend gave me a pretty pot filled with soil for the holidays. She promised it would grow into a beautiful flower. I watered it along with my other houseplants, barely giving it a second glance. Then one dreary day I saw the flower stalk. Every day it got taller, and then it formed flower buds. When the first bud opened in its full glory, I was thrilled. That flower looked like an orange tiger lily with a white throat. In February. It was one of the prettiest things I’d ever seen.
My search to name (and so properly care for) this plant ended quite by accident while looking through a spring bulb catalog. There it was, on page 52—my February friend in all its glory. It’s an Amaryllis, a Dutch bulb sold during the holiday season. My particular variety, iridescent orange with a white center, is called Charmeur.
The red and white Amaryllis you see sold in boxes in the supermarket are just the beginning of the colors and sizes available. Singles, doubles, miniature flowers, solids, stripes, blends and flushes, red, white, pink, orange, even yellow flowers will all surprise and delight you.
Some of the beautiful Dutch hybrids available are the vivid scarlet Red Lion, pure white Christmas Gift, Apple Blossom with pink flowers that blend down to white, and the fun red and white peppermint candy striped ‘Clown’.
Amaryllis gracilis is the Amaryllis that was first used as a houseplant in the 19th century. It is smaller than the hybrids, but flowers profusely. ‘Pamela’ has exquisite orange-red flowers, ‘Donau’ is a deep pink, and ‘Green Goddess’ glows white with a pale green throat.
Pot up Amaryllis bulbs six weeks before you want them to flower, around November 10 for holiday blooms. Soak the roots for an hour before potting. Use a pot with good drainage that is three inches wider than the bulb. Put down a base of soil a few inches deep and tamp down gently. Place the bulb in the center of the pot, and add soil until two-thirds of the bulb is covered. Try to keep the soil an inch below the pot rim. Water thoroughly.
Put your new Amaryllis in a warm, sunny room. Water it when the soil is dry—making sure it is moist but not soggy.
When it finishes flowering, cut the stalk back as low as you can without disturbing the leaves. Treat it as you would any other houseplant—water it when the surface of the soil is dry, and fertilize once a month if you are so inclined.
Here is the secret for getting your Amaryllis to bloom again: stop watering the plant in August. The leaves will turn yellow and die. Gently cut off the dead leaves, and then start watering your bulb again in November. Given proper treatment, it will color your winters for years to come.
Paperwhites are also very popular winter flowering bulbs. For many families, growing easy, cheerful Paperwhites is a winter tradition. Each stem has many tiny, fragrant white flowers. While the Amaryllis will live on to bloom again, Paperwhites will spend all their energy flowering indoors and will not bloom again.
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta papyraceous) are in the daffodil family. According to Greek Mythology, the god Narcissus was turned into a flower that eternally stares into a pool of water as punishment for his vanity. In Greece these flowers are commonly found growing near pools of water and since the flowers naturally face down, it appears as though they are staring at their own reflections. Tazetta means "little cup" in Italian, which is an accurate description. Tazetta Narcissus have smaller, more fragrant flowers than daffodils.
A bowl of Paperwhites can scent an entire room. The scent is considered strong by some, so if you don't like it, try growing the Chinese Sacred Lily (Narcissus tazetta orientalis). It has a citrus fragrance that is very different from the Paperwhites.
Chinese immigrants brought the Chinese Sacred Lily to our shores during the Gold Rush. By the 1880s, the Chinese Sacred Lily won the hearts of bulb-forcing Victorians, valued for its multi-headed bunches of small yellow and orange, fragrant blossoms.
Paperwhites, Chinese Sacred Lily, and Soleil d'Or with pure yellow flowers, are popular forcing flowers. Unlike tulips and hyacinths, they don't require a cold period that tricks the bulb into thinking winter has come and gone. The time between planting and blooming is about six weeks. For indoor blooms from Thanksgiving until late March, make your first planting in October and then plant at two-week intervals until December. To get blooms for the December holidays, plant them before Thanksgiving
Narcissus are easy to grow, even easier than the Amaryllis. They are so easy that they don’t even need potting soil, just a bowl of pebbles and water. It is a fun project for the kids, and they make great gifts.
Choose an interesting container for your Narcissus. Any watertight container that is four or five inches deep, and wide enough to hold a quantity of bulbs side by side will work. Try vases, glazed pottery, fruit or salad bowls, raised compotes, planters, cachepots, or cut-glass bowls. Plastic containers can be hidden or double-potted inside pretty baskets. Use your imagination.
Consider clean river rocks, various stones, marbles, glass beads, large-pebbled gravel or marble chips as anchors to position the bulbs in the bowl and hold them steady once growth begins. Try colorful beads or stones that look dramatic when wet. Place a layer of these several inches deep into the container.
Fit as many bulbs as you can onto the stone layer. Pack them in firmly, with the pointy-ends up. The more bulbs, the better—they’ll hold one another up and reward you with loads of flowers. Hand-place a second layer of stones around and in between the bulbs, sliding them in to hold the bulbs in place. Leave the bulb shoulders (where the tops narrow) and necks exposed.
Add enough water so it rises “close enough so the bulb can sniff the water, but not touching”, as the Dutch say. Just the roots need to be in the water, not the bulbs themselves. If you choose a clear container, you can watch the roots grow, and also see whether the planting needs water. If your container is not clear, lift a stone out and put your finger into the bowl to feel whether more water is needed.
Set the planted bulbs in a cool spot with bright light. The brighter the light, the less “leggy” the plants will be. Legginess occurs when the plant stretches for light. You can secure a leggy Narcissus by tying a circle of ribbon or raffia around the whole bunch, two-thirds of the way up the stems.
Now comes the fun part. It’s so easy to grow Amaryllis and Narcissus that it’s almost shameful to get these spectacular flowers with so little effort. Winter is a season when we historically get sick and fatigued, and are starved for color. How about red Amaryllis and Paperwhite in December; pink and raspberry Amaryllis for early January, followed by a Chinese Sacred Lily; orange Amaryllis for February; and yellow Amaryllis with ‘Soleil d'Or’ Narcissus in March?
During the cold, dark days of winter, fresh indoor flowers keep our spirits believing that spring will indeed come again.
Lori Rose, the Midnight Gardener, is a Temple University Certified Master Home Gardener and member of GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. She has gardened since childhood, and has been writing about gardening for over twenty years.