Amaryllis

 Pink Hippeastrum


 May we had the welcome sight of many beautiful Amaryllis flowers. They have been growing now for around 8 years.  Collecting Amaryllis bulbs started the way I suspect most have, with a discounted bulb. There was a pink bulb at the hardware store on discount because it had only one sad flower left.  So it came to it's new home and was ignored.  A snail tried to eat it so I transplanted the bulb into a new pot, put it inner and forgot about it.  When I looked again it had a baby!  The original bulb died but I still have it's baby which is huge and thriving.  The next year I brought home two new bulbs one red and the other white.  When the new bulbs had babies I just left them in the pot connected to their mothers.  In other words I ignored the new bulbs also.  This went on over the years with a flower blooming occasionally.  I had begun to believe these were greenhouse plants and would never be as pretty outside in the yard.


In 2016 the bulbs went crazy blooming!  I had finally stopped ignoring them and they responded.  All three colors bloomed!  But that was when it got strange.  The pink was tall and beautiful,  The red was deep red and miniature.  Then I had two different white flowers! I had purchased a solid white bulb and instead one bloomed white with a tiny red outline.  The other looked like a peppermint candy, it had patches of swirling red against the white.  The white bulb was just white when I bought it!  I had no idea what had happened.  Recently I started looking on youtube.com and found Amaryllis Man.  He explains that the plants are easy to hybridize.  So the peppermint striped and red outlined amaryllis were a combination of the bulbs I had bought!  That has really caught my imagination and the desire to get a larger variety of bulbs.  It seems that they are also easy to grow from seed which will make for interesting experiments!


Later when the flowers had finished I put the bulbs in several larger pots and separated the babies.  The babies really struggled and the snails got fatter! Most of the babies were lost!  That is why I went back to leaving the babies with their moms.  Of course I lost the pictures I took and forgot to tag the plants by color!

 White amaryllis with a red edging.


In 2017 the amaryllis put on a beautiful show in April/May!  The plants had crowded their pots growing like crazy.  The secret to growing amaryllis is don't ignore them! 


The babies from 2016 were large but didn't bloom this year.  The oldest pink amaryllis was alone in a large pot with it's two babies and still they needed to be repotted this year.  I left the mother bulb in the large pot and transplanted the babies in separate pots.  One of the babies had separated from it's mother and formed a nice bulb.  The other baby was still connected to it's mom and looked like a large scallion bloom!  So in a little over two and a half years the plant went from a tiny baby to a blooming bulb with babies of it's own!  The sister bulb is still growing and getting more leaves but no signs of flowers.


In ordered to right the scallion baby up, I had to plant it awkwardly.  The baby had seven large and long leaves and they started dying.  So was it dying because I hurt it or was it going dormant?  Amaryllis can drive you crazy!  So as the weeks went by the baby shed more leaves.  When it only had three leaves left it suddenly did the unexpected, it had babies!  In the matter of three days the leaves of three babies appeared!  That was very confusing.  Then it got even stranger, the bulb suddenly started throwing up leaves like crazy!  Little tips of leaves started popping out of the scallion shaped bulb every day!  Then when I looked again the fifth leaf was actually a bud and now I'm waiting for a Winter bloom.


 

Pink Hippeastrum plants.  They were very tall this year.

Red Hippeastrum this was a miniature, less then half the height of the other amaryllis.

The new babies brought the amaryllis count to 13 babies this year!  So I did what anyone else would have done.  Went shopping for more bulbs!  Three weeks earlier I had bought daffodil bulbs and they already are getting roots!  So of course I had to buy another amaryllis bulb this one is named Minerva and it came from the hardware store.  Minerva is a deep red with a white star like center and was in a kit. 

The kit contained a large bulb with a flowering shoot and leaves just starting to show.  There was also a pot and a disc of dirt.  First you place the disc in the pot and then add 3.5 cups of warm water.  Once the water is absorbed the bulb is placed in the pot and the dirt snugged around it.   Don't leave any pockets of air around the bulb.  Then treat the bulbs like any other amaryllis. 

But I didn't stop there, another four amaryllis bulbs found their way into the shopping basket.  The four bulbs are "garden variety" with  a lovely white flower.  Two of the white bulbs are starting to grow and one has a flower shoot!  The white bulbs will look great with the beautiful purple irises and daffodils in the flower bed.

Many amaryllis growers recommend to remove the brown papery outer skin of the bulb.  I don't usually do this but if I hadn't this bulb would have rotted.  It looked fine until the brown skin was removed.  So be careful when you buy any bulbs.


So what have I learned?


1. Don't ignore plants most like to be cared for.

2. Be careful when watering.  Try not to get water on the leaves.  Amaryllis can develop a red fungus.  Water on leaves can sit between leaves and rot the leaves. 

3. Amaryllis grow great in pots but look out for snails.

4. Keep the out of strong winds, their long leaves can be easily damaged.

5. Leave mothers and babies together.  The mothers won't grow as quickly but the babies will thrive and grow into flowering bulbs faster.

6. Feed them with fertilizer.

A Cute Book

 

Book to organize ATCs

Recently I started swapping on Craftster again.  It has been around three years since my last swap, so I needed to get organized!  Last time that I swapped ATCs I was constantly trying to remember who and what I was swapping.  So instead of using plain white envelopes, which I kept losing, this time I created a book.  The book is very simple to make and I used odds and ends for it.

First I selected six pieces of paper in four different colors and folded them in half creating a page that was 5.5 inches by 8.5.  Next I folded the page again so it was 5.5 by 6.0.  The page now had a 2.5 inch pocket to store ATCs and lists.  To finish the pocket I taped the edges with double sided tape.  So that gave me 24 pages in four colors with pockets.

ATCs book spine. 

Inside of cover.

This book has two interesting features that most don't.  Usually each page, called a signature, are sewn together to create a book.  But for this book each signature is sewn separately.   When finished each of the 24 signatures are slipped onto a long ribbon.  The separate signatures give the book the ability to be adjusted.  So you can put bulky items in the pockets.  The second unique feature of this book is that the signatures can be added or removed.  This makes for a evolving book. 

How to sew the signatures.

To make a sewing template use a piece of card stock the   length of the books spine and 1 inch deep.  For this project the template was 6 inches by 1 inch. Next fold the template in half so it is 6 inches by 1/2 inch.

When I make a sewing template I start by marking at 1/2 inch from each edge and then 1 inch in from the edge.  Next comes the ribbon marks.  I lay the ribbon next to the 1 inch mark and place a new mark beside the edge of the ribbon.  This mark is important because it needs to be loose enough so that the ribbon moves smoothly but tight enough that the spine isn't wonky.  Then I do the same marking on the other side of the template.  Now if you want to use a third ribbon, you can add those marks also.  After marking the template you will poke holes at each mark using an awl or needle.  Be very careful when punching the template, use something thick under template so you don't hurt yourself.  

To punch the signatures line up the template with the signature spine.  When punching the signature make only tiny holes to start. 

Choosing a thread and needle is easy.  Use a non stretchy thread and a needle that has a big enough eye for your thread.  Using a sharp needle helps open the small holes just be careful and use something thick under the signature when sewing.  Use the template to make holes in each signature.
  

Now it is time to sew!
 
The sewing is really easy.  The trickiest bit is to pierce in the fold of the signature.  If you made the holes small you can adjust the hole size with your needle.  Here are some helpful pictures.

  .

To start sew from the outside of the signature to the inside leaving a long thread.

 

Pierce the paper about 1/4 inch from the first hole bringing the needle back to the outside.  Then tie a knot with the two threads.

 

After finishing the knot, sew the needle back through the first hole.  The needle will be inside the signature again.  Leave the string end for decoration. 

 

Sew from the inside through the 1 inch hole (second pierced hole) to the outside.  This brings the sewing to the ribbon space.  Lay the ribbon beside the needle thread and make sure the ribbon fits between the second and third holes.

 

If everything fits sew to the inside using the third hole.

Now you have created a loop on the outside of the signature. This is where the ribbon will be threaded to hold the book together. Sew from the inside to the outside the signature using the fourth hole and then back inside through the fifth hole.  The second ribbon loop is made.

 

 

Sew through hole number six from inside to the outside of the page.  Make a hole about 1/4 inch from the end of the page.  Sew the needle through this new hole to the inside and back through hole number six again.  Tie a knot to end the sewing for the signature.  Cut the thread length to match the first knotted thread.

 

Now to put the book together.  The ribbons are pulled through two outside loops that were created when sewing the signatures.  If you are having difficulty running the ribbons try cutting the ribbon at an angle or even gluing the ribbon end.  Once dried the glued ribbon end is a lot stiffer and easier to thread under the loops.
 

 

When you have the pages threaded on the ribbon the next step is to create the front and back covers.

The covers are simple.  Take two 8.5 x 11 pieces of card stock.  Fold each in half creating a cover that is 5.5 x 11.  Using the sewing template for the signatures make holes inside the fold of the covers.  Then sew the covers exactly like the signatures and slip them onto the ribbons on each side.  At this point I would just glue the cover to itself making a thicker cover.  But for this project I left the covers unglued and made some pockets with some scrapbooking paper.  

The rest of the book is decoration.  The butterflies were cut from cardstock that was printed with clip art.  Then I glued the butterflies onto the cover and curled their wings to give it some dimension.  Then I sewed a homemade button to the cover.  I made a loop for button and then glued it inside the back cover.  Hopefully this will help me organize myself and inspired someone to make their own book.

 

This has been the first post in a while.  Please let me know if anything I've written isn't  clear.  I hope you try this book it really is easy.