Leafy update: soil really makes a difference for formerly water-grown amaryllis
Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 03:05PM 
The purple-tinged tip of Leafy's first bud as a soil-grown amaryllis bulb.People who force amaryllis bulbs indoors in soil are probably shaking their heads here, but I have to report that for the first time, my formerly water-grown amaryllis bulb has sent up leaves before the flower bud. Typically, the single bud shoot emerges and then leaves come after the flowers die and the stem is cut away.
Anyone who followed Leafy's life as an amaryllis bulb grown on top of a vase of water knows that the bulb has bloomed each spring for five straight years, mostly in plain water.
That is, until I worried about its health and tried to feed it by fortifying its water with a tiny bit of fertilizer meant for plants growing in soil. That put the bulb in distress. So, after last year's bloom, I planted Leafy in soil, which it obviously prefers.
Its first leaves as a soil-grown bulb were so healthy, in fact, that they did not die off in October or November as was normally the case. As of late January, the bulb had just two withered leaves. The last three stayed green and healthy until they finally drooped earlier this month.
Leafy's first leaves, inadvertently clipped with the trimming away of spent leaves. While I could easily pull off the brown, spent leaves, I did a sloppy job of cutting down the still-green ones. Figuring that something might be coming up, I didn't cut the last green leaves as low or as cleanly as I would have otherwise.
It appears that I was right. The new leaves were already formed and coming up. So Leafy''s first two leaves this season are marred by scissor cuts, and the rough-cut remnants of the old leaves are still visible at the base of the new leaves to mock me.
At right is a photo of the bulb so far, with its purple-tipped flower head just starting to emerge near the base of the leaves.
Since Leafy's leaves as a soil-grown bulb were much healthier than in the recent past, I'm hoping for better flowers this year as well. I'll update again at bloom time.