While this isn’t in a vase, I wanted to share this lovely Hippeastrum hybrid that is now blooming in my sunspace.
A few weeks ago, I accompanied my spouse on a stop to one of those big DIY retailers. Not interested in nuts, bolts or lumber, I wandered through the plant section while he shopped.
I always feel badly for the neglected and often doomed plants for sale there. The Hippeastrum bulbs were jammed into tiny boxes and most were starting to grow, many upside down. I needed to rescue at least one and I reoriented a number more to upright. Does anyone else feel the need to rescue plants at these places? This one has rewarded me many times over and is sending up yet another bud, making me glad I stopped by!
Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In the Garden, who hosts a weekly meme to showcase arrangements created from our gardens. Wander over to see what gardeners all over the world are arranging this week.
Eliza Waters 
It looks a lovely specimen.
I was pleased it turned out so well!
What a beauty!!! 🙂 ❤
Thank you, Natalie!
You’re most welcome Eliza❣️😊
The hospice section of a nursery is a bad place to go! Just because it costs half as much does not mean it belongs in your garden! I got my hesper palms that way. Now that they are recovering, I still have no idea what to do with them!
Yes, one has to be judicious when choosing which ones to rescue!
So beautiful 💚💕
Thank you, Karen!
aawwww, plant rescuer ❤
Yeah, tender-hearted, that’s me. 😉
I love the way you worded that! 😁 Here’s hoping the ‘reoriented bulbs’ do as well, for other adopters. That is called an ‘Apple Blossom’, as far as I can tell and probably my favorite, although there are many pretty cultivars. What happened to the silvery wax-encased bulb you had last year, after it bloomed? Some people are fortunate to have a ‘green thumb’….you have a ‘green soul!’
Aw, thanks, Alice. Thank you for remembering that experiment, I never posted a followup on that bulb, as it was not a pretty outcome. Under the wax was a latex sleeve and rot had set in, so I had to toss it. Two lessons learned, not to buy encased bulbs and if you are gifted one, unsheathe it and pot it up. 🙂
“Live & learn”
Oh yes, I too have wanted to rescue plants at nurseries – plants that were being neglected, not watered, tipped over. Always glad to find others who are sensitive to these green growing creatures. Who hear their voices. 🙂
Hard to walk past suffering of any kind, right? Plant or animal makes no difference. Everything deserves to thrive!
I so agree!!
Reblogged this on Purplerays.
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I love Hippies (the plant kind) So happy that your rescue bore flower!
It has paid me back already many times over!
That’s lovely. Jackie regularly rescues plants from local supermarkets who never water them once they are on the shelves. If you wait a few days after delivery, you can buy withered specimens cheaply.
Thank you, Derrick. Gardeners are natural plant rescuers, we are optimists!
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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A lovely rescue… but as you say, they don’t always reward us for our trouble. I rescued a bonsai once, and although it tries valiantly, it has never fully recovered from its shaky start!
Thank you. Bonsai are a lot more challenging than a bulb, you’re brave for trying!
The bonsai in question is a white azalea, and every year at this time, it bravely blooms. Beautiful yet sad at the same time, to witness the struggle…
I feel the same desire to rescue those poor Hippeastrum and other sprouting bulbs at the big box stores. It’s sad to see them trying so hard to grow and knowing that most of them are doomed. This one rewarded you nicely!
Thank you, Peter. I know you are a big time plant rescuer, lover of the underplant. 🙂 It is rewarding to see them thrive, given proper care.
Bless your heart for rescuing this Hippeastrum, Eliza, it is definitely happy being under your care! 😊
Thank you, Julie. I’m just a softie, I guess. 😉
Really lovely Eliza! I also always rescue a plant or two if I go to the DIY store! Among others I have a lovely Cordyline – now enormous! – an Aeonium, and a pretty leaf Begonia that was almost drowning when I found it! That was a good find, and I suspect a bargain too. 😉
Thank you, Cathy. I’m thinking about going back and ‘rescuing’ more. Because they were already sprouted, it only took a couple weeks to bloom. They’d make good Christmas presents!
Winter Rescue Remedy in more than one way! 😉
Yes! 🙂
A beautiful bloom; looks like you and Cathy, our hostess have the same Hippeastrum today! Not only do I feel sorry for plants neglected in large stores, I am often seen pulling weeds out of pots in nurseries!!!!!
Thanks, Christina. Oh, I do that, too. I don’t think we can help ourselves! I had to laugh when I saw Cathy’s post parallel to mine.
A sweet rescue that rewarded you with beauty.
Yes, indeed, it did. 🙂
I love the first image with the two plants together. What a subtle combo. Oh yes, I think we’ve all done rescue missions at those stores. It is so awful to see those sad plants.
Thank you, Linda. It’s hard for me not to be taken in by those little plants!
I am so happy to see your rescued flower….and I consider it a vase, even if you don’t!
Thank you, Donna! 🙂
What a beauty! I have a bromeliad I “rescued” in New York and brought back closer to her homeland here in Florida – she is happy and has not one, but two pups!
Thank you, Kathy. I love successful plant rescue stories. They can be so rewarding!
Well you and Cathy had the same idea today. Your plant has rewarded you well for rescuing it. It looks lovely with the pink edged succulent.
Thank you, Chloris. I thought they looked well together. 🙂
Lovely amaryllis. I may have to scout out the stores around here.
Thanks you, Susie. This was found in Loews, if that helps.
I am such a plant rescuer! Last year, I rescued a horrible looking hydrangea. It failed to thrive where I first planted it, but this year I moved it to a new spot and it thrived (at least until something decided it looked tasty – though it still looked better even after that disaster than it did when I got it, and I’m sure it will pop back up this next spring).
Once established, hydrangeas are pretty resilient. Good rescue!
I think it just got too much sun in the first spot. I put a hydrangea there this year which was more of a sun-lover, and it thrived. So I got two hydrangeas out of it!
You are a regular Florence Nightingale. I like the image of you in a nurseâs cap zipping through big box stores saving plant after plant.
Liv
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😀 Thanks, Liv!
Great job rescuing this beauty! 🙂
Thank you!
oh what a beauty and no doubt she’s a dancing queen too 🙂
Yes! Thanks, Annette. 🙂
Yes, I too look out for lost souls like this too! Yours is lovely – and I have three Apple blossom (like yours) waiting to be planted. I am just waiting till I have time to think of what container they would all fit in together
Thank you, Cathy. It was the sight of those poor bulbs trying to grow upside down that made me want to rescue the whole bunch!
My garden is full of orphans of one kind or another. Like ‘Anne of Green Gables’, they give back admirably…just like your lovely rescue plant.
Thank you, Ricki. We can’t bear to see an orphan plant, can we?
I always love your flower posts. That succulent at the top looks perfect.
Thank you!
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Another Hippeastrum! I recently planted 3 but mine will be far behind yours and Cathy’s in flowering. You picked a lovely specimen to rescue.
Thank you, Kris. It is that time of year!
It is beautiful 🙂
Thank you!
It was a rescue plant! Love it 🙂
🙂 Thanks, Christy!
My dear friend Charlie used to say he was “constitutionally unable to resist” rolling up and down the aisles of our local big box DIY stores in his wheel chair, but he also liked to rescue small, untended plants there and place them in his garden with care. Than you for reminding me of him!
That’s an endearing story, Albert. Thank you!
I always head for the discount table at the garden centre to see which plants need rescuing.
I guess most of us gardeners are keen rescuers!
Very nice. I think I see a succulent in there.
Yes, the succulent is artfully placed in front of the stem – hehe! Thanks, Maria.
Truly beautiful, and every gardener out here says ‘thanks’ for the save. 🙂
🙂 Thanks, Judy.
It’s so nice to know others feel this need as well. I am always rescuing a plant–or feeling bad for them. And like yours, when they are rescued, they often reward. Hardy things, with a bit of care–and beautiful, too!
Good to know I’m not the only one. 🙂 Thanks, Lisa!
Beautiful! Forgive my ignorance, but are Hippeastrum and amaryllis the same thing? I will be planting an amarylls and some paper white soon.
One time last summer my dad and I were going in to Walmart when we noticed a petunia flower laying on the flower in the entry. I felt bad because people were trampling it, so I saved it! Maybe I’m a little too sentimental, but after all, they brighten our lives! 🙂
Thank you, Joanna. I think all gardeners are tender-hearted optimists. 🙂
Hippeastrum and Amaryllis are two distinct genus from different families as well. Hippeastrum are Liliaceae (true Lilies) and Amaryllis belladonna is the only Amaryllidinae.
Lovely, Eliza 🙂
Thank you, Rebecca!
What pretty petals!
Thank you, Fi. 🙂
I rescue plants all the time, Eliza, and in fact, my hubby is known to bring home from Home Depot a sad looking thing that is some kind of flower for me to bring back to life. My Mom used to laugh and say, “What’s the difference? Sick cat or sick plant?” We laughed together, giggling like two little kids. This post brought a GOOD memory of my Mom. My Mom “got me”. I thank YOU! (((HUGS)))) 💖
Not surprised to hear that you rescue plants, too. You have a tender heart. 🙂 ❤
I laughed when I read this, always feeling especially sorry for the bulbs!
Gardeners have big hearts! ❤
Fellow plant and bulb rescuers, unite! 🙂 My windows are so crammed with plants I really must desist but I share your dismay at the state of plants in hardware stores. This one is very handsome, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. It has rewarded me handsomely for rescuing it!
Oh, those poor bulbs, trying so hard to grow in such awful conditions. I can’t stand going to the big box plant sections, at any time of year. The scraggly, etiolated, root-bound six packs get to me in the spring. “Help me!!! Please!!!” Who says that plants don’t speak to us … This one you adopted seems like a grateful pet, giving you all the love it can for rescuing it. I may end up as the crazy old lady overloaded with rescued plants, dogs, and spinning wheels. There are worse ways to go.
I agree, it’s hard to ignore their plight!
A wonderful rescue!
Thank you, Belinda! 🙂
You’ve done well. What a perfect delight to have blooming at this time of year.
It couldn’t wait to bloom for me. 😉
Such charisma! Will you move it outside during the summer?
🙂 I let them go dormant for the summer, then they are ready to replant for winter. They are not hardy here. The key is keeping up the fertilizer while they are growing.
My first amaryllis sighting! I wish I had more room for plants at this house, so no, I don’t rescue plants. I do think it’s very nice of you to do so. I have sent friends and family the ‘grown your own’ kits many times and they always seem to enjoy them. This variegated type is what I look for.
They are so easy and do make great gifts for those with a sunny window.