Sunday, April 1, 2012

Amaryllis Bed Update

So where did I last leave off...

March 19, 2012
Using the greenhouse kit, I planted 12 "Aulicum selfed" seeds and 24 "Charisma selfed" seeds.

March 22, 2012
Sure enough, the other three pods of the fake 'Candy Floss' had started shriveling and turning brown.

March 25, 2012
The 30' bed was extended by another 16' at the end. Very quickly the wood was added, newspaper and cardboard were laid down along with grass and composted cow manure, then topsoil was poured in. The bed was done JUST in time before a very big storm came through so I didn't have time to take a picture before it got all pounded on. No complaints though because the rain settled the soil pretty good! One thing we had noticed was that the very long bed was making it extremely difficult for excess water to run off. The plus side is - with how dry summers have been, to the point that we get pushed into 'drought' stage, maybe it's not a bad thing to try to contain some water for a bit before it drains out. I don't know.

March 26, 2012 - Iris
An old bed of Iris was dug up and removed (against my will, unfortunately. I wanted them to bloom first) so I relocated them to the new bed extension. Since then, I've added a couple more amaryllis bulbs (Green Dragon, Minerva, the "Red/White"), Dutch Iris, some unidentified bulbs that were found in the old iris bed (Possibly the double daffodils or something), Leftover Tulips that were growing in the front yard where another old bed was removed, and I believe daffodils that my sister brought over.

March 27, 2012
The lone seedpod on the fake 'Candy Floss' Amaryllis. It's really looking beautiful!

March 27, 2012 - Black Mom, Purple Dad iris seedlings
I posted on a forum wondering when the best time was to separate seedlings. My seedlings made their appearance back at the beginning of January of this year. I was really overwhelmed because I was under the impression that seeds are not easy to germinate. With the mild winter we had, I didn't think my winter-sowing effort worked. It did. All too well. I think I'll let these be until around May. They should be big enough to divide into a bed.

March 27, 2012 - Purple Mom, Black Dad iris seedlings
One thing I've noticed is that even though both pots have pushed out seedlings at the same time, the BM/PD seedlings are much taller than the PM/BD seedlings.

March 31, 2012 - Candy Floss replacement
The scape is still there but coming out extremely slowly. The daughter bulb is at the right. I had placed the bulb a little too high for its sake. I've been waiting for it to flower so that I can tell if I got the correct Candy Floss this time around before I relocate it to the bed.

March 31, 2012 - Seed pod of fake 'Candy Floss'

April 1, 2012 - Amaryllis Bed
What surprised me so far about the 2010 amaryllis was that they kept their leaves. I was expecting all the amaryllis to wither down and start over but they're going on without missing a beat. The 2011 amaryllis seedlings felt the blow, as I knew they would, with a couple of their leaves turning yellow and withering but they all have at least one green leaf that are still pushing through.

1 comment:

  1. It's taking a while but the bed at the side of the house is full of iris - They're supposed to be dug up and relocated so that fresh dirt can be put in there and start a vegetable bed with the seeds. It's taking a while to get there because of the huuuuuge misconception that there was a place to move them to. I don't know where to move them to. :\ I'll be reusing my vegetable pots too, in order to get some seeds growing now, at this rate...

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