Last year’s exhausting box kit situation from my local grocer has yet to be completed. It was a roller coaster ride, and we still have to report on a few that never bloomed at all. Most were purchased after the holidays at rock bottom prices. This season, E decided to go back to basics and purchase a few kits in a more timely, pre-holiday fashion. The presumption is that these kits are gussied up in holiday imagery, and marketed as gifts. Wise readers understand that waiting to gift these until Christmas day is a dicey proposition. Actually, it’s a bad idea. Many will have literally withered in the box. Few will perform really well; but let’s give them a sporting chance this time around!
Here we go. A big box store head-to-head in a way. We have already posted the results of buying two dry bulbs sold as ‘Pinkolo’ at Home Depot. Both were ‘Minerva’. Other than dry bulbs, they had the usual box kits, plus the more deluxe kits that include a metal cachepot. They are a little pricey, but sightings in November 2024 presented an opportunity.
While Lowe’s is a little further from Emaryllis headquarters, the occasion to go late season bargain hunting with a friend proved a chance to check out their bulb kits, which were indeed already in stock 10 November, 2024. When opening boxes is difficult or impossible, E uses the same methodology when picking out the most hopeful kits. Holding one on each upturned palm, the kits are weighed. Differences in weight are slight, but often discernible. Three kits of the heaviest of each sort are put in the cart. They are not on sale, and we pay the $8.98 list price for each. Considering soaring costs more generally, this seems fair.
Our three basic boxes. If four varieties are offered, one is usually ‘Minerva’, and in some cases a solid pink variety is found. But these are the “must haves” of holiday amaryllises. The white cultivar varies, and no single white cultivar has real name recognition. If these are ‘Christmas Gift’, we can hope for some big flowers of pure white.
Let’s dig in! We’ll start with the beloved ‘Apple Blossom’. This longtime favorite has great floral substance, but to see what it can really do, a large bulb is best. These cheap kits don’t usually provide such bulbs.
The cheery holiday theme and soft image of ‘Apple Blossom’ are all we need to start dreaming of pastel beauty in the near future.
The box is well packaged! Some corrugated cardboard offers some cushioning, and the bulb is wrapped in a protective paper bag. This can help maintain just little bit of extra humidity against the very dry air of the heated store.
Nice! Our weighing of the boxes worked. We score a very nice 30.5 cm circumference bulb. These kits often contain bulbs under 26 cm. While they may sometimes produce surprisingly decent results, this is not so often with ‘Apple Blossom’. Perhaps this bulb will show us why this variety has been beloved by generations.
Another pleasant surprise! We can use the pot that came with the kit because it has drainage holes. But first, we’ve got to expand the coconut coir disc from Sri Lanka in warm water. Curiously, these coir discs are sold in pet stores to be expanded as bedding for pets such as hermit crabs. They run around $4-5 each there. Considering a dry bulb of this size may cost $12-20, these kits offer a lot for the money!
The media provided is just right for the bulb and pot sizes. The pot is a 5.5” (14 cm) azalea type. It is fairly thin, but well made. On 11 November 2024 we are off to the races!
12 December and we have our first kit in bloom! This is definitely ‘Apple Blossom’, and we are getting a total of 5 flowers on this scape. Nice! There is no sign of another scape emerging, so our final grade can’t be issued yet. So, let’s take a look at our next kit…
Popular and large-flowered ‘Christmas Gift’ is next up. Like ‘Apple Blossom’, it is quite a sight when healthy. But, E has doubts about the white amaryllis that we will see. Why?
All of this group of kits contain bulbs produces in Peru. These days that almost certainly means they are grown by Agro Floral Perú. While many of their newest hybrids are not currently seen on their website, the older non-patented ones are. In this case ‘Denver’ seems a good guess. Their own big white variety ‘White Candle’ is another good bet. ‘Siberia’ would be obvious, as it has a very flat, open center and smooth ovate tepals. Time will tell, but differentiating the pure white hybrids is harder with each similar looking release.As with our ‘Apple Blossom’ kit, we have a healthy bulb in a protective paper bag. The roots are chopped short, but that’s OK. They are fleshy and alive, and capable of making new roots from those stubs! In this case, our bulb measures 29 cm circumference, a larger size than these economy kits are often provided.
Again, the right amount of coir media is included in these kits. The lack of growth is not what E expected from bulbs grown in the Southern Hemisphere, and that is a most welcome sight. No damage, just lots of promise.
16 December 2024. Impressive! A bit more than one month after potting on 11 November, we have a glorious sight. Four large (7”/18 cm), well-formed flowers on 17”/43 cm. high scape. Is it ‘Christmas Gift’? That’s doubtful. It seems spot on for ‘Denver’. The flower size exactly measures the registration notes. ‘Christmas Gift’ is registered at 20 cm, and our experience shows that it is indeed consistently larger. This is a fine substitution in E’s eyes. ‘Denver’ has some nice marginal frill, and at least four flowers per scape in a very well balanced presentation. Very few wouldn’t see it as a match for the packaging image. We are happy 🙂
Our third kit is the venerable ‘Red Lion’, still the single most popular amaryllis. Let’s see if it measures up to the other two kits from Lowe’s.
Hmmmm, what don’t we have here? No paper bag for our ‘Red Lion’ bulb. An oversight perhaps. Otherwise all looks good.
This kit did feel the lightest of the three. In fact, all ‘Red Lion’ kits felt a bit lighter than their counterparts. It turns out that is not from the missing paper bag lol. This bulb measures 27 cm circumference. Not bad for these bargain kits, but a let down after seeing the others. The roots are few as well. We’ve seen consistent performance from ‘Red Lion’ over the years, even from smaller bulbs, so let’s not lose hope!
Once again, the media quantity is perfectly suited to the bulb and pot size. Time to give it some bright light and warm temperatures.
Meanwhile, back at Home Depot…something was stirring.
On a routine errand on 10 November 2024. Usually these kits are passed over for price, but in recent years for this issue. Premature sprouting and bloom. Other than noting that the “bucket kit” marked ‘Red Lion’ is certainly not ‘Red Lion’, E walks over to the dry bulb bins where “not Pinkolo” and friends are being sold as very good value for size, if not for labeling correctness as it turns out.
Returning to Home Depot several days later (16 November) and it’s just more of the same. It seems just about every kit was blooming out. What a beautiful mess! What’s interesting is that all of the white kits are blooming white, the ‘Apple Blossom’ kits are true to type…but ‘Red Lion’ sure isn’t. These all contain bulbs from Peru, so once again we peruse Agro Floral’s online gallery. It seems that these double reds are either ‘Double Dragon’ or ‘Malaga’ which we have never photographed. Should E pick up one of these? You would think so, but the steep ($17) price and fact that they were all past their prime cooled E’s wallet.
After much consternation and some sleepless nights, E has been thinking about our loyal followers. Should we deny them the chance to get an official entry for ‘Malaga’? This time we head to a different branch of the chain store. And we find a surprise. While there were a few kits with withered double red blooms, there were two with nothing emerging. One shows signs of life…green foliage barely poking through. So, on this November 23rd, just before Thanksgiving, E places a bet for the team. Purchased.
As with the “regular” box kits from Lowe’s, this “fancy” kit at Home Depot is from the same New Jersey, U.S. company, using bulbs grown in Peru. Even the instructions (which are not bad at all) are exactly the same. This makes E wonder…could the smaller bulb from the Lowe’s kit also end up being ‘Malaga’?
The thin paperboard sleeve for the kit was being pushed by some foliage, this was evident at purchase. Removing the sleeve shows the best possible news! It hasn’t bloomed itself out inside the metal bucket-style cachepot.
So, for the additional several dollars over the box kits, what do we get? The bulb has the trimmed healthy roots of two of our Lowe’s kits. It measures 29.5 cm circumference, larger than the box kit ‘Red Lion’ but smaller than our ‘Apple Blossom’ kit. The coir disc looks exactly the same, except that instead of being from Sri Lanka, it is from neighboring India. The cachepot has a thin transparent plastic liner. This is a problem. No drainage is a no-go here. Plus, the container seems a little large in proportion to the bulb. E must dig around the stockpile of pots to find one that seems a better match.
Potted into a container roughly matching those provided our “regular” box kits seems prudent. A 5.5”/14 cm pot with nice drainage holes will give our bulb its best chance…of not rotting! Of note, the white cachepot is not unattractive. The red rope holds a metal tag reading “Happy” which reinforces the “gift” nature of these. This would have made a nice gift to take to someone hosting a Thanksgiving feast, save for the improperly drain-less pot. Perhaps the white bucket can be filled with goodies and repurposed. The best news? I see not one, but two scapes emerging! Perhaps our premium kit will yield premium results. It’s grow time!
24 December. Christmas Eve blooms! Indeed, we are getting a treat with blooms for Christmas. So, why is E a little disappointed? It is not our quarry! We were hoping to photograph ‘Malaga’ for the Library. This is still interesting though. ‘Red Lion’ has been doing the rounds in these kits for decades. It is a reliable performer, and its programming for bloom time is well known by growers. It seems that some proportion of these kits were provided with the correct cultivar, and we have learned that ‘Malaga’ may be a more anxious bloomer. Perhaps we will grab a kit next year before they bloom out if it looks like double reds are in some of them. Overall, E is grateful for the quality of the bulb here. It is barely showing a tiny third scape!!! It looks light it might stall, but if it develops, we will have an amazingly long bloom period from this bulb.
So this reminds us….what has happened with the Lowe’s ‘Red Lion’? Something very different…
What the what?! 29 December 2024. Our HD ‘Red Lion’ is looking great, and true to type. The Lowe’s kit on the left has a very tall scape, and full foliage. Can this be from a difference in the programming or bulb storage conditions? Or something else entirely?
January the 8th reveals the surprising answer to our question. In no way was a double bicolor a bet anyone would have placed on a ‘Red Lion’ kit. Here we have a very tall ‘Blossom Peacock’ used as a surprising substitute. It’s a lofty presentation with lovely foliage, but the smaller than usual blooms don’t pack much punch. The faint soapy fragrance is there, and so ‘Blossom Peacock’ it is. Will the bulb make another scape? Will the foliage start collapsing before that happens? Stay tuned.
13 January 2025. We’ve got a great coincidental bloom of both ‘Red Lion’ box kits! Our Home Depot bucket kit is making another short scape of cultivar correct but small-ish ‘Red Lion’ flowers. Only four per scape, but that’s typical. The Lowe’s kit also has four flowers that are not as large as ‘Blossom Peacock’ can be, but with three flowers open full and the fourth fading, it does make a nice display. Still no sign of a second scape. That would leave this as a middling performance, and a confounding mislabel.
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