Discarded Double Amaryllis Blooms - Picture

In the yard there are a few oddball plants that have shown up in strange areas.  You would think that after 5 years, you would know what is in each spot of the yard.  Last year it was a red amaryllis next to the irrigation pump. 

In this land where dropped seeds from birds often sprout into exotic trees, it is easy to find flowering trees that show up in places you don't expect.  Ground orchids show up where nothing was before or after the weedeater clears a spot and gives it some light.

It is so easy to grow flowers here that you have folks tossing flowers left and right.  One day, sitting there next to a dumpster, among all the detritus of life, was a little pot with a little soil in it and a sad little amaryllis bulb that didn't look like it had any life left in it.  I left it under my orange tree for a couple years and for some reason it did nothing but mope along.

This year after I had come too close to it with the weedeater which ate the leaves that had grown I had pretty much given it up for a loss.  I moved it around and sat it by the door where I put plants that I want to watch for a while longer before all the sudden it decided it wanted to live.

How did I know?  It first sent up a flower spike.  Then two more.  Amaryllis rarely do more than one spike in my experience.  This little bulb is in a bowl that practically empty of soil and a little spray from the irrigation, and a little bit of rain now has this beautiful bloom by the front door and more flower spikes to come. 

Sometimes, a little help is all something needs to bloom where it is planted.