Amaryllis V. Paperwhites: Fun Facts

All about amaryllis:

• Amaryllis was named after a Greek tale! Amaryllis was a beautiful maiden who fell in love with Alteo, a shepherd. Alteo claimed he would only love a maiden who could bring him a flower he had never seen before. Amaryllis sought guidance from the Oracle of Delphi, who told her to sacrifice her blood for Alteo. For 30 nights, Amaryllis stood outside Alteo’s door, piercing her heart with a golden arrow each night. On the 30th night, Alteo opened the door and saw a crimson flower that had blossomed from Amaryllis’ heart. The beautiful flowers are also known to represent pride, strength and determination.

• The make great cut flowers! Feel free to cut the blooms at various stages to incorporate into vase arrangements along with some fresh winter greens and you can create a beautiful arrangement!

• The larger the bulb, the bigger the blooms!

• All parts of the amaryllis are poisonous (okay maybe this one isn’t a fun fact)

• Christmas is actually not the normal blooming time. The bulbs dormancy has been manipulated to bloom during the holiday season so those can enjoy large flowers and bursts of color indoors (especially during the cold, grey, Rochester winter).

• They make great gifts! With very low maintenance, it’s a rewarding bloom that anyone can accomplish! Kits are available as well which includes your bulb, pot, and soil!

• Lots of shapes and colors to choose from! Classic holiday colors such as reds and whites to more unique pallets of greens, pinks, and bi-colored can make your decision on choosing hard. They also can be single, or double bloomed (personally my favorite are the doubles!)

• Bulbs can last for 20+ years if cared for properly!

• Wax amaryllis DON’T need water! Their massive bulbs store water and enough nutrients to sustain their growing period for the season- how cool is that?!

• The Netherlands is the largest producer of amaryllis bulbs

Perfect paperwhites:

• Some references say this plant was named after Narcissus of Greek mythology. Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was handsome and rejected the love of the nymph Echo, who was cursed to only repeat what others said. The goddess of revenge, Nemesis, cursed Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Narcissus became obsessed with his reflection and drowned trying to reach it and was reincarnated as a daffodil bulb as punishment for his vanity. The flowers are commonly found growing near pools of water in Greece, and because they naturally face down, it looks like they are staring at their own reflections.

• Israel is the largest producer of paperwhite bulbs

• They’re known to symbolizes vanity, youth, and self-admiration. However, it has also come to represent innocence and faithfulness

• Can be well grown in water (place in a glass container with pebbles and submerge ONLY the roots. Switch out water every few days and they will still bloom!)

• They’re members of the daffodil family ‘narcissus tazetta’

• Blooms last 2-3 weeks after opening

• Paperwhites are poisonous (another not-so-fun fact)

• Paperwhites were one of the earliest traded types of narcissus, arriving in China about 1000 years ago, where they were to become popular due to the fact that they could be brought into bloom to coincide with the Chinese New Year at the end of January/early February.