Violet Crown Amaryllis Bulbs — Double Violet Blooms, Wide Gold Margin

If you only plant one amaryllis for a gift, plant this one. Violet is dark enough to look expensive and bright enough to read from across a room, and the gold margin is wide enough to see from the doorway rather than up close. The petals are broad and the flower holds a full, almost geometric shape for a fortnight.

What you get

• One bulb per count ordered, 26/28 cm circumference — large enough to throw two stems.
• Broad, flat petals rather than narrow ruffled ones — the flower keeps a clean silhouette in a vase.
• 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: Morning sun, then bright shade — 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.
• Give it room. The flower head runs to 8 in across and a crowded windowsill turns the stem toward the light.

After the flowers

• Cut for the vase at the bud stage; violet holds its color in water for a week or more.
• Leave two leaves on the bulb when you cut the stem.

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.