The photo shows our now annual post-Christmas flower-fest.
Each year ( as the non-surprise part of Christmas) Sheila is given an amarylis bulb which starts life as a big brown lump sticking out of a pot packed with compost. Once it starts to sprout it does the botanical equivalent of Formula 1 speeds, produces impressive buds and blooms in a spectacular display of in your face colour that demands attention from the other side of the room.
Native to South America, produced now commerically in Holland, they are in our shops from early December.
The sight of such a larger than life exotic scarlet flower in our living room in the West of Scotland, early February (when do the clocks change?), is a visual tonic.
Some people try to time them so they open (which they can do almost overnight) during the Easter week-end - you can see why.
Amarylis Haiku
Cruciform scarlet!
Easter annunciation!
Trumpet concerto!
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