As I’ve talked about in another post, in some ways we kind of just let our yard go wild. One of the perks of this is that you get a fair share of surprises. Well, maybe it’s not necessarily a perk… some of the surprises are good, but some are definitely bad too. Anyways, one of the good surprises recently was this beautiful Amaryllis (Hippeastrum striatum) that just popped up!
Most of our surprises tend to result from rampant critter activity. Be it birds, bugs, squirrels, raccoons, opossums… you name it, they’re constantly doing there thing. While I’d like to believe some critter brought our garden an Amaryllis bulb, I realize that’s unlikely. It’s far more likely that some previous homeowner planted the bulb after it was done with its indoor holiday display. Especially given the fact that it’s placement looks rather intentional.
Just how much sun do Amaryllis like?
I’m rather unfamiliar with amaryllis. Reading up on them, almost everywhere talks about how they can’t get enough sun. But then I noticed that all these websites are geared towards northerners. If I’ve learned anything, its that “full sun” geared towards the Northeast does NOT mean “full sun” here in South Florida. So I had to read up on the amaryllis at the UFL Extension to finally hear someone say that they do best in light shade. This makes sense to me, because the amaryllis only started thriving once I unwittingly shaded it by the croton you see in the picture. In the summer, this corner of the garden gets literally full sun… sun-up to sun-down. In South Florida, that will burn the vast majority of plants alive. But once this dude finally got a little bit of respite, he sprung back to life and is now happily strutting his stuff! Here’s another picture of the beauty:
