It’s been snowing all bloomin’ day.
Everything’s covered with the fluffy white stuff, and it shows no sign of letting up.
If you’re a Southern Ontario gardner, this is not your favourite season — unless you’ve got one of those indoor greenhouse thingamijiggies and have already planted flower seeds.
I don’t have one of those things, so I opt for the least expensive flowers that can be bought at a store and will last a long time.
My pot of Cyclamen, bought last winter, bloomed and bloomed indoors till May, then continued to bloom outdoors through the summer. The secret is to keep the soil moist, but not wet. And at $5.99 at the nearby plant nursery, it was a gift!
As you may recall, my only real expertise in growing indoor plants is in getting Amaryllis bulbs to rebloom.
After their indoor bloom ends (soon, if not already), I water them regularly (adding fertilizer) and let the leaves grow. In spring, I bring them outside in their pots and water them till August. I then allow the leaves to dry, shake off the soil, and keep the bulb in a brown paper bag in the cellar for about four months before potting them again.
A bulb that costs $7.00 may give three different stems of blooms, then will rebloom at least once a year for a long time to come.
And then there’s This Thing Whose Name I Don’t Know. Sold as cut flowers in grocery stores for about $6 or $7 a bunch, this lovely flower has staying power. I cut the stems short and keep adding fresh water everyday, and these flowers bloom for nearly two weeks — a real achievement among cut flowers.
No doubt one of you readers will know what it is. The grocery store clerk didn’t.
My best wishes,
Cynthia.
Cynthia Reyes 
Lovely blooms. Keep warm.
Thanks. You’re still having mild weather there?
Yes bit chiller last couple of days, even bit of snow in East of the country , but daffodils all in full bloom!
Snow – I hope you won’t have to shovel any! You have wonderful ways to bring beauty into your home at bargain prices and coax them along to bloom. I don’t know what the flowers are either but I bought some recently (didn’t ask the name) and they lasted for two weeks or more. Another bargain! Stay warm.
My dear husband does the shovelling, Jo Nell. But he has a snow blower, which is also a boon to me and our neighbours, who mysteriously find their driveways cleared of snow some mornings.
I’ve been told they are called Mexican Lilies.
Aha! Thank you, Felicity.
Great tips. In Virginia, our jonquils are blooming. Spotted the first dandelion yesterday. Small violets have been witnessed. Winter Jasmine has been blooming for a month. The Willow trees are a faint green–but we are supposed to get more rain and maybe some snow so winter is not through with us yet.
Wow. That sounds marvellous right now! The snow is piled up around us, and the slopes down to the stream are white with snow.
Wowsah! I am impressed. Cyclamens are one of my favorite flowers, and I have never had any luck at all getting them to rebloom.
Well, I have no idea what I’m doing right, Laurie. I just water them frequently!
You’ve got the touch! I’ve never been able to keep them after they’ve bloomed. Sigh.
I think your unknown flowers are Peruvian lilies, also known as Alstroemeria.
They’re all very beautiful!
That’s what I think, too.
Yup. Exactly!
Me too! We have a consensus here!
Yes, you are all correct! Good to know that. Thank you all. I’ll stop calling them “The Thing”.
I agree with Allen – Alstromeria. They come in all sorts of pretty colours. I can’t get cyclamen to stay alive for me let alone bloom again! I am always impressed by your Amaryllis!
Allen knows horticulture, that’s for sure, Clare. I find that cyclamen need frequent watering in the pot – they dry out fast. As for Amaryllis: even with all my experience, I still sometimes take them out of the cellar too early, and end up getting only green stalks. 4 months dormancy is what works.
Thank you, Cynthia.
Thanks for sharing some sunshine on an otherwise nasty winter day. The flowers you aren’t sure about look like some kind of lily. My grandmother and mother used to grow them but sadly, I can’t remember the exact name.
Thanks, Teresa, for your kind reply. You’re right, those are Peruvian lilies. Thanks to everyone who knew the name.
Good info on the Amaryllis, Cynthia. Each year, Peggy’s sister sends her one for Christmas. It blooms its beautiful blooms and then goes bye-bye. This may be a solution. 🙂 –Curt
It’s a shame to throw them out, as they do rebloom. The key is a lengthy dormancy period. Though I sometimes forget the bulbs in the cellar and they start budding up and blooming inside the brown paper bag!
How fun to have such beautiful flowers to warm your heart and home during another bout of winter storms. I actually wish we would have some snow here, at least for a brief visit. 🙂
Well, you got a generous dusting, I see!
Yes. 🙂
You make me want to go get some flowers to brighten up my place in this dreary wet winter.
I agree with Allen and Clare on the Alstromeria.
I love cyclamen and had good luck with them. I haven’t tried in a long time though. My main fault is over-watering plants.
We have heavy wet snow here. We finally got winter! The surrounding hills look like a Christmas card.
Interesting, Lavinia, as I’ve found that cyclamen love water. I keep them in the pot they came in, and just water them every other day. I know when it’s time because the pot feels light.
It is amazing you get indoor Amaryllis to rebloom!
Kudos!
Cut Peruvian lilies have long lives. I will be in Peru soon. I will see if I can photograph them growing for you.
I’ll hold you to that promise, Cindy! Looking forward indeed. Have fun there.
Your post makes me want to run right out and buy some flowers! The color and the *life* in them look so appealing right about now . . .
I hear you, sister. Winter has us in its grip here.
It is nice to have blooming plants to brighten up the winter. I have a Peruvian Lily in my garden. It is very invasive and only puts up a few flowers, but the flowers are really pretty.
They really are. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them growing outdoors.
These are probably a throwback to the wild ones and not the nice bred ones.
Nice, and amazing you can get Amaryllis to rebloom. I had Alstromeria (Peruvian Lilies) in my garden for a while, it makes the most wonderful cut flowers…Currently have Amaryllis in the garden as I can’t do that rebloom thing!
But you don’t need to, Amy, because you’re in the tropics! They must be beautiful in the garden.
The Amaryllis has several huge buds and is probably 3 feet tall. Waiting.
Photos please when they bloom.
Get ready.
Cynthia, I love these flowers too and often find they last for a long time … thank you to everyone for letting us know its mysterious name. Beautiful – Alstroemeri. The cyclamen looks so pretty and definitely value for money … and long-term delight for you all. 🌼🌸🌺 Oh, I love the word thingamijiggies but have never seen it written down – makes me smile that you’ve used it here! Hope your garden is soon revealed to you … do I dare mention the warm summer days here the past few days, 64 plus! A bit cooler today but at least my tan has had a head start! 😀
Lovely to see some beautiful flower colour today – we have snowdrops and daffodils out in the garden at the moment promising that spring is near. 🙂
That Amaryllis is so pretty. I have brought potted impatiens indoors before and overwintered them. Here in the south daffodils have been in bloom for a month and now the forsythia and wild pear trees are in bloom. The pretty cultivated ones in town are showing there buds and will probably bloom next week.
This is such an exciting time. Thank you for sharing your indoor flowers with us!
I love cyclamen, but can’t keep them alive. I think my home is too warm. However, I have an African violet that just keeps blooming, twice a year at length, year after year. My only experience with Amaryllis involved planting it outside, thinking it died, and then having it bloom several years in a row until someone stole it. But I live in a warmer clime… Good for you for having color in your house now. I keep eyeing cut flowers (and the Alstromeria do last well), but haven’t bought any yet…
I’m glad you have those sunshiny blooms to give you a little cheer through the snow Cynthia!
I was going to identify the flowers as some kind of lily, but I see that a number of others can define them way better! It’s amazing how cheering flowers can be.
I love the Amaryllis! My dad used to have one for years and years and blooming so beautifully!
My sister uses dried alstromeria when she makes paper. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what it is called either. Thank you for the blooms even though they are indoor. It gives me hope that Spring will indeed come again.
I grinned when I read about your ‘thing you don’t know the name of’ 🙂 I have the same problem with this flower! It sure does last in the vase though …
It does. I also learned that if I cut the stems again, they last even longer. How good to hear from you, dear Julie. I hope all goes well at the farm.
I have just copied your instructions for preserving amaryllis. I have never succeeded in making one flower again and we have a lovely specimen that I bought my husband for Valentine’s day. With your help I might succeed this year.
Good luck. Err on the side of a longer dormant period.
Beautiful photos Cynthia. I’d be willing to say that the mystery flowers are some type of lilies. 🙂
The power of flowers to spread cheer is wonderful, isn’t it, Cynthia? 🙂 🙂 Hope life goes well.
Very pretty! I think your unidentified lilies may be tiger lilies.
Fine work! My cyclamen have just died and I’m not sure why, hoping they are just dormant for a while and will perk up again. They’ve been going all winter though so I can’t complain. I’m impressed by your Amaryllis prowess. The only flower thing I do alright on is getting those green weedy bits off cut carnations, putting them in water until they grow roots and ending up with more carnations! And I can do some veg because I’m a greedy git and I love eating them!
Cheers
MTM
Huh? I have never tried that with carnations! Great idea! Right now, the roses I got for Valentine’s Day are drying up but each stem has a new green shoot and I don’t know what to do. Would love them to root so I can plant them outside in spring. Any ideas?
You can but usually they need to be on decent root stock so they get really disease resistant roots and graft them on but you don’t really need to … I find if you just put them in water and let them grow roots or dip their feet in routing hormone, if you can still get it, and put them in compost and water them they are fine. They will grow without the routing hormone it’s just harder to make it happen sometimes.
Hope that helps.
Thank you!
Such lovely flowers, Cynthia. I recognise the flowers in the last picture but I don’t know there name.
Love the new blog look, Cynthia. The flowers are beautiful. Hope you are well.
Reblogged this on Cynthia Reyes and commented:
British author Hilary Custance Green followed my advice and posted pictures of her success with amaryllis today. She inspired me to reblog this post.
I hate that white fluffy stuff, none here so far, just endless rain. I am impressed about getting amaryllis to rebloom as I’ve never managed it. Alstroemeria are wonderful for a vase and such wonderful colours.
Alstroemeria they are. When available I always kept them in my counselling room.
It was very nice to see your cheerful blooms this morning as a snowy gray day dawns.
Thank you for all these great tips Cynthia. Amaryllis are such a joy. I visited The Keukenhof Gardens in Holland three years ago, and they had such amazing displays of them.