Liberating Amaryllis

I decided to transplant my amaryllis plants today.  They were beginning to look a little droopy.  I had suspected for a while that something was going on underneath the soil in the planters.  So, I purchased a large bag of Miracle Grow potting soil and spread out a couple of plastic kitchen garbage bags onto the carpet in front of my greenhouse window.  I would have preferred to take this planting refresh outdoors.  Unfortunately, my house is still surrounded by at least four feet of snow, so, this task had to be done inside.

One by one, I took each plant down and gently nudged each of them out of their planter.  As I suspected, each one of them had a mass of rotting flattened roots.  Comingled amongst the rotting mass were fresh greenish-yellow roots.  It was easy to pull off the rot.  The brown flattened masses fell off with a gentle nudge.  After clearing each of their crowd, I inspected each bulb.  The yellow-green roots shooting out from each bulb seemed pleased to be liberated.  I replanted each, nestling them gently but firmly into the warmth of a fresh bed of potting soil.

I inspected each planter, brushing off any excess dirt before returning each of them to the greenhouse sill.  

Fortunately, I managed to contain most of the mess on the plastic garbage bags I'd laid out on the carpet.  I quickly and efficiently placed the root mess into the Miracle Grow bag and placed it downstairs.  I have every intention of emptying the bag of spent earth into the forest where nature will recycle it.

I finished off my work by doing a thorough vacuuming of the area in front of the greenhouse window.  Then I did a quick pass through the room with the vacuum.

I feel very satisfied by my exercise in root liberation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All I want to do is operate a deep fryer at McDonald's

brain burnt I use too much of my brain power for work this morning I dreamed of french fries I'm applying for a job at McDonald's *     *     * I woke to the sound of the crystals ringtone on my iPad.  It's 5 AM on a Sunday morning.  I like that particular ringtone, crystals.  When I hear it, it doesn't make me think of crystals at all, but it is pleasant. Just before the crystals, I was dreaming of standing in front of the giant deep fryer.  You know, the one you see at the service counter at any McDonald's restaurant.  In that moment, I am watching the fries slowly cooking and turning golden brown in the grease of the deep fryer.  I can smell the french fries and salt. I want to spend my days cooking french fries in a deep fryer at McDonald's. It's 5:35 AM on a Sunday morning and I'm still laying in bed.  It's now 5:40 AM on a Sunday morning as I start into writing my daily Slice. I'm going to apply for a job at McDonald's. All I want to do
Read more

Give 'm a Hand

Special note: Names, locations, and composite descriptions of people have been intentionally changed in this story. In February of 2020, my mother asked me to assist her with moving some boxes out to her storage shed in the backyard of her home in California. On the afternoon of this warm winter's day, I went out to the backyard before the planned move.  As I was breathing in the delicious mountain air, something caught my eye near the foundation at the house's western edge.   It appeared to be an artificial hand.  For a moment, I thought it was a sculpture.  After all, my mother has a habit of collecting odds and ends.  To this day, the living room of her house is filled with clocks and knick-knacks.   I looked closer.  When I did so, something stirred in my memory.  I remembered a mannequin I'd seen in a department store window.  This was a hand from one of those displays.  The tan color of the mannequin hand had faded. It was also evident that it had spent a lot of time
Read more

My first blog post

I started my blogging journey today.  Well, actually, I started it last week when I decided to join my colleagues at the Long Island Writing Project and hosts of Two Writing Teachers (twowritingteachers.org) in a Zoom seminar about blogging.  This feels intimidating. I'm not used to doing this kind of writing. Okay, so, Slice of Life is the theme of the Tuesday challenge that will begin in the month of March.  It is hosted by twowritingteachers.org.  Yes, this is the impetus to get me to write each day.  I have no idea how long my posts should be or what I'm even going to write about, but, I'm going to do it! Slice of life...  today is a beautiful day in the Poconos.  That's where I'm at, sheltering in place since heading out to the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside in March of 2020.  In the past, whenever I would come up here to my house, it was usually just to crash and regenerate from my life in New York and Long Island where I work at Nassau Community College.
Read more