Amaryllis

We've had two amaryllis bulbs for a couple years now and I had the hardest time getting them to bloom. First, we checked the internet and the USDA website (or something affiliated with them) had instructions on how to care for your bulbs. One of the instructions was to stop watering for a couple months so that the bulb will go dormant and eventually put out a flower stalk. So, we stopped watering in October and by January I had given up all hope of seeing them bloom, again.

Then I attended a book group for church and the woman hosting had the most beautiful amaryllis plants and all of them were flowering! Of course, I asked her how she got them to bloom and her answer was "I put them outside in the summer and bring them into the house when it gets cold". But did she water her plants? Of course, when she remembered to. That did it. If someone could manage to get 8-10 flower stalks out of her amayrillis plants with a laissez-faire attitude, then I was going to stop trying so hard!

That night, I moved the plants back to the window sill and gave them a good watering. Within a week, bulb #1 started pushing out leaves and a flower stalk. A week after that, bulb #2 did the same, but at a much slower rate. Bulb #1 shot up with a 2.5' flower stalk and leaves from several places. In a few weeks, we had two beautiful flowers from that plant. Bulb #2 took about a month and a half longer to push the stalk up and flower and is just now getting a leaf. However, bulb #2 had three flowers, as you can see in the first picture.

In any case, I am so excited that my beautiful amaryllis bulbs finally flowered!

Bulb #2 before third flower bloomed.

All three flowers. The two in the back are starting to fade, but I got this picture before they really drooped.

This is my beautiful baby enjoying our first amaryllis that bloomed.

Ha ha!

This post needs a bit of explanation. And it can be summed up in two statements:

1. I have never successfully pulled off an April Fool's joke.
2. Hubby takes long, long showers (especially when he is tired).

Here is the story. This morning after Hubby had gotten up and started his shower, I was lying in bed wishing that I wasn't so tired. Then inspiration struck, hard. It dawned on me that it was April Fool's Day and that if I changed all the clocks in our apartment (or at least the ones Hubby would look at) to be about 45 minutes ahead, I could tell Hubby that he had been in the shower for an hour.

After I had changed the clocks, I peeked my head in the bathroom and told Hubby that he couldn't stay in the shower forever. I then went and got Anna out of bed and then went into the bathroom to brush our teeth. That's when I let the bomb drop and told him that he had been in the shower for an hour, that it was 8:30 and he had better hurry. I of course started to smile at this point, but that was easily covered up by turning to get my toothpaste and shoving my toothbrush into my mouth. I also told Hubby that I had fallen back to sleep and that Anna had slept in (which she did, but only until 7:45). All through breakfast I ribbed him, telling him that he must have been tired and asking whether or not there would be enough hot water for me to shower with. Everything went perfectly until he took his cell phone out of his pocket to make sure that he wouldn't miss the 9:16 bus. I started to giggle and said "April Fool's!" Fortunately, he wasn't too annoyed. We both laughed and I've gotten a kick out of telling people how I got Hubby. Some other time I'll have to post about the Valentine's day lasagna.