Brightening my sewing room

I've been bringing my amaryllises out somewhat later the last few years. I guess I started doing that because then it's warmer in the sewing room window where I've been putting them for the best sunshine. My first one is fully open now.

The second one will be blooming soon. The third one has decided to take a vacation from blooming this year, I guess. The fourth is an offspring of the one above, and I think it's not mature enough to bloom yet. BTW, if anyone (local) would like that little one, speak up, because I really don't want two alike... but I don't have the heart to just toss it. :)

Guess what?!?! My last sewing project was a success! It FITS! Perfectly, even!!! I am soooo relieved! Photos are awaiting a photographer and daylight to be available at the same time. I will show you pics when I get them!

Update: I just discovered this morning that my fourth amaryllis, the "offspring", IS indeed going to bloom! The flower stalk popped out since I took those pics yesterday morning and is already about an inch tall!

Mini rose

A year ago last March(?) I went to a bridal shower. There were a few games, and because I play a lot of Word Warp on my iPad I won a little mini rose bush by playing a word game. I put it outside last summer, and it did quite well. I didn't bring it into the house in the fall, but surprisingly it survived the winter! Here's what it looked like a couple weeks ago, right after a rain:

By the 4th of July, it had produced another bud and looked like this:

Yesterday morning it was almost fully open:

HOWEVER, my little bush had a definite problem. As you can see below, the second bud was gone...

... and the stems were bent over at a 90° angle:

The second bud was on the ground directly below its stem. It's right at the point of the amaryllis leaf above. Hmm... what happened to my poor little rose?!

Chances are, these littles may have had something to do with it:

Possibly?

That's a guilty retreat if I ever saw one:

I'm not totally sure it was them, though. They are rarely on that side of the house, and they haven't damaged anything else. There is also a somewhat smashed impatiens plant, which I'm pretty sure was due to an adult cat fight I heard a couple of nights ago. It could've happened at the same time, although I didn't notice if the rose stems were broken at that time or not.

I'll proclaim the kittens innocent until proven guilty, though. I love my kittens more than my flowers, anyway. ;)

Amaryllis update

In full bloom... gorgeous, yes?

Mother's Day day-brightener

I brought my amaryllis bulbs out really late this year, because the weather was so cold that the windows where I set them just seemed too cold for them to make good progress. I usually bring them out in January or February, but this year it was March 14th. 

It's a gloomy, rainy day outside today, but I love it that I have a beautiful flower opening inside. Lovely timing! This one will be even prettier when it's gets fully opened:

And it has even more buds that will open soon:

And a whole 'nuther flower stalk on its way!

My 34-year-old(!) red one is also about to start blooming:

Remember the amaryllis problem I had last year? Thankfully, there's not a sign of it this year on any of my plants! Clean and sturdy as could be:

I don't know what made the difference. I didn't do a thing.

BTW, that little leaf in the bottom corner of the photo above is from the new baby bulb that I divided off from its pinkish "mother" in March. It and the mother are doing well, but neither is going to bloom, apparently. I guess the separation was a bit traumatic for them.

Speaking of that separation, I just cut the little bulb off the bigger one. THEN I looked up how it was supposed to be done. Oops. I guess I should've just twisted it off. Oh, well... I didn't kill either of them, and hopefully they'll both bloom next year. Incidentally, in case you wondered... I read (before doing it, thankfully - years ago, in fact) that one should wait about 4 years before separating them... or until they're of equal size. Well, mine were nowhere near equal size, but I think it had been 4 years since the baby was "born".

Oohh... all this talk of "mothering"... ha! Here's wishing all you moms out there a VERY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

A study in contrasts

Soooo.... it's April, right? April 19th, in fact? Someone please assure me that it is! Last year at this time, corn planting was well under way. Contrast #1: This morning it looks like this (6+" of new 'stuff'):

Contrast #2: I took this photo yesterday at my sewing room window... just because I thought it made a nice contrast. Several, in fact... the drippy, rainy-looking window, yet the snow in the background (that was the actual depth of the drift at the window... and it got bigger), and the silhouette of the summery flowers. What a mixture!

Last week I showed you how the poor birds were struggling to find food. Here are a couple more pics I took later of different kinds of birds also searching for food. A blackbird...

... and a flicker:

Contrast #3: A much BIGGER bird, also searching for food. It's a pretty unusual sight to see turkeys around here while there's still snow on the ground. There were five others with this big ol' tom.

Okay, enough of the "winter" scenery (I've more than had enough, believe me!). This next photo is definitely a contrast from that. But it's a contrast in itself, because if you remember, the first flower stalk on this amaryllis had a problem. This is the second stalk, and there's not a blemish on it! Hurray! Yep, Contrast #4:

Contrast #5: The above photo's colors are accurate. The photo below is an example of what can happen if you don't have the proper white balance setting on your camera. Not such great colors:

There you have it. Hope you enjoyed our little "study". ;)

Amaryllis problem #2

My second amaryllis is blooming beautifully now. But as you can see, it has the same type of problem that this one had, although not as severe.

Interestingly, this rust problem didn't show up on the leaves at all, and it certainly didn't affect the blooms!

Aren't they just gorgeous?

Here's what the flower stalk looks like at the base, though. The flower stalks are always hollow, but this one is split for several inches. It almost looks like it was burned.

I was playing with some photo editing, and here's what I ended up with. It looks like it's red hot inside that stalk! :)

My third amaryllis still has no sign of a flower stalk, so I assume it's not going to bloom this year. The first one that had the deformed stalk has another stalk shooting up, and it looks perfectly fine with no sign of rust or deformity at all!

Amaryllis problem

I was late bringing my amaryllis bulbs out this year. Procrastination, out-of-sight/out-of-mind, and laziness were the main reasons. Laziness in that I figured the later I brought them out, the less time I'd have to be watering them in the house before setting them outside for the summer. So they're just now beginning to bloom. 

This is what they're supposed to look like:

(March 2, 2010 - Courtney, age 3)

However this one, my oldest one that I've had for 33 years (!), has a definite problem this year, which it's never had before. The flower stalk is not only very short, but it's quite deformed.

It as this rust-colored stuff on the stalk, and the stalk has not only split open lengthwise, it has also split the other way, too. See where it looks like there's a big chunk out of it? It just split apart right there.

Something kept it from growing properly. I've only done a quick search for "amaryllis rust" which told me that it could be a fungus or mites. I need to investigate further.

Whatever the problem is, it didn't stop it from blooming!

It was a little hard to find a place to set it for picture-taking.

You can see there's a new flower stalk coming by the leaves. I wonder if that'll be affected, too.

One of my other bulbs is affected, too, but not as badly. It'll be blooming soon. My third one looks like it won't be blooming at all. It might be because it has a "baby" bulb attached to it. It's been there a couple of years or more, so maybe that means it's time to divide them. I've read that you're supposed to leave the new bulbs attached for 4 years before separating them.

They've had little rusty spots on them for many years, but there has never been any noticeable damage until this year. I wonder if it was because I brought them out so late (I doubt it), or if it had something to do with the weather last summer, or what. If anybody has any great information for me, please share!

Update: For anyone googling about this problem, I thought I'd let you know that I did nothing to treat it, and I am happy to report that the following year there was absolutely no sign of any of the rust problem or splitting on any of my plants. See this post.

Color!

I have lovely decorations in my sewing room right now. My amaryllis plants are blooming again. The reason they're in my sewing room is because they'd get destroyed by Josie (one of my cats, in case any new readers are wondering) in the living room. At least I'm sewing more lately, so I get to see them every day.

The pinkish one has another bloom that you can see behind the others. And the reddish-orange one will have more soon.

I have one more amaryllis, but it's a bit slower than the others this year, so it's still in the window soaking up sunshine.

You can see there was still ice on the trees when I took that pic yesterday morning, but 40° took care of that  very nicely. I'm looking forward to 50+° later today!

Photos of the day

This is the sight I saw when I first looked out the window this morning. Poor ash tree. It's one that Courtney's daddy brought home from elementary school one Arbor Day all those years ago. Pretty sad to see it so damaged. At least it didn't land on the sandbox under it and break the cover.

(The photos look so much better enlarged! Just click on 'em!)

Incidentally, below is the first photo I took of it through the drippy plasticked window. It made for kind of a unique effect.

Here's the back side of it:

And up close:

Our maple tree lost a lot of branches again, too. As I was outside taking pics, the wind started coming up, and more were falling... glad I wasn't standing under the tree at the time!

We had a lot of rain yesterday, and there are lots of puddles, one of which you can see below. They're kind of a yucky brown color.

I even left yellowish-brown footprints because of all the wetness under the snow:

There were some pretty effects, though, too!  I love the "hooks" on these maple branches! Amazing how they formed, isn't it?!

Here are some more icy maple shots:

Even the asparagus looked pretty:

But the best view, in my opinion, was what I saw in my sewing room window as I walked back to the house:

Yep, those buds will be opening very soon! And green is so refreshing to see again!