By Linda Elissalde
Every year around the end of February my dad mailed two boxes to South Houston Elementary. One was sent to my teaching friend Sharon Pope, and one to me. Inside was a pot with a planted Amaryllis bulb. We set them in our windows. The first student in every morning checked to record their progress. Easter does not come at the same time each year. I will never know how those bulbs knew when it was Easter, but they always produced a lovely flower on Easter for Sharon’s classroom and mine.
A Greek myth about that flower relates that the nymph Amaryllis was madly in love with handsome shepherd Alteo. To win him she stabbed herself until her bleeding heart became a flower. That beautiful flower won over Alteo. Today Amaryllis represents beauty and love, determination, strength and success. Sometimes Amaryllises are called Hippeastrum that means knight’s star. Most people have red Amaryllises, but they also grow in several colors with each symbolizing a different meaning. (Thank you, GOOGLE, for this information.)
I have had an Amaryllis downstairs for many years. It was once a big red Amaryllis. I have never done anything to help it along. Eventually the bulb created many others. They have survived through years of snow, wind, and ice. Every year red Amaryllises appear no matter when Easter arrives. These pretty flowers must represent beauty, love, determination, strength, and success. AND, yes, my Amaryllises arrived here right on time for Easter, 2023.
[LCE: Apr-4-2023]
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