New Blossoms for the New Year!

A few years ago my little granddaughter was given a small bulb to plant and take care of as part of a summer school project. She nurtured it diligently and soon the first leaves started growing but nobody knew the name of the plant. The leaves got larger and more numerous and eventually a baby plant emerged beside the mother plant and the pot became quite crowded. So we found larger pots, separated the plants and in a few months they had multiplied again. But still no idea about the identity even though the leaves looked familiar. No sign of any flowering for three years until a week after Christmas.

The day before New Year I noticed that one plant had suddenly grown a 30 cm long flower stalk with tightly closed buds on top!

 Freshly emerged flower stalk

The following day  it looked like this:

Individual buds showing

And the next day:

The first bud

Still no idea which wonderful plant this is. Except that it definitely has to be a lily! Let's wait another day:

The bud is leaning forward

Suspense! What will I see next day?

Bud finally opening

Real slow motion! The following day:

Finally open in the morning

Later in the day

I had to make contortions to be able to look inside the blossom to see what it looks like!

If I had waited a bit longer all would have been clear!

Now the flower looks familiar but I simply cannot remember it!

So my daughters and I started scouring the internet only to find so many different types of lilies looking similar but having different leaves. My daughter has an app on her phone to identify plants; lots of various types but not this one! Eventually the app told us that it wasn't a plant! Imagine that!

Showing the inner cup

There is a resemblance to a narcissus because of the cup but it is not a narcissus! The following day the second bud opened and three more were developing quickly.

Second bud opening and third about to join

At this time I was still searching the internet to find this flower but with the help of the following picture I was finally rewarded!

Eucharis amazonica

Eucharis amazonica, otherwise known as amazon lily! Seeing the name nearly made me cross with myself because this flower is shown in my old and trusty plant book and I didn't realize it! But never mind, it is a gorgeous plant and easy to maintain. So I recommend anyone interested to try growing it!

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