It’s the holidays! What better way to bring some holiday cheer into your home than decorating it with some containers filled with amaryllis, paperwhite narcissus, Christmas cactus and other colorful seasonal plants. Plus, these plants make excellent holiday gifts for the budding gardener. Here’s some tips on growing holiday plants.
Amaryllis– This is the queen of the holiday flowers. These big, gaudy, trumpet-shaped flowers form on tall stalks. Some varieties can yield 3 stalks and 6 flowers per stalk on one bulb! You can really dress up amaryllis by planting the bulbs in attractive ceramic pots and covering the soil with moss. Even utilitarian stakes that help keep the flower stalks upright can be made colorful with VELCRO® Brand Garden and ONE-WRAP® Ties.
Match the color of your garden ties and wraps to the flower for added bling and functionality. After the flower show is over grow your amaryllis like a houseplant. Move it outdoors in summer, water and fertilize it well, and bring it back indoors in fall to hopefully flower again.
Christmas Cactus– For the brown thumb in the family, give them a Christmas cactus. These succulents only need water and bright, indirect light to grow. They thrive on neglect. Come fall, they will flower, seemingly overnight, in colors ranging from deep red to white. Mix and match different varieties to have plants that bloom from Thanksgiving until Easter.
Paperwhite Narcissus- Paperwhites are the one daffodil that don’t need a special cold chilling period in winter to bloom. Simply pot them up in potting soil, or even suspended in a glass vase with their roots growing in the water, put the bulbs in a bright window and within a month you’ll have fragrant white flowers. Some love the smell and others not, so be careful who gets this gift.
Have any suggestions of your own to add? Tweet us @velcrobrand.
