My Gardening Skills

Anybody who knows me well knows that I cannot keep plants alive, unless they are of the extremely hardy variety, and even then there are NO guarantees! I do tend to be able to keep cacti and those peace lilies (only because they start to wilt, you water them, and they perk right up again!). Any other plants/flowers that live for any length of time are either outside and need only the natural Minnesota weather, are plastic, or are weeds.

So a couple of years ago my in-laws gave me this amaryllis. Basically it bloomed once, then kept its leaves for ages. Then those fell off, and I kind of forgot about it. Then last spring there it was sprouting in the garage! Maybe it'll be okay? So it sat on our front stoop all summer, just pretty leaves. No blooms, but hey, it was alive!!! Then my father-in-law gave me some tips on how to get them to bloom. Now I had every good intention of doing it, but time got away from me, and I didn't get it in before the first freeze. Bye bye leaves. But eventually it made it inside, under another pot just set on top of it. And then about six weeks later, I decided to clean up those pots, and there was my amaryllis sprouting again! So I watered it lightly and set it out, and it has now finally bloomed!

We have to keep it up on top of the piano, otherwise Maddie decides to taste the dirt. Haven't given her the opportunity to taste the pretty red leaves, though. Livi HAD to smell the flower of course. In her nose went into the bell of the flower, and came out full of yellow pollen! It was so funny! Zach could care less about the flower.

posted by Elena