Chocolate Mocha Amaryllis Bulbs — Double Bronze-Brown with Gilded Edges

Brown is the hardest color to get right in a flower, and this is the one that gets it right. Deep cocoa at the base, warming to milk chocolate at the tips, with the same thin gold line along every petal edge. Against terracotta, wicker or raw wood it disappears into the room in a way that a red amaryllis never will.

What you get

• One bulb per count ordered, 26/28 cm circumference — large enough to throw two stems.
• Twenty to twenty-four petals per bloom, arranged in a tight rosette rather than a loose cup.
• Two stems, four to six blooms each, opening in sequence so a single bulb flowers for five or six weeks.
• Boxed in kraft card with a planting card, not loose in a mailer.

Planting

• Pot: a 6–7 in pot per bulb, two-thirds soil, one-third bulb above the rim — amaryllis sulk when they are buried.
• Water: soak once at planting, then keep the mix just damp. Wet soil around the bulb is the usual reason a big bulb never opens.
• Light: Bright, filtered light — direct sun fades the brown to bronze — a south or west window, or a grow light for 12 hours a day.
• Root in the dark first: 2–3 weeks in a cool, darkish room gets roots down before the stem runs up.
• Stake it early. A double this heavy leans, and it will not straighten again once the flowers open.
• Group it with the darker doubles. Brown looks muddy next to hot pink, and handsome next to plum or cream.

After the flowers

• Leave the foliage on through summer; brown varieties are slower to rebuild than reds and whites.
• Lift and store dry at 55–60°F from October if your winters are wet.

Bulbs ship dormant and firm, 26/28 cm around, boxed to protect the nose. Orders leave in 5–7 working days; 8–25 working days in transit. Petal color shifts a little with light and temperature — the cooler the room, the deeper the bloom.