The great escape

5 March 2010

Last Christmas the English department at Mum’s school gave her a red amaryllis, which she brought home. There was no suitable setting for it in her library and one of her assistants tasked Dad with taking care of it. Mum’s not the one to whom you should entrust your pot plants while you go on holiday. Unless you like them brown.

“Store in a cool place until planting”, said the instructions. It’s winter and that’s anywhere. Done. Maybe this plant stood half a chance after all?

The box was put on a shelf in the conservatory, with the bulb in a ceramic pot inside, waiting to be brought to life. But soon the box became part of the furniture; the box you see every day, but never stop for a moment to wonder: hey, should we do something with this?

Except this evening, when I caught sight of the box and was suddenly given cause to wonder: hey, shouldn’t we have done something with this?

Tired of waiting for someone to realise that while the instructions don’t actually tell you to remove the pot from the box, it is in fact assumed by many to be a given and so the amaryllis had taken matters into its own hands and started to make its own way out.

We opened the box and discovered another stem trying to make its way out. Cutting away the carboard collar through which the stems had grown, we lifted the pot out of the box and welcomed it to the wide world.

And mumbled an apology about having kept it shut in a box for two months.

Posted in: family, garden, photos

Comments

5 Responses to “The great escape”

Amity
6th March 2010 @ 2:54 am

Wow…a favorite plant, love the tenacity here!!

[Reply]
bonnie
6th March 2010 @ 6:50 am

Best post ever!

But now I want to hear it in your accent.

[Reply]
Brenda
6th March 2010 @ 5:08 pm

I had one of these last year….then it go demoted to the cold garage…..and it started to go again….. then it got tossed out. not by me…..some one else who thought it wasn’t going to make it…..but it would have….

[Reply]
Lula
8th March 2010 @ 2:39 pm

The Little Amaryllis That Could! This post is very oddly inspirational for me, Sarah, thanks! ;)

[Reply]
Blooming : dreamdust
12th March 2010 @ 9:44 am

[...] amazing what Mother Nature will do when you take her out of a box and give her a glass of [...]