Anyone who has followed my blog for a few years will know I have a red amaryllis which is over thirty years old and still going strong. But I have another. In 2006, my mother in law from my first marriage died, leaving her son as the only remaining member of her immediate family. He had arranged for her house to be cleared after he had taken anything he wanted to keep and gave me the keys to see if there was anything I would like. In the small conservatory, at the back of the house, there were a number of plants which had not been watered for several months and I took pity on one or two and took them home. Most never recovered, but an amaryllis was sprouting again after a little t.l.c. and so I kept it. Each year it grew leaves but never flowered. After nine years of anticipating a flower, I had just decided that if it did not flower this year I would chuck it out. It must have heard me because lo and behold, this year it has finally flowered. I had no idea what colour it would be and it is quite different from my deep red one, which is a bonus.
