My Mom's Amaryllis

I have all three of my mom's amaryllis bulbs at my house. Since she's been gone, I've become the keeper of many of her plants, including these very special ones. Mom's plants always looked lush and full, and she knew the secret to having the amaryllis bulbs bloom each year around Christmas time. I vaguely remember that it involves some complicated procedure of withholding water and putting them in a dark closet for a few weeks, but frankly that seems like a lot of work to me and I've been too distracted to look it up. Plus, I know that if I put plants in the closet, I wouldn't find them until years later, and I'm pretty sure that isn't right.

Hence, my goal has been to keep them alive. At one point, I thought I'd failed at even that and started to toss one of the bulbs, but I thought better of it. A few weeks later, green foliage appeared.

So I've just been watering these bulbs like I do my other houseplants: When I think of it. Imagine my surprise this past week when a bud shot up from the largest plant. In spite of my best efforts to mess things up, this beautiful flower appeared. And one of the smaller bulbs will soon be blooming, too.

Maybe this beautiful bloom is in honor of Mother's Day. Maybe it is just happenstance. Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the show.