Amaryllis Rebloom and Christmas in August

Sometimes a girl will do anything to distract herself from the summer heat.

I've taken to reading cookbooks and magazines with recipes for Thanksgiving side dishes.  Last night I bathed to Christmas music on Pandora Radio and I've  begun to worry about a pumpkin shortage due to the drought. We're still months away from the first fire in the fireplace, but I'm already scheduling my chimney sweep in anticipation of sweater weather. 


This is all fine and good, of course, as long as I do a reality check before I open the door to get the paper...  and feel the day's first blast of heat  .... thus getting blasted back to..to...to August. Ugghhh.

Not all of my distracted wool-gathering is unproductive, however. This week I'm ordering my garden bulbs for spring


and also some glorious amaryllis bulbs for the holidays.

Of course, I've still got the dozen or so bulbs that bloomed during the last holiday season.  I've been watering and feeding them all summer...


but now it's time to stop all of that and bring them in from their home outside


to their way station in a dormer closet with bright light.

I'll withhold water until the leaves yellow and dry.  Then I'll remove them, shake off the dirt

and store them individually in these mesh bags (marked as to variety) in a cool, dark place

until sometime in October when I'll pot them up and start all over again.

For full instructions on getting your amaryllis to re bloom,

read this article and put reminders on your garden calendar to tickle your memory about the timing. 


In addition to my current stable of these
holiday lovelies, I am adding three new varieties I've not tried before:

Amaryllis Trentino
Amaryllis Gervase  and
Amaryllis Floris Hecker

Find them here at John Scheepers.  I always buy them in threes...