Amaryl-IOUS

Mystical Obama inauguration flower opens

Raccoon readers will recall that we planted an Olsons'Ace hardware store amarylis plant on Inauguration Day, 1-20. We had purchased two bulbs at Christmas time, one for our daughter-in-law, Sue Dix.

We figured they would be identical so we gave one to Sue and kept ours here at hdqtrs for an auspicious occasion.

Sue's opened, much to the Dousman Dix's delight, a proven beauty (see photo below) but ours just continued to produce more and more foliage, and no blooms. Hope (get it?) was about given up. Our vaunted bulb was all show and no go. Like Bush, all hat and no cowboy.

But then the miraculous occurred. Finally. Yesterday, on the day of the State of the Union address and just in time for Denise's return from her week at the Maryland farm, IT OPENED! It was worth the wait, for it turned out to be a mutant in a variegated coloration, red, black and white. And the sexual aspects were leather and glittery. We guess we kept the right one amarylis after all. (REPUBLICAN READERS WILL KINDLY KEEP THEIR OBSERVATIONS TO THEMSELVES.)

Sue, happy owner of a regular amarylis, completes a Cooney 5 K with jr. raccoon.