Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Random plant event: Eucharis grandiflora

Finally it's gotten warm enough that this year's outdoor plants can all stay outside for a few consecutive days, which makes my life a bit easier. (It's also been very rough on me mentally -- it's just too weird to be hoping for the weather to be warmer.)

I'd put the younger Eucharis bulbs (the ones I bought two years ago) outside a while back, but then it got cold for several days, and I put all the plants back in their previous spots while we rode out the cool spell, and then for some reason I had neglected to move the Eucharises back out again when the weather improved. They were only out for a couple days, but apparently that short period of brighter light was all the encouragement one of the plants needed to decide to produce a bud.


The smell is as nice as I remember, though it's been a long wait. I didn't move the plant back outside until the flower was already well underway, but that doesn't seem to have hurt it: it's possible that it's lasting longer than the previous ones did.

I should probably note that the foliage behind the flower is not that of the Eucharis: that's this year's attempt to grow Salvia elegans. The two plants have apparently become friends or something. Which is good, since the Salvia was new and all.


4 comments:

orchideya said...

Beautiful. It reminds me my childhood since my mom grew them and was very excited when they bloomed. I think I even remember the smell...

Molly Day said...

That's a new one on me so I looked it up - a Peruvian amaryllis - though it looks sort of like a daffodil.
Gorgeous thing to have and pamper into bloom.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't this go dormant like most bulbs?

Texas Anon

mr_subjunctive said...

Texas Anon:

It can, but it doesn't have to. My original plant has been growing without a dormant period since January 2009.