The Lowe Down

A trip to any big box hardware store this time of year for holiday related items means trying to resist the temptation to buy things I don’t really need. The timer for outdoor lights was needed, another amaryllis box kit…not so much. But there I was on an early afternoon November 28, and there they were. This is the weekend sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The 2 for $3.00 poinsettias couldn’t be resisted. As it turns out neither was one Apple Blossom kit at my local Lowe’s. The logic? I kind of need a true ‘Apple Blossom’ to compare to a bulb of ‘Cherry Blossom’ that will bloom next month. Oh, and they are $6.98 each, one dollar less than the two from Home Depot. Into the cart it goes along with a bit of my pride. I know better, right?

The kit is really cheery in its 1950’s-60’s holiday motif. What would the holidays be without Ye Olde Amaryllis Box Kit? Scanning the display, I noted one box labeled ‘Red Lion’ opened up, and a red amaryllis already in colorful bud. The higher end kits, same deal…several featured stretching and craning amaryllis necks poking out of their painted metal cachepots. Still, the ‘Apple Blossom’ kits didn’t seem too “bulgy” like the recently purchased ‘Minerva’ (see the “Side by Side” post) from Home Depot. In thinking about those similar, yet differently styled kits, it seemed clear they were from the same company.

Checking the back of each box yields the same instructions and fine print, just in different formats. I’d give the edge to the Lowe’s kit for a lighter, more festive look. The last bit of instruction is perhaps the most important: “Plant as soon as possible after purchase.” This relates to another statement: “Grown in Peru…” which can mean overly anxious contents. Let’s take a look inside!

It doesn’t get much sadder than this. The poor thing. Trapped in a box, hearing the refrain “go towards the light” over and over. The only situation which could be worse would be to find an entirely dead, shriveled bulb inside. Is there anything salvageable here? That bit about getting the bulb planted as soon as possible might have applied had this kit been purchased in October to early November, but at some point these kits should have been put on a major clearance sale to move them out. With bulbs this “ready and rarin'” the Christmas holiday designs on the carton are misleading. Maybe these need a “sell by date” if properly conditioned bulbs are not available. We’ve seen Peruvian bulbs do better than this before, and certainly Hadeco of South Africa has made an art of delivering bulbs to the Northern Hemisphere that will sprout quickly, but not precociously.

The kit contents are familiar. The bulb had a very loose tunic, and some was removed for measuring. Being generous, we could say this is a 23cm bulb (no great shakes, but not unexpected). The bad news comes in threes. The large offset shouldn’t be included in the circumference measurement, so the mother bulb is actually only 22cm and on top of that, it is rather spongy. Lastly, it has no functional roots whatsoever. We shouldn’t get our hopes up too much, but let’s get it potted up in any case.

The coir media was ample enough here to firmly press it in around the soft bulb. The petals have the palest of pink blush on them, so perhaps this is at least a correctly labeled kit. The problem here is that we have already have flowers opening. They typically only last several days each, and it has a lot of straightening out to do in the meantime.

It’s trying its best. The early opening flower remained mostly white, but the second is quite rosy. Neither is properly formed, and pollen shed is excessive on the first, a sign of poor health. There are two buds remaining, so the typical bud count of four is noted. For now, this one needs to be placed on a high shelf or perhaps hung in one of those macramé hangers that seems to have made a comeback as we are in a houseplant craze reminiscent of the 1970’s!

While the display here seemed to be amiss mainly due to the orientation of the flowers, the ultimate fate of this poor bloom scape was more of an outright fail. As the first pair of flowers opened (dumping a lot of pollen prematurely) it was also apparent that the scape itself was shriveling. As a result the second pair of buds were starved of energy and literally wilted before opening.

Is this it for our Lowe’s kit? The size of the bulb, and no obvious signs of a second scape don’t bode well. Certainly, there will be no Christmas flowers coming from this one. This may be it. We will post a follow up to see if this undersized bulb manages a later scape while it hopefully roots in. In this case, we can see that buying an inexpensive kit several weeks after arrival at the retail outlet (with a bulb produced in the Southern Hemisphere), is a bust.

This wasn’t much of a show, but the variety was true to name…we got ‘Apple Blossom’, just not a great example of it. What does the future hold?

While even $7 was too high a price for such a paltry show, the bulb’s ability to persevere, and indeed start to thrive, gives hope to the willing grower that ‘Apple Blossom’ in all its glory could be had with some time and care. It wouldn’t hurt for Emaryllis to update the current photo in the library…so just maybe this little bulb will pull its weight for us in the future!