The Promise of a Plant

A special daylily

Many years ago--it might have been 5 or 6 (time flies when you are old!)--a former professor at my college promised me a slip of a daylily which he had purchased and been allowed to name by a hybridizer. It was maroon and gold, the colors of the college. And so he named it after the college. It was a unique cultivar (among the tens of thousands of others), and now I have a piece of it, growing in two different spots in my yard. And so does O.

I can't believe it took me so long, but I remembered, and he remembered, too. It had to be late summer, after the daylily had finished blooming. Year after year passed and I was worried he might pass on (he is in great shape and will probably live longer than I!) before I came to claim my unique specimen.

But on August 22 we found him home and happy to share.

I also found out that he cultivates 24 amaryllis bulbs (Amaryllis belladonna) according to a strict schedule which he had learned from someone who grew them in their native habitat in South Africa, including four distinct seasons, with 6 bulbs at any given time in the blooming phase, 6 of them are set outside for new summer growth, six of them are put in cold dormancy and six of them grow in a sunny window: bloom, grow and feed, dormancy, and new growth. His dormancy period is in their house refrigerator. He said his wife is very patient with him.

I am proud of my success with one amaryllis. A corner of my cement basement floor serves as my "fridge" in the winter months, but I don't follow a feed and growth regimen after flowering, so I will try to do better with that phase. A previous post this year shows the new baby amaryllis bulb which is likely still attached and feeding off the mother, having bloomed sequentially last spring.

Anyway, I quickly found two spots for my new small rhizome clumps (we left him plenty) which get a modest amount of sun in my shady yard.

Today as the sun came out after a good and welcome 2-inch rain, I took a photo of how one of the two has sprouted new growth since August.

Yes, these little things bring me joy, my new way to reflect about choices I make. The new thought (from daughter M.) is supposed to be a conscious way of thinking about getting rid of things that no longer bring joy--like most of the things in my basement. But so far, it has been applied more to food and flowers than to all the foolishness that is my basement!