I really love amaryllis, but the big bulbs are very expensive. Even when I splurge, I usually get a bargain basement bulb with one flower stalk. The larger, more expensive bulbs often have two stalks. The wimpier stalks have two blossoms, but the best stalks have 4 trumpet like blooms.When the amaryllis kits went on clearance at Target, I pounced!
This turned out to be a great science and Algebra project.
Science, of course, because you can watch the roots (I used a clear container), shoots, and buds develop. In Amaryllis, the flower stalk develops before the leaves emerge.
Algebra because, if you measure the shoots each day, you get a chart that is half of a parabola.
In our case, we got a surprise! We got a nice healthy flower stalk, followed by what I presumed to be a leaf...
Surprise! It was another flower stalk! We started measuring and charting the second stalk as well. Then the leaf started to emerge...
Amazingly, it turned out to be third flower stalk! So, of course we are charting all three!
As you can see, they all follow that parabolic rise.
And, as it opens, I can see that the first stalk has 4 blooms!
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