So far, there are no meetings planned yet for the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society. But please visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca; you鈥檒l see interesting new additions on the site! For a boost of spring in the middle of winter, be sure to check out the new photos of indoor blooms! Visit the site anytime, see what鈥檚 new and if there is news regarding meeting dates, we鈥檒l let you know!
After the cold of last week, we can only imagine seeing a beautiful garden鈥r is that the only way? I searched 鈥渧irtual garden tours鈥� and found an amazing site from House Beautiful (www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden) where we can visit different gardens for a virtual garden tour. We can tour gardens that include Kew Garden in Britain, Claude Monet鈥檚 garden in France, the RHS Wisely Garden in Surrey, Keukenhof Garden in Amsterdam, the Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden鈥� if you need a botanical break, make a cup of tea and visit this site, your spirit will be rejuvenated!
Reading things online is not the same as getting together and having lively discussions in person about our gardens, but it lets us learn new things, keeping 鈥渢he little grey cells鈥� active, as Agatha Christie鈥檚 detective Hercule Poirot would say! 聽
One question that came up at one of our online meetings is 鈥渉ow do I get my amaryllis to rebloom?鈥� One of our members was having success with his amaryllis bulbs, and the key points seemed to be working just fine. There are a few points:
When the flowers fade, we should cut the stalks to about an inch away from the bulb.聽聽聽聽聽 We do this so that the bulb does not start putting energy into making seeds.
Next, we have to let the bulb rejuvenate by placing it in a sunny area, so that the leaves can absorb that glorious sunshine and turn it into energy for the bulb.
If it is summer, we can take our bulbs outside and let them have a vacation. Next, we should give the plants fertilizer treat, but be careful not to have the soil very wet.聽聽聽聽 As the summer begins to fade, we should gently begin to hold back on watering, and then move the plant out of the late summer sunshine and into a cool a dry location, like our basements.聽聽聽聽 This tells the bulb that it is now time to rest.
Fast forward now, several months. We can bring the bulb out again, give it a drink of water, move it into bright light, and the growing season begins again.
I have read that at this time we can repot the bulb if we want, but our members said they just left the bulbs as they were, and they seemed to do just fine.
But like with all things in life, it works except when it doesn鈥檛. We once had an amaryllis bulb that did absolutely nothing. After weeks and weeks it grudgingly sent forth a few spindly leaves, but nothing more.聽 No sign of a flower stalk. We waited and waited; Christmas came and went, and still nothing. Perhaps the bulb was weak, diseased, who knows?
So whether you鈥檙e trying to get the bulb to rebloom year after year or whether you just treat the bulbs as annuals, enjoy their majestic show of blooms, and be grateful for the energy they expended to bring us those glorious flowers!聽聽聽聽 I read a lovely quote from the Buddha: 鈥淚f we could see the miracle of a single flower, clearly our whole life would change鈥�.
Good advice for us to appreciate the beauty of flowers, especially those that give us miraculous blooms in the winter!聽聽聽聽聽 Thank you to our friends at Yorkton This Week for their amazing work.聽聽聽聽 Let鈥檚 pray for health for all. Have a good week!
