Dear Diary: January 20

[lblanchard]

I am working on reducing the quantity of stuff around here. It's not easy, but I had an epiphany today. If there's something I don't want for its intrinsic usefulness, but it has sentimental value, I can always take a picture of it and then put it in the trash / yard sale box. I am looking at the house with fresh eyes and building a little list.

Hippeastrum 'papilio' continues to send out shoots but doesn't look like any hippeastrum I've ever seen before. Take a look at this:



It sure looks different from all the others I've seen, in which a fan of leaves comes from the center and the flower scape either comes from the fan or from the side. Here it looks like the flower scape is in the center (it's a thick thing, not like leaf nubbins) and then there's an odd cluster of leaves coming out of the side.

Well, anyhow, it's growing.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

*waves at my new LJ friend who I've seen around for years at other friend's LJs*
:)
De-cluttering is a goal of mine but I am far too sentimental to give away or trash things that mean something to me.

My one and only amaryllis bulb sprouted leaves this year but they died back without producing a flower spike.
:(
I'm usually pretty good with plants but Hippeastrum resist my care.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I would be, too, if I weren't approaching the stage of life where I will be forced to downsize. Decluttering is an anticipatory and leisurely jump-starting of that process.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

And, yeah, it's about time one of us friended the other.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Hey, Oh Learned Hippeastrum One... Can you advise me on what point I should be cutting off the flower stem of a hippeastrum that's just flowered? I'm hoping to get the Office Triffid to repeat flower, and I'm not very green fingered when it comes to these little beggars...

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Once it's finished, if you're not raising a crop of seeds, cut it off when it annoys you. As long as it's still green it's contributing, however minutely, to the stores of energy for the overall plant, so you might want to wait till it starts looking crummy. I tend to cut off the flowery bits as soon as they've collapsed, and then the stem tube when it turns pale and/or annoys me.

The trick will next be to put the plant some place that it gets plenty of light but not too much direct sun. Oh, wait, you're in Scotland.... Anyhow, plan on giving it a rest over the fall by restricting water and keeping it in a cool but not freezing place. They don't really need to cower in the dark, just cool off and dry out.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's really helpful. My last one got stuffed in a cupboard, and I don't think it was too chuffed by this offhand treatment. I'm sure I can find a place which will suit it - though some of my shelves are problematic when it comes to sunlight - the saintpaulia end up cowering on the microwave because their regular shelf becomes a sun trap and they get scorched leaves. Even in a typical Scottish summer.

I tried putting a hippeastrum outdoors for the summer a couple of years back. The slugs made mincemeat of the poor thing...

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Sunlight through a window mightn't be all that bad in Scotland.