Saturday, March 17, 2012

Windowsill


Remember our brilliantly blooming red amaryllis? Well, as you can see, the blooms have faded and the stalks have been pruned away. They are now big, jubilant green plants, giving a sort of tropical air to our kitchen windowsill.

Three of them are, that is. One of our bulbs just seems to barely get by. It did manage to squeak out two stalks of undersized blossoms, and now it's struggling to grow even a single leaf. We've named this plant Toby. I have no idea why -- none of the others have names. I guess we think he needs some extra encouragement.


In between our amaryllis you'll see these little cans. We bought these kits in Amsterdam -- each consists of a can containing a piece of fibrous wool, a dry disk of peat and some seeds. The idea is, you soak the peat in water, dampen the wool, put the seeds on top of the wool at the bottom of the can, and cover everything with peat. Ideally, the seeds will grow. We'll see what happens. (I'm skeptical that a seed will grow upward through three inches of peat, but I followed the planting instructions to the letter, so I will keep you posted.)

Besides the poppies, the cans are incubating seeds of bird of paradise, Venus flytrap, passionflower, and a type of succulent known as living stones.

6 comments:

Kevin Wood said...

A couple of years ago, I was given one of those cans--a christmas tree. Things went well, but the plants died before I found the time to transplant them.

e said...

Good luck with growing these. I tried to grow some herbs in a window box but my cats got to them...

The Bug said...

We grew a geranium in a can - it's a monster now! But as I recall it came with soil, not a peat pellet. Can't wait to see how they do!

Lynne said...

I have had one amaryllis since 2008 and it has bloomed every year since then. I know they are not really supposed to, but ...

I've found that in January when I look at the plants and they still have beautiful green fronds but the bulb looks dead-ish, I trim off the green down to the bulb, and voila! a flower stalk appears shortly after. There is nothing I love better than seeing these gorgeous blooms in the middle of winter.

I will be watching to see if your poppy and other ventures take root. Good luck!

Linda Sue said...

All I can hope is that the poppies are glorious and that you can score the pods and smoke the resin...

Ms.M said...

Love the plant at the window. Your right it does give it a tropical feel. Sorry for Toby. :/

Ms. M