A couple of years after we first bought the house, a mystery plant showed up in the back yard by the neighbor’s fence. It opened close to Easter weekend to reveal it was an amaryllis. Since then it has slowly grown in size and flower stalks. We have not lifted it to separate the offset bulbs and plant them separately. But I have gathered a seed pod and embarked on growing new plants from seed.

Amaryllis from seed will take a few years to become a mature plant and bloom, and they may not be the same as the mother plant at all. I’m no stranger to waiting for plants (hello pineapple), so I figured I’d give it a try.

After almost two years I got tired of tending the little grass shoots in their pots. They had really only gotten a bit fatter. We planted them out near where the original plant had self planted in the yard. And, they were immediately eaten down to the ground. Not surprising since the original plant looked like this by the end of the spring:

It has spread a bit since we first noticed it and has several whorls of leaves from which erupt flower stalks each spring. I am hoping that the babies I planted out will somehow fight their way through to flowering someday. Though, I’m not sure how far away that someday may be. Five years? Who knows. Eventually, we might get a mess of this: