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.