Back in 2018 I started a flat of amaryllis seeds I was able harvest when two of my bulbs, a sparkly white and a rich crimson, bloomed simultaneously and I was able to cross-pollinate.

It took four years but last spring I was blessed with several nice salmon colored flowers, the fruits of that patient growth. After starting the bulbs stashed from the prior summer around mid-February I was rewarded last year with more blooms than ever, taxing our limited window space but well worth a bit of pot crowding. After the blooms had faded I eased their transition to outside with a few weeks of shaded sun in May before I then planted the bulbs in the garden to fatten up for the next year. (One year they got introduced to too much sun too fast — sun scald, lost some leaves.) Well, fatten they did this year. Nights are getting cooler so I’ve dug them up and (reluctantly) trimmed the tops so they can spend a few months in the cool dark of our basement. I now have more than a dozen capable of putting on a show in the spring:

The largest are easily 5+ inches in diameter, and I couldn’t resist weighing the lot: I’m now blessed with 10 pounds of bulbs! In previous years the bulbs spent a fair amount of energy on offsets. While you can see a couple in this photo, there were only about half a dozen, and the lack no doubt contributed to larger bulbs.

Now I just need to remember to check on them periodically this winter and I could be rewarded with quite a show this spring. Going to have to give a few away though: definitely won’t be enough window space with this bunch!