I’ve been growing a pair of amaryllis bulbs as an experiment. One bulb has been drinking water, as it aught to. The other has been taking a tipple of vodka.

The hypothesis is that the height of alcohol fed amaryllis bulbs will be shorter — but that the blooms will be of equal size and last as long as water fed bulbs.

I’ll be wrapping up that experiment and posting the results — which includes time lapse video and a growth chart/graph. Links to the research on paperwhite narcissis that prompted me to do this experiment follow below the photographs.

ABOVE: These are the amaryllis I’m growing at the office which feature in the time lapse movie you’ll see in an upcoming post.

ABOVE: This short little fellow was fed a 7:1 water:alcohol mix from day one and remained alarmingly short, so when the flower head was near fully formed, but not opening, we switched back to 100% water and were rewarded with this diminutive display.

The Amaryllis Experiment: Part II (the movie)
The Amaryllis Experiment: Part III (footnotes)

FOLLOW UP: Repeating the water vs alcohol experiment on paperwhite narcissus.

Suggested reading: Amaryllis on Alcohol Revisited | Cornell’s Research Newsletter Using Alcohol to Reduce Growth of Paperwhite Narcissus dated February 2006 | Easy to Grow Bulbs article Pickling your Paperwhites

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