Monday, December 7, 2009

Self-Absorbed

My husband and I were wandering around in the local home improvement store a couple of weeks ago when I came upon a HUGE display of narcissus-forcing kits. (narcissus… self-absorbed… I crack myself up)

Generally my resistance to store displays is pretty strong (unless we’re talking about piles of yarn), but the clever people at the store obviously had experience with people like me. So, in addition to the artful stacks of boxes were several examples of forcing in various stages. There they were, all laid out before me, a living time-lapse.

I was doing all right until I got to the pot with the fully opened blooms. Now really, how could I be expected to just walk past such beautiful blossoms and such a heady scent on a rainy November afternoon?

At least I only bought one…

Week01-01
Just Add Water

Plunk that brown disk into the pot, add some warm water and come back in 15 minutes.

Week01-02

Then I fluffed up the soil and nestled the bulbs into their new homes.

Week01-03

I stood and stared at the pot for a few minutes… then my husband told me that they weren’t going to actually grow and bloom right before my eyes. That the box said they’d bloom in 30-40 days.

All right then… slow magic is still magic. Let’s watch them together!

Work on The Big Red Blob continues, along with some baby knitting I have been remiss about photographing. I’ll remedy that soon and we’ll have a little show-and-tell.

5 comments:

essjay said...

I need to get a dozen of those for my house - winter is too dark & dreary - fresh flowers would do wonders!

marycatharine said...

They always bloom faster than the box says for me although never so quickly that I can see :)

Alwen said...

Winter is a great time for stuff like that. Paper whites are a classic forcer. I'm sure I've seen forcing instructions in one of the 19th c. books.

Donna Lee said...

I love the little flowers but the smell gives me a headache. One year one of my daughters bought me a big pot of them. I really tried to keep them in the house but I was sick from the smell. Those and irises and lilies. I don't know what it is.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!