Dan's Papers -January 9, 2009 -

After all the holiday clutter is cleared, I still like to have some color in the house to make things cheerful and keep the gardening season going year round. There are several ways to do this using houseplants, bulbs and, of course, cut flowers.

My lemon trees were hosed down and repotted back in November. They usually begin to bloom in December and can continue on until February, even while the fruit is ripening on the branches. I bought a variegated lemon last year, a long coveted item on my list that is next to the Meyer lemon that I have had for years. I did grow a tangerine from a mere sapling years ago and it actually did produce fruit, but they were dry and flavorless. The lemons are reliable and they actually have flavors different from the ones you buy in the stores. But it's the fragrance that's so arresting in the winter months that makes them valuable to me. In general, houseplants require work, which I don't really care for, it's one more thing to do, But the lemons require very little care, so they're perfect for me.

Unfortunately, the cat occasionally doesn't make it outside in the cold months and takes advantage of the potted plants instead. After literally rinsing my lemons down to the point of having bare roots and replacing all the soil, I decided to place my seashell collection on top of the soil to prevent any further feline forays. The large conchs, clams and whelks have kept kitty out of the potted plants so far by creating a barrier over the soil.

Just before the holidays began, I bought some salmon-colored amaryllis in lieu of the large red or white ones that are usually available for the holidays. My niece and I decorated a few terra cotta pots with seashells and a glue gun and then we potted up the big bulbs. Starting from a bulb rather than buying a plant already in bloom means that I'll have to wait until February for it to bloom. I have watched it for a few weeks, waiting for the bud to crack through, but it's like watching a pot boil. The flower will emerge in its own time.

There are a lot of different varieties of amaryllis available now, some with smaller, more exotic, orchid-like flowers and numerous colors. On a recent trip to Hawaii, I saw some spectacular small-flowered, orange amaryllis growing on a hillside in a big bunch, which gave me another idea. Why just put one bulb in at a time? A group of the smaller flowering amaryllis in a brass tub will put on a fantastic winter display, so I'm going to hit the garden center this week to see if there are any leftover bulbs hanging around. If there are any of the traditional reds, maybe I'll grab a few of those in hopes that they will bloom for Valentine's Day.

If I wanted to force hyacinths, tulips or daffodils, I'd have had to start in November, according to Jeff at Otto Keil's, a family of florists and greenhouse growers with nurseries in Huntington and Mattituck. These smaller bulbs need 12-14 weeks of cold treatment in temperatures below 45 degrees in order to start them on an earlier bloom cycle. Putting them in pots and placing them in a cold frame or covering them with sand and pine boughs to regulate the temperature would have allowed me to have these spring beauties in mid to late February. But for now I'll have to rely on the refrigeration used by the Keils and buy my forced spring bulbs at the garden center.

One of the least strenuous ways to bring flowers and fragrance into the house during the winter as a quick pick-me-up is to simply buy some fresh flowers. There's literally no season for flowers now, as they are grown all over the world and shipped via air freight daily. When it's fall here, peonies are starting in Argentina, and roses are available year round. To satisfy my taste for the exotic, though, I went to a protea farm on Maui during a trip in December. The up country on the slopes of the volcano away from the heat of the beach is the perfect climate for these extraordinary flowers that can also be flown anywhere, so I sent myself a bouquet that should arrive any day now.

The pin cushion proteas are my favorites, as are the king proteas. When I was young my mother received a big bouquet of these Hawaiian flowers and the interesting thing about them is that they don't fade and die off after a week or so. They can be left in the vase and make a fantastic dried flower arrangement too. My mother's lasted for years, so I sent her a bouquet, too.