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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Amaryllis... our first attempt



The America the Beautiful Fund made a very generous donation to my Horticulture Therapy program. 108 amaryllis bulbs!!! Here are the empty wooden crates that the bulbs were shipped in. It was amusing, no one knew what kind of bulbs they were. One guy at the warehouse thought they might be onions, another thought potatoes... um, no... not edible guys.


The America the Beautiful Fund http://www.america-the-beautiful.org/ donated the bulbs to our Medical Center. According to their webpage reports http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&ein=52-0963138, the ABF has distributed over 30,000 amaryllis bulbs to veterans hospitals, children's hospitals, senior centers and other horticultural therapy programs. Since I have run out of room in the greenhouse, they are now on a table in the back room of the Flower Shoppe! How awesome is this!!




4 comments:

  1. Wow! 108 bulbs. That should be a spectacular show.

    I have 4 plants. No blooms at all this year. This is the first year with no blooms. Maybe not enough sun last summer? Maybe not enough food last summer? Two of them need to be divided. Any advice?

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  2. That's great!!! I tried my first Amarylis this winter and it never flowered...I need to try again.

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  3. Thank you! I think it will lovely to see all these plants blooming. However, as part of the vocational side of the program we are probably going to sell them off quite cheaply (just enough to cover costs minus bulbs).

    According to About.com:gardening

    Reasons Amaryllis don’t bloom:
    No rest period
    Insufficient light while actively growing
    Poor nutrients in soil

    The article can be read in its entirety... very interesting.
    http://gardening.about.com/od/floweringbulbs/a/Amaryllis.htm

    Good LUck!!!!

    kath

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  4. Red Clover,

    Hope you get a chance to look at the other comment. I copied part of an interesting article from the website About.Com. Basically, not enough light or fertilizer and you won't have blooms. I hope we have blooms.

    kath

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