I found my heirloom ‘Red Lion’ Hippeastrum in flower this week. Given their inevitable association with Christmas, I tried to make a modern, hip arrangement that did not reflect the holidays. These bulbs came from my father in law, Glenn, who had an incredibly intense in and out of the closet scheduling scheme for getting the bulbs to rebloom – after a few years of holiday flowers he would plant them in the garden. These have always lived outside here and are a rare bulb that hangs around in my garden. Glenn has been gone for almost twenty years, so I wonder how old these bulbs are?!
The Hipsters:
I love a little chartreuse and grey in the garden. This is an unnamed coleus in chartreuse and what I think is a Graptosedum succulent. I am hoping the coleus will root. If you look closely the cotton ball I stuffed into the bottom of the Hippeastrum stem is visible. I did this with the flower upside down and it burped when placed in the vase. I have read that filling the stem with water and putting a cotton ball in the end will make the flower last longer. The experiment is on!
Glenn’s Red Lion Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) – I am certain he would not know what a Hippeastrum is. The chartreuse umbels are flowers from culinary dill. I like to eat the foliage, but the seeds don’t really tempt me. The green foliage is a palm seedling of some sort. There is a nice herbal scent surrounding the vase. The container is a heavy crystal vase that was a gift.
I hope everyone is enjoying spring by now and I am looking forward to watching weird shadows with the solar eclipse on Monday afternoon. Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM, to see more vases follow the link ramblinginthegarden and read the comments section.
The Shrub Queen 
Do you plant the Amaryllis in the ground or keep them in a pot? I put mine in the ground and they did well for a while and then stopped making flowers. I only have two that flower now and are currently in bloom. Sadly, we are having a cloudy day, so probably no eclipse for us.
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You’re always so creative. I wouldn’t think of putting those flowers together.
And what an interesting tale of the amaryllis! I’m not as efficient as your relative was because I often forget the schedule but I do follow the ritual each year.
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A beautiful combination, beautifully arranged, A. I love it! Happy, safe eclipse watching! 🌔🌑🌒🌖
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What an incredible bouquet with the tropical feel especially against the coleus. I still have a few blooming indoors that will get snipped soon for another vase. A special flower too.
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Thanks, Donna. I hope yours last a long time.
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Wow, that amaryllis/hippeastrum has a great legacy! No doubt you would be very disappointment if it eventually met its demise – although it seems very content with its regime, so that seems unlikely to happen. The dill foliage sets it off perfectly, and there is nothing Christmassy about it at all.
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It seems every other bulb in the garden has been eaten by something. I managed to kill Glenn’s entire Christmas cactus collection not quite realizing how hot summer is here.
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Oh what a shame about the cacti… 😢 It clearly proves how resilient the hippeastrum is though, if it can take the heat…
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I am reading snook’ is a gesture of derision by thumbing the nose? or a fish. The fish is native to waters above 70 degrees from Florida to Brazil. It is a popular sport fish here – I had never heard of it prior to living here. My father, from New England, used to say people were snookered, meaning fooled into doing something. Curious, all of it.
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Yes, like thumbing the nose. And snookered, a term also used in the UK, originated from the game of snooker – is that played in the US?
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What a great combination of colours, the chartreuse of the coleus with the grey and red give a dramatic effect, and since I love the smell of dill so much, I can just imagine. The effect is almost sultry.
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Thank you, Noelle. I like the sultry idea!
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I love this color mix, Amelia. You’re right that it takes the Christmas season right out of the picture. I shove a stick and a cotton ball in my Hippeastrum stems when I use them as cut flowers, wrapping a rubber band at the bottom of the stem to keep them in place – it’s helpful.
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Thanks, Kris. I think I goofed up the installation of the cotton ball. The flower dried up and turned brown overnight. Oh well.
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Does Hippeastrum papilio naturalize there? (Did I already ask that?) Brent just realized that he acquired a few potted bulbs of it from a neighbor without knowing what it was. I want a copy of it now. I know it is not the prettiest, but I like how it can grow wild in the garden here, like the Amaryllis belladonna, but not as prolific. I just recently canned some Crinum bulbispermum that I found growing wild in a forest nearby. I do not find it to be any more appealing, but I do like its perennial quality.
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Yes, the H.pappilio is everywhere, always coral, a big passalong plant here. I don’t know that crinum, I think I am too far south, though there are some crazy crinum here, 5 feet tall.
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I am amazed by the ability of the Crinum bulbispermum to survive without irrigation through summer within sandy soil! I would like to grow it where I can actually see it, but do not want to contribute to its potential naturalization. Realistically though, if it is going to naturalize, there really is nothing I can do to stop it.
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Love the chartreuse Coleus at the ‘hip’, and the dill flowers go perfectly too. Amazing to have a Hippeastrum that has been around for so long! I love dill too, seeds and all – I dry them and put them on and in home-baked bread. 😃
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Wow, I would never think to put these elements together, but they really, really work well together. Very nice!
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Thanks, Beth.
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I love the way you’ve brought the Hippeastrum into an entirely different season, Amy! And I’ve never even imagined them as pass-along plants, although they do perennialize nicely here.
I’ve never been able to keep hungry animals out of my dill plants; how do you do it?!?
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Fantastic combo, so smart to add the chartreuse and the dill!
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Thanks, the dill lasted a week!
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