The Amaryllis That Refused to Die and Came Back a Completely Different Colour
Right. I need to talk about the amaryllis. Sit down. Get a brew. Because this one has genuinely had me standing in the living room with my mouth open, which — and Sara will confirm this — is not something that happens very often. I am not an easily surprised man. I have found things in compost heaps. I have pulled engines apart and put them back together and had parts left over. I have grown vegetables of remarkable and occasionally alarming proportions. It takes something fairly special to genuinely stop me in my tracks. The amaryllis stopped me in my tracks. Now. A bit of background, because this saga has been going on for two years and it deserves the full story. Two years ago I got myself an amaryllis bulb. Beautiful things. Enormous trumpets of colour, bold as brass, the sort of flower that doesn't just sit quietly in a pot — it makes an announcement. The plan was simple. I was going to get it going at Christmas, have it in full magnificent bloom over the festive period, a...
