Who doesn’t like flowers in the house?

The problems are … the expense … and the limited duration of cut flowers before they begin to wilt. Lilies and carnations might be presentable for more than a week, but roses can fall to pieces in days.

If only we could nurture flowers inside a humble home! Watch them grow, and be there for the whole of the blooming period.

Well, actually, in a botanic breakthrough … that is possible to have. Forty days after Valentine’s Day, I am still looking at a living amaryllis flower in my living room.

The problem is, I don’t know where to buy the next one.

So, the history.

Valentine’s Day, I’m over at the local store, here on Abu Dhabi island, where bouquets are available for lots of money — $30 up to $50, $60. And, as is usual around Valentine’s Day, the flowers already are looking a little worn.

As I was steeling myself to buy some variation of something … I noticed an odd little item on a shelf, below the bouquets.

Inside a box was a red ball with two spear-shaped shoots, about 2-3 inches each, coming out of the top.

I picked up one, and had a look at it … and read the explanation. The red ball was thick wax surrounding a bulb, and the shoots would produce flowers within a week or two.

And the whole process required zero effort on my part.

I was looking at a “handmade … specially selected” bulb that did “not need water to grow. The bulb has enough energy for the flower.” It also did not need exposure to sun.

I had never seen that sort of thing before, nor heard of it, but I figured it was worth a try. It might provide a living presence in the apartment for more than a few days and it also was not expensive, at about $27.

And it was a novelty.

From the start, the shoots continued to grow, and after about 10 days the flowers began to form. One, then two and three, opening in turn, and when those faded and were clipped off, the other shoot took over and churned out another two or three orange/red flowers … and it was a gift that just kept on giving.

Seven weeks later, the bulb is palpably smaller, inside the wax, presumably because both moisture and nutrients have been sent up into the flower. I might be looking at the final flower … but two more shoots have poked out of the bulb, and maybe they will produce flowers, too.

Turns out, the concept is named the no water flowers.

The bulbs come from The Netherlands, and the notion of covering the bulb with an impermeable cover was perfected only in the past two years.

I love this thing, and I am not the first. The web has several raves about this concept, and this post is one of the earliest I can find, and it is only five months old.

It suggests the no-water bulbs were introduced at a trade show in The Netherlands in 2012. So this is a recent phenomenon.

My primary concern is … I’m not sure I can find one of these for sale again anywhere in the UAE. I had never seen them before last month, and I have not seen them since.

I would buy these serially, if I could. It has been that much fun to watch and zero effort to maintain. It is a brilliant concept.