We Are United

 Last mid-November, the International Market (our local grocery) decided for the first time in my 17-year memory of things here (not entirely reliable, I'm afraid) to sell us winter bulb kits.  (Remember that we cannot bring bulbs in either direction cross the border so we get them only by mail, normally, which is often more trouble than it's worth.)  The grocer laid out a table over in the near-produce section with cardboard boxes of various sizes from which we could choose a future treasure of amaryllis, daffodil, hyacinth, and maybe some other flowers.  As I recall, you could go all out for a $14 flower investment down to about a $4 flower investment.

Now, about 7 weeks later, the boxes are all gone: the lingering lot was on half-price sale last week.  But most of those boxes went home with someone earlier and have been working away on their assigned task.  You opened your box and you got a plastic pot (which really didn't seem big enough for a flower that was going to be very tall) and a packet of high-quality manufactured soil and a big bulb (or more, depending upon the level of your investment).  You put them all together, watered the pot and waited for the magic.

A few days ago, a friend came by and seeing my amaryllis on the coffee table commented that hers, by contrast was only about six inches tall.  Mine is about 25 inches tall.

Now the difference between those results may come from the fact that she left hers alone to fend for itself for a couple of weeks while she was off on vacation; or it may come from the fact that my amaryllis, contrary to package description, neglected to provide any leaves for its flower.  We just have this tall, naked, pale green stalk with the bud on top.  Maybe all its possibilities went into flower, while her bulb was dutifully providing leaves as well.

But, the bud is surging leafless ahead.  The top picture is two days earlier than the bottom one, and today it is even more open.  A few more days, I'd guess, and we'll have a genuine amaryllis flower in our living room.  And, despite the lagging results of my friend, I like to think that all over the Point, there are many other coffee tables with similarly uninspired pots producing prodigious blooms.  There we are, altogether, thanks to the International Market: The Point Roberts Amaryllis Choral Society.