{"id":40,"date":"2006-11-28T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2006-11-28T14:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=40"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:26","slug":"amaryllis-and-paperwhites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/amaryllis-and-paperwhites\/","title":{"rendered":"Amaryllis and Paperwhites"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMARYLLIS AND PAPERWHITES
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am an optimist and it gets me into trouble all the time.\u00a0 Right now some of the eleven amaryllis and forty paperwhite bulbs that I so optimistically ordered many weeks ago are in pots and dishes scattered all over the house, while the rest wait to be planted, rebuking me from their boxes in the kitchen.\u00a0 They can’t wait long because most of them are showing signs of sprouting.\u00a0 I look at those boxes, then I look at my optimistic face in the mirror and I say, “That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”\u009d<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This particular mess started last year when I waited too long to order amaryllis bulbs for winter color.\u00a0 I am partial to the unique and beautiful varieties offered by one particular company, but unfortunately a lot of other more methodical people share my sentiments.\u00a0 Last year I waited until the end of October to place my order, and the amaryllis offerings were sold out.\u00a0 I made do with the amaryllis kits sold in my local supermarket, but I was not a happy camper.\u00a0 This year I vowed to do better.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In early September I seized the catalog, drooling over the single and double amaryllis, the elegant papilio varieties and the spider-like cybister types.\u00a0 I wanted one in every color, from green-throated white to darkest, velvety red, not to mention the many selections with bi-colored blooms.\u00a0 I was so smitten with the amaryllis smorgasbord that I decided that I would give amaryllis to my friends and family for the holidays.\u00a0 I ordered ten assorted giant amaryllis and one double white variety.\u00a0 I sighed with contentment at a job done in a good and timely manner.\u00a0 Then I noticed the paperwhites.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I used to grow a few paperwhites every year, setting the bulbs in a shallow dish filled with pebbles or tiny shells and water.\u00a0 Like everyone else, I grew the Israeli-bred cultivar Ziva, which is the best-selling variety in the world.\u00a0 The only problem with Ziva is the pervasive scent, which is sweet to some noses and fetid to others.\u00a0 My daughter thinks Ziva smells like cat urine, which put a damper on my enthusiasm for growing it.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This year’s catalog however, had a new paperwhite called Inbal.\u00a0 The catalog copy emphasized its mild fragrance, and I decided right away to order a few.\u00a0 Then my optimism kicked in and I thought how lovely it would be to have dishes of them strategically positioned all over the house. \u00a0I decided that forty bulbs would do the job nicely.\u00a0 As I finished the amaryllis\/paperwhite order I congratulated myself once again on getting it in on time.\u00a0 And then I forgot all about it.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The bulb company did not.\u00a0 Two weeks ago, when I was up to my neck in work, the UPS man arrived, laden with bulb-filled boxes.\u00a0 My optimism almost failed me.\u00a0 I opened the boxes and made a note on my running to-do list about assembling six pots, four shallow bulb dishes, a big bag of potting soil and a mess of pebbles.\u00a0 I decided to allot a precious fifteen minutes a day to the task of potting up all those bulbs.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Naturally I had failed to remember that my amaryllis bulbs would be as big as babies’ heads and would need individual pots.\u00a0 I scrambled for five more of the right size.\u00a0 The paperwhite bulbs were big too, making it necessary to augment the bulb dishes with a retired pie pan.\u00a0 Then there was the issue of time.\u00a0 Crumpled into a ball, my to-do list was bigger than one of the amaryllis bulbs, and it seems to get bigger every single day.\u00a0 So far I have managed about ten minutes a day for planting.\u00a0 It’s also been difficult to find enough sunny space, forcing me to be creative.\u00a0 When my amaryllis and paperwhite adventure is over for the year, I am definitely going to write an article about the real convenience of forcing bulbs in a sun-filled bathroom where you can brush your teeth and water your bulbs at the same time.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the end, I know that optimism will triumph over the limitations of time, space and the availability of plastic pots.\u00a0 My friends will get their glorious amaryllis when the plants are almost ready to burst into bloom. \u00a0I will sit back and enjoy my beautiful paperwhites and nothing–nothing–in my house will smell like cat urine.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMARYLLIS AND PAPERWHITES \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am an optimist and it gets me into trouble all the time.\u00a0 Right now some of the eleven amaryllis and forty paperwhite bulbs that I so optimistically ordered many weeks ago are in pots and dishes scattered all over the house, while the rest wait to be planted, rebuking me … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}