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With winter just few weeks away its time to think about winter blooming flower bulbs. Though there are quite a few winter blooming flower bulbs, let me talk about Amaryllis.

Amaryllis is a cure for your winter blues.

I think I got my first Amaryllis bulb(Minerva) in November 2004. Then I got a couple more(Appleblossom) in 2005 – all these were bought at a local Home Depot store. Caring for your Amaryllis is quiet easy. I grow them in containers, just double the bulb size and water them weekly – make sure the soil is moist. To force the bulb to flower, move it to a sunny window. To prolong the flowering period, water it more often.

A good thing about Amaryllis is, they flower year after year – at least that’s what I think

When the flower has wilted and as the spring approaches I move my Amaryllis outside to a shady part of my garden and don’t water much – I let the mother nature take care of Amaryllis plants during Spring/Summer. Then during October, I move Amaryllis to my basement and stop watering them – that way I force them to go to a dormant state. Then when winter approaches I clean up the bulbs a bit and start watering them again. Its quite fun to watch these bloom in winter when its real cold outside and there isn’t much colors – definitely a sight for sore eyes

Minerva – 12/2004

Appleblossom – 01/2006

Appleblossom – 03/2007 (This is the same bulb from 2006. I had it close to my patio door where it was really cold and mine didn’t bloom until late March)