How I earned a "free" bulb!

11 years ago

Last weekend I flew to Sacramento for a conference, but was able to start the trip with a visit with the best college roomie ever!! As we were sitting out on her back porch, no doubt drinking wine, I noticed that she had a huge pot of amaryllis. I went over to look at it and found a huge pot of healthy bulbs so crowded that they were growing on top of each other with no place to go.

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When I asked Jean what color they were, she replied "Red and white", and so I thought that they must be a vigorous clump of H. Minerva or maybe H. Vittatum. She said she thought she probably should split them up, but it really hadn't been a priority. The next morning she showed me a cell phone photo that she had taken. This is a photo of that photo (sorry for the poor quality!). Yep...they were H. Papilo. Guess what? I told her it should be a priority and we decided we would tackle this on Monday morning, before the temps hit 100!!

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So, come Monday, dress in grubby garden clothes, we assembled shovels, pots, hand trowels and lots of soil! It was pretty easy to tip the pot over, and the tug-of-war began with her holding the pot and me pulling to separate the clump from the pot that had been its home for 10 years. I did some quick math and thought if a bulb put out 3-4 offsets once it got big enough (after 3-4 years) we could be dealing with a lot of bulbs. I hoped that Jean had enough pots!!

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After a very long time, and only 3 casualties that might make it in the end, we had 66 bulbs. We sorted them in the following group/size:

7 bulbs that would go back in the pot as "mother bulbs". These were about the size of baseballs if not bigger. We did find the original mother bulb in what remained of a plastic pot sunk into the huge pot.

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Then there were the rest. The top row are about the size of racquetballs, and what you would expect if you mail ordered an H. Papilio. All the bulbs under the top row varied in size...from medium to small size. There were even bulbs growing off the underside of the bulbs that had never seen daylight! Those are the white misshapen things.

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And here are the 3 that will need some TLC:

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So, after we got those all potted up, we returned the 7 extra large bulbs to the pot and called Jean's husband out into the yard to help us move it! That was a very heavy pot, but it looks great!!

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Oh, Jean and Jim have very green thumbs. They have a Eureka lemon tree. Jim says it's a freak because it puts out football sized lemons. This photo has not been altered in any way. I made lemonade out of it!

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Jean gave me a medium large bulb to bring back to Texas and I will think of my pal every time I look at it!

Kristi

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Comments (13)

sun_worshiper
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That is so cool! Thanks for sharing the great photo journal of the process!

My neighbor grows giant lemons like that too - they are really amazing to see.
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Just an update: my bulb has put out 5 new leaves in 2 weeks. I chose the bulb I did because there was lots of new growth sprouting from the middle.

Jean says that the little white misshapen bulbs are starting to sprout and the 3 bulbs that were pretty damaged are perking up and putting out new growth. All the other bulbs are doing great!

When I made lemonade out of that huge lemon there happened to be a seed that had sprouted in the middle of it and that seed is now growing well on my windowsill kitchen. It's got 2 little leaves!!
K
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Well, yesterday (sat) I had every intension of swinging by the fairgrounds to unlock the gate so that folks who wanted bulbs could get some. But there was a football game with all its traffic tie-ups so that didn't happen. So today I am trying again to swing by and leave the gate unlocked while I attend a garden writing workshop at the Arboretum down the street. Since I live in Garner and it takes me a while to get there, I won't know if this plan will work until I arrive at the fairgrounds. The weather is supposed to be nicer this week so hopefully none of the bulbs have frozen (they appeared fine on Friday, the last time I saw them). I am glad that those of you that have picked some up are enjoying the bulbs. I wish I had a way to protect the bulbs better and a smoother way to distribute them but I just don't. My schedule is only gonna get busier from now til the holidays. It is dark when I leave for work and dark when I come home so handing out bulbs from my house is out of the question. I won't have time to box up and mail any to anybody. I'll be lucky if I get all of the ones I kept for myself into the ground. I don't control the fairgrounds. If the fair security guards decide to come around behind me and lock gates or otherwise restrict people from getting to the bulbs there is nothing I can do about it. I don't follow NCState football so I have no way of knowing when game traffic will be a problem. There seems to be about 3 dozen bulbs left over. The Starfire lilies are going downhill fast, whereas the orientals are holding up just fine (I think they enjoy the colder temps). After next weekend if there are any bulbs left I will try to tuck them into the ground for the winter and pot them up next spring and bring them to the spring swap.
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I, too, was raised in a rural setting. My money management began during WW2. I got $0.25 per week allowance and whatever else I cound earn. I walked 1.5 miles (one way), once per week to cut one and sometimes 2 lawns with a push, reel mower. That was work. I also hjelped my mother hang paper. Those old farm houses with a heating stove in the living room generated several papering jobs each year. My next gig for 2 years was driving a tractor for a farmer who had access to more land than he could handle alone. Adding me to the plowing team about doubled the acreage that could be prepared for planting. I got $4.00 per day, noon meal, and transportation to and from the job. (I did not have a car, nor wasn't old enough to own one.) I worked long hours, but it was one of the better paying jobs I had for a youth. For a couple of years while in highschool, I worked 3 hours after school at a full service filling station and closed the station at night. I also worked an 8 hr Saturday at the same station. Besides selling gasoline and oil, we did oil changes, lubrication, tire changes and repair, changed thermostats, radiator flush and refills, car washes, and minor tune-ups. We'd clean out, wash, and service a couple of school buses each Saturday. That was a lot of area to wash. It was a dirty job and was cold in winter. After that job, I worked at grocery store as a carry out and stock boy. My feet were tired by the end of the day and that was my last odd job before leaving home for college. I had one other odd job. The highschool principal hired mt to run a push mop over the basketball floor before the game on game nights, and to sweep the trash out of the bleachers. On those nights, I did not go home after school since home was 10 miles away. As soon as everyone cleared out after school, I began cleaning the gym. After cleaning, I'd grab a bite at the local eatry and be back for the game. I got in free because I also played in the school band at games. It was a hard scrable life, but in some ways, it was better for the youth than today. Even during hard times, there was work for a kid if he was honest, trustworthy, and willing to work. The pay was low, but other prices were not high. Labor laws and liability was not a big factor. At the begining of my work career, comic books sold for 10 cents in 1943 and rose to 25 cents by 1953. I sold gasoline at 22 cents per gallon and that rose to 25 cents per gallon by 1954. New cars were priced roughly at $1 per pound. You could buy a new Ford 5 passenger sedan with stick shift for less than $2500. Buicks and Oldsmobiles weighed more and sold for $3000 or more.
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amaryllisstudygroup
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wonderful . The first Papilio I planted back in the '80s I put in a 15 inch pot with only the roots in the soil since it is both an epiphyte & a geophyte. It bloomed the first year, but would not bloom again until it filled the pot with offsets which took 5 years. when it did bloom, there were 8 stalks of flowers from 8 mature bulbs with more young bulbs growing up. Tell your friends not to worry if they don't bloom until they feel crowded. Bill
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great...
Then she'll wish we hadn't reported them all!!
K
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
As a follow-up. Here is the big pot with 7 bulbs, each sending out a scape. I think they must be very happy!

She said that the smaller bulbs are all doing well and some have even put out scapes too.
K
jstropic (10a)
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
This was such a fun story to read. Thanks for the update Kristi!
dondeldux z6b South Shore Massachusetts
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Beautiful!!
fishing_dentist
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for telling that story about happy gardening! Ihave a clump in the same size, bougt on ebay from a person, whom whas´nt able to handle that anymore. (Germany means in summer bring it out and winter bring it in again) and i am always thinking about putting it in parts. I did gave him a bigger pot in the last year and fertilize it. last autumn it brings one stalk and now i know for sure, it is papilio. Your story forces me, to divide it.
Thanks Kristi!
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It took HOURS!!
Good luck Frank and post your chapter to this story!
K
fishing_dentist
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I would post much more, when it did´nt takes so much time, to post pics!
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Follow-up:

I saw said roomie a couple of weeks ago. She now has so many Papilio she doesn't know what to do. She said that each and every bulb is thriving and even the 3 that I chopped with the shovel are doing great. She has lots of blooms and guesses she will end up selling most (50+ bulbs) at a garage sale!

The large pot, where we repotted the larger bulbs, has many offsets and each of the large bulbs has put out 1-2 scapes.

K
ApplePie123
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow, what a great story!! How is your papilio doing now??and what about those lemon?
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Her husband cut down the lemon tree as it didn't produce very edible fruit and had "killer" thorns. He replaced it with an Improved Meyer Lemon tree.
K

How I earned a "free" bulb!

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sun_worshiper

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How I earned a "free" bulb!

Comments (13)

sun_worshiper

kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)Original Author

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