Nature is amazing. It’s mind boggling sometimes to see how intricately plants, animals, birds and even people are designed.

It’s an Amaryllis plant that has me watching in wonder these weeks. I’ve never had one before so the way it works is all new to me.

The bulb was fairly large, about the size of an orange. It came with a nice pot and soil, along with instructions. The bulb had already started to sprout but it looked like it was coming out the bottom of the bulb which was a little weird. I didn’t know what that meant or what I should do so I left it and now we have some extra leaves showing up.

Back to the bulb proper though, the first sign of life on the top was an standing-upright stack of leaves. Not very big, about 1/2 inch wide and a couple of inches tall. It took a few days for them to grow and then they just sat there doing nothing. This confused me. What are you doing?

Eventually something began to sprout right next to the little bunch of leaves.

To make a long story short, very quickly, once it got started, the bright green sprout grew to be a tall stalk. The stalk had a pod on the top and it was curious to see what it was planning on doing. Before long it began to break apart. Everything moved so fast you could almost see it grow.

The pod kept opening until there were five beautiful flowers.

Meanwhile the small vertical stack of leaves began to grow.

The flowers are almost done. There is one left and the leaves at the bottom are growing quickly. The instructions say to cut away the stock when the last one is done.

We will be left with beautiful foliage for the rest of the season.

It is like an orchestrated dance this plant goes through.

Which leaves me wondering. How do the parts know when it’s their turn to grow?

It’s a mystery and I can’t help but marvel at the beauty of the dance.