Hey there lizalily, welcome to the Amaryllis forum. I'd love to hear more about your business! Sounds fascinating.

I have to have both hips replaced. They are starting with my right hip next week.

This forum is great. Terriffic people who share a lot of knowledge, trial and error, laughs and an insatiable need to have more amaryllis. Glad to have you joining us!

Welcome, Lizalily, to our little piece of Bulb Heaven! C'mon in and pull up a keyboard! You'll find that we're rather casual here... everyone is very nice, and more than willing to share what they've learned, so if you have questions, ask away! I've only been here for a few months, and already, I've learned so much! I even have my very first seed pods ripening right now! I'm so excited!

I'd love to see photos of your bulbs, and hear about your cut-flower enterprise! It sounds fabulous! I would also love hearing about life on an island! That has to be highly interesting!

It sounds like you've definitely been bitten by the Hippeastrum bug! Most of us here are incurable addicts! I'd say run back to the store and grab that Elvas! Doubles didn't really grab me at first, but now that my Aphrodite has bloomed, I plan on adding several doubles to my burgeoning collection! So far, I have Ahprodite, Nymph and Red Nymph... the two latter are beginning to grow scapes right now!

Once again, welcome! And Happy Gardening!

HEE HEE! One thing about me is that I love to talk here! ANd with the gimpy knees right now I am on the keyboard a lot!

About my flower business...I started it with my best friend about 7 years ago. We had both moved to new houses, our kids were mostly out of the nest, including the special needs children we had adopted, and we were ready to do something for ourselves. I had long had a dream of doing this but my buddy, Delinda, is the one that helped me make the step from dream to reality.

We grow all kinds of flowers and foliages organically..after dealin with kids damaged by chemicals before birth, there was no way we wanted to damaging anyone else with chemical sensitivities! We just happen to live in an area where we have something in bloom nearly year round, and we both have sections of forest too. My property is 4.3 acres and hers is about 1 acre. Mine is half forested...lots of huckleberry, salal, fern, cedar and fir, wild cherry and maple. I use it all in my arrangements. Then I have about 160 dahlias, an English rose garden, an outdoor florist rose garden I Am just putting in, based on the kordes Freelander roses from Palatine Roses, and rows of annuals and perenials. And every winter blooming shrub I can find for our mild winters here near sea level. (Camellias, Viburnums, mahonias, etc)

We sell at two local corner stands, and to subscrition customers, where we deliver flowers weekly. We also do weddings and parties.

For years we have tried to train our customers that flowers do not stop at frost here! Then we discovered amaryllis as cut flowers...Fantastic! Hardly anyone recognizes them as Amaryllis when we mix them with evergreens, and maybe a few paperwhites and a nice mossy twig or two...they think they are some kind of exotic flower from the tropics!

I was away this year when it was time to start mine so they got a bit of a late start, and just last week I realized that I needed to turn on the heater in the greenhouse, so now they are starting to grow and should come in about the time my friend's finish. I will probably still be using them when the first daffodils are ready. Now white amaryllis and daffodils make a splendid bouquet!

I think Elvas is going to have to wait another day or two, as I only drive the 6 miles to town about twice a week, and with my knees giving me fits, I think the next trip is tomorrow when I go out for a massage. Just hope the philadendron keeps sheilding Elvas for me until then!

Delinda loves the doubles of any flower and I like the symplicity of the singles but every so often I really like something she has grown, and Elvas is one of those!

I really want to try breeding some if I have ones that I have no customers for! Every so often I save out some for myself. But selling the flowers means that we get to enjoy them for a bit then sell them and use the money for more bulb :-).that is the whole premise of our business, LOL. Garden is about too full to add anything else there. But still room for pots rotating through the greenhouse!

Wow! It sounds like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! And if you can't have fun in your work, what's the point?!

I don't do it professionally, but I dabble in flower arranging... I did all the bouquets, and everything else I could for my wedding... I used silk flowers, but they were still nice... white and burgundy roses, English ivy, baby's breath and a few other types tucked in.

My primary hobby used to be jewelry design and beading, but my eyes are getting old, and bulbs are a little larger and easier to see than Delica beads!

You will definitely have to post some garden photos... your acreage sounds just lovely!! And greenhouse photos... we love to see others' greenhouses! And don't worry about rambling on... I do it all the time! Ask anyone! I have Lupus, and there are days that I can't do much else but sit quietly and surf... and try to type! I tend to type long posts, many of them way off-subject... but no one seems to mind terribly, and in fact, it's a nice way to learn a bit about each other!

I'm looking forward to seeing some of your flower pictures... please do post some!

liz, that's exciting. I would love to see photos of your acreage and your shop. It sounds like a dream come true. I would love to find a home business dealing with plants and flowers. I grow EVERYTHING! Living in SW Florida, we can grow all year. I am blessed with that, but then I am unable to get around very well without falling over easy! lol Right now I am concentrating on my amaryllis and heirloom tomatoes. I have given up on my pumpkins and gourds. They got mildew and all male flowers, no females, and too bad, I have run out of outside gardening time. I also collect orchids, plumerias and passionvines and fruiting things, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, carambola, key limes, bananas, variegated pink lemons and pomegranates! Sounds like I have a back 40 but I have just a 3/4 acre lot, very compact, though. I plant everything and just see how it goes. I am also into hoyas, african violets and bromeliads, and I haven't met an herb I didn't like! Kind of an ecclectic gardener. I can appreciate your knees. My hips are the culprit, but it kills my knees, constant pain, cause I walk so wobbly. Best wishes to you should you decide on surgery. I have one of the best surgeons in Florida doing my makeover.

You will make a nice addition to the forum. Tell us more, I am already enjoying your input!

lizalily,

We find that it is better to grab the bulbs while they are there. A mysterious lady, for instance bought up all the bulbs from Jodi and placed it on ebay. She is still selling them. :o) I wish you good luck with your Elvas.

Elvas is safely home and resting on the kitchen counter while I rest with my email, then off we will go to pot him up!

I set to work on my photos last night and on getting them on photo bucket so I can post them here. Maybe something to work on while I am recuperating.

My PT this morning told me all about knee surgery...she is the one who referred me to this Dr as she says his patients all do the best of any she takes care of. He does the quad sparing surgery and the minimal incisions...we are going to try to get me sent to rehab afterwards until I Can walk on my own. I am only 61 but inherited the bad knees from my dad, so have have been having trouble with them for about 15 years now, Just learned to ignore the pain and keep on trucking to do what I wanted to. I just know I will do far better now with the new ones. I was waiting until they would last longer then 10 years and I hear they are up to about 25 yrs now. I figure a couple of sets of those should see me through, LOL.

Gee, maybe I will need a whole new set of Bulbs to keep me entertained through the healing process! I hope to hear from the Dr tomorrow or Friday, which are his paperwork days.

Lets see how many AMaryllis I remember that I have growing from this years orders....

Black Pearl, Angelique, Lilac Wonder, Furore, Honeymoon, Rembrant Von Rijn, Exotica, Apricot Beauty, Royal Velvet, Pink Surprise and a fairly healthy looking La Paz and Papillio from last year.

Just got an answer from Amerillis Bulb Company that they had never received an order from me, so have redone my order to include:

Pasadena $11.00 $30.00
(- $3.00)
DR Double Record $11.00 $20.00
(- $2.00)
BOS Orange Sovereign $9.50 $25.50
(- $3.00)
CYRM Cybister Ruby Meyer $14.00 $12.00
(- $2.00)
GIR Girafe $13.00 $26.00
LL Lemon-Lime $14.00 $36.00
(- $6.00)

THat would be 3 each of all the first orders, but fewer as noted here. So guess these will be the ones to cheer my recovery!

I also have some from last year that have lost their names but need the bulb to go into rehab along with me, LOL.

As to my greenhouse, During the winter I use my garage workroom, and about March I use a cheap collapsable plastic "flowerhouse". That is where I set out my started garden seeds in about March to harden off. This is my second one of those and a great improvement over the first one, where the screening all rotted out, as did the stitching on the zipper.

Liza, you sound like me, I am 56 and have been living with back, hip and leg pain for 30 years. Enough is enough, already!! Knees require much more post surgery phys therapy than hips. With hips, the best therapy is to just walk and get accustomerd to the new bionic parts. I am looking forward to playing golf again, going fishing. We had to stop fishing because Dennis would have to lift me in and out of the boat, and I was little help to him trying to launch it. I also want to take a cruise to Alaska. I have all these dreams coming true once I get my first new hip. Good luck to the both of us! Can't wait to see your photos!

Cindeea,

When you go to ALaska, plan a stop by SEATTLE! I did the ALASKA State Ferry trip , and it was wonderful. Our oldest daughter graduated from from a college in Anchorage. I would love to go on a cruise ship next and at a different time of year (We were there in early MAy, before the wild flowers bloomed.)

Thanks Liz, having never been to Oregon northern Cal or Washington State, perhaps we can make this an extended trip. Would love to see Seattle! Do you believe I dream of Alaska and being on a cruise ship going there. I want to take Dennis one day. And believe me, I WILL! When a teenager, my best friend's father was a building contractor, constructing affordable housing in Alaska. Every summer the kids went up to work. I absorbed all their home movies when they returned. I have longed to visit for many, many years.

Lizalily, I might go to shoot to Spokane soon. It is not written in stone yet, but that is the current plan.
But as I see, the two cities are quite far away from each other.

Yes, we figure 5 or 6 hours driving, from Seattle to Spokane. My youngest daughter, Krissie, graduated from WSU's school of design in Spokane in May of 2006, so I made several trips there...much easier to go to Portland where she is now...no mountain passes and only a 3 hour commute.

WHen are you going to spokane? Dress warm if it is before summer!

I have no idea yet. I will go when production starts. But I don't expect it to start in December. Maybe January the earliest, but I hope for later.