There is one festive flower Monty says causes a discussion between the couple. Monty says his wife isn’t keen on having the Christmas amaryllis – a popular gift for green-fingered friends and family – in their house after the winter.
Speaking on the Gardners’ World podcast, Monty said: “I like amaryllis and I have to say, this is one of the great debates in the Don household. Sarah sees the red ones as very much a Christmas thing, which is fine if you remember to pot up and push it on and you buy one that is treated and so forth.
“But we both really like the pinky, green or the very pale pinks, and you can get some rather delicate colours, which will flower in March, April or even May. It’s not really a Christmas plant at all, even if you get it as a Christmas present.
“But she objects strongly to having red amaryllis after February, somehow it’s unseasonal. But you see, I feel that I’ve gone through the trouble of growing the damn things, I want to enjoy it. I’ve put in a lot of effort into this, I want it in the house.”
Monty says that many gardeners are given an amaryllis or poinsettia bulb or even one that is flowering at Christmas. Although he says his “own feeling” is that a poinsettia plant isn’t worth attempting to “keep going”.
He however admits his own garden has “pots and pots” of “slightly dodgy” amaryllis that he has kept going. He says gardeners should “cut the flowering stem off” before putting them somewhere sheltered and keeping them watered.
He says the flower then needs to go dormant between August and October before they “die right back” and “push through again”. Although he concedes that many gardeners will “get their timings wrong”.
He said: “It’s fine if you remember to do all of that but the reality is that most of us will overwater or underfeed or get the timing wrong and then they don’t flower but they stay alive and you think, ‘we’ll go next year’.
“Then suddenly your three amaryllis becomes six and then suddenly you realise you’ve got about 14 amaryllis that haven’t really performed over the past five years.”
Comments are closed.