Amaryllis

I have no idea what I was thinking trying to brighten up the winter by planting paperwhites in bowls filled with colorful glass marbles and water all these years. Yes, sure, the flowers are nice enough. But that sickly sweet smell they give off is worse than being trapped with a bunch of over-perfumed grannies in a hot elevator.

That’s why this year, even though red is my least-favorite color, I brought home a couple of big-ass amaryllis bulbs and gave them a try. (There are other colors, just not at my local garden center on the day that I thought I must buy some.) Wow! I’m going with these every year from now on. Not only do they have no smell, these long-blooming flowers—four from each bulb—are huge. And I have to say that even midlife-crisis-sports-car red has definitely lifted my spirits during this cold, gray stretch of the season.

I like these bulbs so much, I briefly toyed with the idea of saving them once they finish blooming. But then I read about how to do this online, and though just about every writer claimed that it was “easy” and a “cinch,” it sure didn’t sound that way to me. Perhaps they like to can and make all their own soaps and cheeses?

No, my bulbs will go into the compost bin once they’re spent. I’ll buy more next year, only this time I’ll wait until after the holidays when they’ll be about a third of the price.