Big, bright and Brazilian: Add a splash of Latin light to your home as darkness descends
If you fancy adding a bit of drama to your home during the winter, then why not grow a hippeastrum, or amaryllis as they are more commonly known?
These flowers from Brazil are tall and stately and the trumpet-shaped flowers are among the largest produced by any bulb.
The bulbs are pretty big too and the first step is to choose the biggest bulbs you can find, as these will produce more and stronger flowers.
Plant each bulb in a pot that’s just slightly larger than the bulb, selecting one with a wide base so that it won’t tip over under the weight of the tall stems. The top third of the bulb should be fully exposed.
Place the pot in a bright, cool room and water it very sparingly. You may have to wait a month or more before a shoot appears but once it does, turn the plant regularly to keen the stem growing straight.
As it grows, keep the compost moist but only just and after flowering remove the flower stalks and cut the leaves back to 2.5cm from the bulb.
If you then put the pot somewhere sunny to allow long, strappy leaves to emerge, then you can keep the bulb going for the following year.
Place it outside during the summer months, but protect it from heavy rainfall as excess moisture will cause the bulb to rot.
Feed it once a month and then, in late August, place the pot in a dark, cool place, such as a garage for two or three months.
Once the foliage has died down then repot the bulb and move it back indoors, watering it lightly in order to bring it into active growth.
Bulbs can be kept going indefinitely this way and if you add to your collection every year then you will eventually have a range of flowers in different sizes and colours to cheer up your home at the darkest time of the year.
There are many different varieties to choose from, including ‘Mandela’, which is a deep, dark red and ‘Rilona’, which is salmon-pink.
Some bulbs produce white or green flowers, but amongst my favourites is ‘Gervase’, which has marbled, pink flowers that are bright enough to lift the gloom even on the most miserable of days.