The Chicago Botanic Garden's Gift Shop

I stopped by at the gift shop to see if they have something I might be interested in. Nothing really is exciting in there, just the usual souvenir stuffs, some African Violets and other houseplants, books and some gardening accessories and supplies. I left the shop empty handed. Here are some pics that I took while I was browsing.

Amaryllis Gervase

Imagine my surprise when Amaryllis Gervase in 3 large pots greeted me when I opened the door of the Regenstein Center. I asked the guy at the desk if I could take some pics and he told me "Of course you can!", I was ecstatic! I took ten thousand shots and I still could not contain myself!

Chicago Botanic Garden

Last Sunday I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden for a lecture. The Wisconsin Illinois Lily Soceity is sponsoring a lecture every month from January to April. The January lecture's title is "How To Grow Lilies From Seeds" demonstrated by Jim Ault, fellow WILS member and the Director of Ornamental Plant Research at CBG. February's lecture is "Old Masters and New Gardens-The Enduring Principles of Design" presented by Ms. Donna Diamond, Senior Staffer at Lurvey's Garden Center in Des Plaines. The lecture in March is "Put Glam in Your Garden With Lilies" presented by Mr. Woody Imberman, WILS President. And Lastly, "What Is An English Garden?" in April presented by Ms. Carolyn Ulrich, Editor In Chief of Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. The lectures are held at the Regenstein Center in Fairchild Room.

There is also a Bulb Sale on March 14 at 1:00 PM before the lecture starts. According to Mr. Imberman, we have some Asiatics and Martagon Hansonii at inexpensive prices.

Clivia Miniata

I moved my clivias to permanent locations in the house. Since I bought them in late November last year, they have been sitting in the basement.

I found these plants at Craigslist and bought them from a guy who inherited the plant from his mother 10 years ago. He has taken good care of it and he was selling 7 offsets. I purchased 2 of them and one is large enough to bloom in the spring. For $15 a piece,they are a real bargain.

He called these plants Kaffir Lilies but their botanical name is Clivia Miniata. They produce orange flowers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clivia Miniata

Edensblooms

I emailed Aaron(Edensblooms) and he replied right away. He is sorry to hear about the outcome of my bulbs. He offered me a couple of choices whether I want refund or replacement. I opted for refund and planned of ordering a couple of his cybister amaryllis.

This is the kind of company that I want to deal with. In my experiences dealing with different online plant vendors, Edensblooms is the third company on my list who has great Customer Service. American Meadows and Blue Stone Perrenials are the other two. Maybe I should join Dave's Garden and start reviewing these companies.

You can visit Edensblooms here.


UPDATE:
My order from Edens Blooms arrived Saturday, February 6th. It took 17 days since I placed the order until I got the package. I ordered Cybister Lima and Rosario as replacement from the Specie Hippeastrum I ordered late last year that did not grow for me.


Both of them sprouted already,the packaging was lousy and add the transit, they got bent and bruised,luckily they were not broken off from the bulb.


On the left is Rosario and Lima on the right. Rosario's basal plate is so thick, it needs rejuvinating.


Here are the bulbs with the box where Aaron packed them in

Unhappy Amaryllis Papilio

My Papilios are unhappy in the basement. It is about 60 degrees F down there and upstairs is about 75 degrees F. The leaves had brown spots and a couple leaves had brown tips.

So this morning I brought them upstairs where they can get plenty of sunshine from the south facing window and so that I can water and feed them on a regular basis. I have been feeding them Miracle Gro bloom booster. I hope this will help them up.




I purchased them almost 3 months ago from EdensBlooms. They weren't the size Aaron(owner of EdensBlooms) listed. The smallest one is about 14 cm in circumference which made me kind of upset because I paid full price and I got that small bulb. Aaron gave me a $5 credit. Along with the Papilio order are 3 Stylosum and 3 Roseum bulbs which were too dried out that I have to peel several dried layers before I can see the greenish bulb. So for the record, all of the Stylosum did not make it, they just continued to dry out and shrank to death and only one Roseum made it with one leaf. I will email Aaron about this and see how he will handle the situation.






I brought Roseum upstairs. I hope the warmer temperature will help.

I Hope I Scored At Ebay....

I bought some cheap amaryllis bulbs on Ebay and got them yesterday. The lot is consist of 4 bulbs. The seller don't know the bulbs' ID, but the picture on his auction looked like H. Johnsonii. I sent him several emails questioning him about the bulbs he is selling. He said they came from his garden, that he had them for years and this is his first year selling plants on Ebay. He did not pack the box right and the leaves are all broken. Here they are planted in a former Poinsettia pot. Wish me luck that these are the real thing!

Update On My Amaryllis

I just want to provide some update in my previous post(December 28 post) about my group of amaryllis that did not make it to bloom last Christmas. I potted them up a week late otherwise I had a grand bouquet of red amaryllis during the holiday season.


This is how they looked like when I bought them:

From Home Depot


From Ace Hardware



Apple Blossom turned out to be Minerva.....
I am glad she is mislabeled, I already got 2 mislabeled Apple Blossoms from De Groot...


She's a beauty, don't you agree?



Red Lion, true to its name....kudos to Netherland Bulb Company. Ace Hardware had 2 box kit suppliers: De Groot and Netherland Bulb Company. The De Groot box kits are all mislabels! I swear this will be it for me buying box kits, no more next year!




These nice pair of red beauties opened up on New Year's Day.


They got the bouquet look I am after for.
For more pics, please visit my photobucket albums.