Amaryllis grown in water since 2014 prepares for another bloom season

Water-grown amaryllis blooms for fifth year.

Thank goodness for date stamps on photos. I would probably not have a good handle on the bloom cycle of my pet amaryllis, Leafy, without them.

At left is a photo of Leafy taken last year on April 28. While the flower structure wasn't perfect, who could find fault with a bulb that managed to push out TWO large flowers afer having grown so long -- since the winter of 2014 -- in water alone?

Leafy is an amazing bulb that has, surprisingly, managed to send up a new flower stalk this year (see below) after having been able to produce only one leaf after it bloomed last year.

Most of its energy went into recovery and replacing its entire root system after I made the mistake of feeding it a tiny bit of Miracle-Gro fertilizer after the flowers faded.

An online reader (who may or may not have been a malicious agent related to emails sent moments earlier that tried to trick me into giving credit card information) suggested using a hydroponic feeding solution instead of a fertilizer meant for plants growing in soil. Good ideas do sometimes come from questionable sources, so this is something I plan to look into. 

Below is a comparison photo that shows what Leafy's flower stem looked like this year on Feb. 28 (photo on the left) compared to a better photo taken in late March last year. This photo reminds me to move Leafy to the sunnier window. Its stem always bends toward the light, so I should make things easier.

Leafy on February 28 (above left), as compared to a superior photo, taken in late March last year, that better shows Leafy's gorgeous coloriing.

At an earlier date, this year's stem is already much taller. (Not enough sunlight?) However, the flower bud appears to be about the same size. We'll see what effect last summer's trauma will have on the flowering. At any rate, I'm going to try to do a better job of posting on Leafy's progress this year.