In the pink

A while back I bought a couple of Amaryllis bulbs, intending to plant them in time for flowering at Christmas. I put one into a pot of soil, and it has not done very well. It has a leafy shoot, but still no flower yet. The other one stayed in the packet, forgotten in the very busy run-up to the festive season.

I came across it on New Year's Eve, and was astonished to see that it was struggling to flower inside the pack, with neither soil nor moisture. So I gave it a good drink, and here it is responding colourfully to a bit of TLC. The stem is a bit misshapen, but otherwise it is thriving and the colour is gorgeous. Well done Mother Nature!