Phyllis Grows in the Dark

Phyllis is my amaryllis. I inherited her at work when I coworker quit. At that point, she was in bulb form, and stayed that way for about 6 months. I thought owning an amaryllis was about as much fun as having a pet clove of garlic. A pet clove of garlic that you never take out of the dark. Phyllis bloomed last year, and it was pretty spectacular after the garlic thing - see picture. After she bloomed, Phyllis grew leaves and stayed that way for about 5 months. This was about as much fun as having a house plant, but that can be a lot of fun when you have a day job. My horticultural advisor told me the leaves would eventually die back, and Phyllis would revert back to the pet clove of garlic. All of this happened as expected, so a few months ago, Phyllis got removed from dirt and put in a brown envelope in my desk. She was supposed to stay that way for a few months - I guess it's rare for them to bloom more than one year. Last Monday, after having opened and closed that drawer about 50 times, I finally noticed: Phyllis had grown a flower stalk, in my desk, in the dark, with no soil (It was a Jurassic Park moment - you remember: life will find a way. Classic) . It was this kind of sickly pale colour (picture my legs right now) with a glow in the dark tinge (you know, kind of yellowy?). The stalk was growing sideways, so that it could reach the space at the back of my desk. This is one week later, and she is green, with one of those giant lilly-like flowers, with two more on the way. Each flower is about the size of my hand if I stretch out my fingers the whole way. Damn Phyllis. 2008 pic to follow tomorrow.

ps. Happy Birthday* Kir Hogan! *April 28 - I was off by a day on the blog.