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Everyone loves amaryllis for Christmas, and I do, but I love love love amaryllis for Valentine’s Day.

I have enjoyed forcing amaryllis for a few years, but this is my first big amaryllis year. I got kind comments on my instagram posts of them and compliments from my family and friends who saw them at my house. I kept thinking, “Next time, I will do a bunch of extra ones.”

This year, I decided to get extra bulbs to make sure people in my community could get some from my “Christmas Shop” in case they would like them for decoration or centerpieces. (The Christmas Shop is actually just my farm stand, but with Christmas lights on it.)

I purchase them at big box stores where they are being sold for the holidays- I can order the bulbs through my flower farm’s wholesaler, but I have to order each variety in bulk, and that means too many of each variety. For now, I chose to keep selecting just a few of each kind, at the various stores that had holiday promotions on them. With their holiday sales, the amaryllis bulbs aren’t that much more expensive anyway, and I don’t have to pay shipping. This year, I brought a cart over, and I opened every single box to check the bulbs for health and vigor. I checked each bulb to make sure it wasn’t squishy, that it didn’t have a pest, and I like to chose bulbs that are already sprouted. I encourage you to do the same. Buy them and start them in late October or early November for a Christmas bloom, start them just before or at Christmas for a Valentine’s Day bloom.

I set them up on a seed starting shelf, already equipped with grow lights and a warm mat, to get them started.

I potted them, decorated them, and ever single one sold! I encourage you to give this a try, for yourself, as a product for your flower farm, or as gifts for your friends and family.

By Christmas I was out of amaryllis entirely. Ryan went to the store and purchased a stack of clearance bulbs for me, which made me so happy because the stretch between the winter holidays and Valentine’s Day is my favorite for this flower. Decorating for Valentine’s Day with a table arrangement of amaryllis and other Valentine’s Day effects is a dream come true. A blooming red lion matches perfectly with a red heart shaped box of chocolates; a blooming appleblossom easily reminds me of conversation hearts.

Oh, amaryllis appleblossom. My heart belongs to you. I have grown this variety so many times, and I never get bored. It’s a classic.

I selected a wide and flat dish and filled it most of the way with potting soil mixed with perlite. I used faded pine needles scavanged from one of my expired Christmas wreaths as a mulch dressing; I wanted a sage green and not a green that felt like ‘winter holidays green.’ This seemed like the right solution. I used dried appleblossom flowers, spent and dried flowers from my indoor hibiscus tree, and I picked through my stock of dried flower petals for other pink flowers to add. When you are decorating your dish gardens, you can use a toothpick or skewer to hold some of your artifacts in place, if they don’t stay on their own.

Do I love red and pink together because I love Valentine’s Day, or do I love Valentine’s Day because I love red and pink together? I don’t know. I am going to love these red lions blooming in their red dishes with pink dried flowers. I am certain. I used Spanish moss as a soil cover in this set.

My last and smallest set, only just a pair, might be my favorite. I put a star of Holland bulb in each white dish and covered the soil with dried lisianthus blooms from August’s crop. Star of Holland is a red and white striped amaryllis, but a far less saturated hue then other red amaryllis. More of a watercolor red.

I hope if you come across any clearance bulbs, that you pick them up and give them a chance. If they are started now, they will bloom in March! In October this year, I will start the whole process again, and create a careful tutorial, and I hope you follow along with me!

During winter, I like to make snowflake baubles. I make them as snowflake ornaments, at Solstice and Christmas, as gifts for my family and friends- this year, I made them with Austrian crystal beads and paired them with luxury small batch room spray from Philosophia. They were wrapped in pink tissue paper, and situated side-by-side in a pink box. I wrapped the pink box with white tissue paper and a white crocheted snowflakes ribbon. The unwrapping and presentation was perfection!

I also sell them in my farm stand and online. This holiday season, I sold out completely, and my DMs were full of requests for special orders. (Happiness!!)

After the holidays have passed, I make them just as baubles to hang in windows and around the house to celebrate the beauty of the continuing (and continuing…) snowy season. They are a thoughtful surprise gift to cheer a friend who gets the winter blues. Paired with fairy lights and candles, they make an enchanting seasonal decor for the period between the winter holiday decorations and the Valentine’s Day decorations.

I love snow crystals. I have looked to Kenneth Libbrecht’s zoomed images of them for both entertainment and inspiration with my snowflake baubles. He is a professor of physics at Caltech.

I hope you try this tutorial, and I hope I get to see the snowflakes you make! I hope you take time to enjoy and take pictures of the snow. I am excited to post the next tutorials and photo collections for you- it’s Valentine’s Day time. It’s possibly my favorite holiday!

Welcome to Snow & Flowers, a blog and tutorial companion to GardenForestFlowers.com. I’m Carla HarlaQuinn. I am a grower of luxury cut-flowers, and I have a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts. I grow cut-flowers and use them, and other plant materials, as well as art and craft supplies, to create my work. My art and flowers are extremely seasonal- celebrating and reflecting the changes of the year and it’s enchanting holidays.

I have a farm stand where I sell my flowers and artworks, and people purchase them for their home, seasonal decor, or as gifts. I also sell my flowers and artworks on my website, as well as to clients that subscribe directly to my flower farm, and to customers at retail establishments where Garden Forest flowers are sold.

At the Snow & Flowers blog, you will find step by step directions and video tutorials that will enable you to:

♡ Learn about and grow the flowers I am growing

♡ Use the flowers to make bouquets, flower products, and artworks to decorate your home, give as gifts, or to sell

♡ Make artworks, crafts, and seasonal holiday decor with other plant materials and art supplies that you can give as gifts, sell, or use as decor in your home

My teenage daughter, who I often refer to as “Bestie,” co-owns and provides operational support and management in all things Garden Forest, our 5 acre, wildlife habitat certified, pesticide-free flower farm. We also have an involved, fun, and supportive family, runner ducks, three hens and a rooster named Santiago, and a very inlove but terribly rude pair of guard geese. I have a nearly constant companion named Daryl, who is a tiny chihuahua.