Administrators Pompeii Posted January 12, 2023 Administrators Share Posted January 12, 2023 Save Your Amaryllis! Cheryl J. Shenkle January 2023 So, you now have a box store Christmas Amaryllis that is done blooming, sitting there with green leaves, waiting for your final decision. Toss it now or later if it fails to bloom in the second year. If you had a ready to bloom waxed Amaryllis bulb this year, it was not intended to live beyond the current year because the rooting Basal Plate was cut off before it was waxed. The flower will still open but like a rose in a vase, there is no way for the bulb to grow roots again. Ready to bloom holiday Amaryllis bulbs are forced like all potted Spring Sale Bulbs such as daffodils, lilies and tulips. Like the spring bulbs, Amaryllis can be a garden plant or in cold areas such as ours here in Zone 5, you can treat it like any tropical plant. Following the same commercial greenhouse practice as spring bulbs, but at a different time of year, forced Amaryllis are fertilized minimally with only the currently developing flower in mind. The new bloom which will eventually develop deep inside the cells of the bulb while the current one is blooming doesn’t get sufficient nutrition and may be slowed in development by as much as a year or more. That bulb may already be so starved that this year’s blooms were its final effort and it will die over the winter anyway. Even with good care, the bulb may take up to a year or more to reach blooming weight again. But there’s always hope and success! Getting an Amaryllis to re-bloom is dependent on the size of the bulb, how well it will be fed in the next summer preceding the next bloom period and whether it will then have approximately 8 weeks of a cool dry resting period to trigger the scapes and buds. If you’re game to do a little indoor gardening, then you have a start on saving your Amaryllis for the coming holiday season. With success, you may even be able to start a collection by sharing with friends at plant swaps because a healthy bulb will send out new small bulbs at the base which can be separated and repotted although, left together they will create a stunning display that only you can create. To get started, clean up your plant being careful not to damage the leaves and the roots. Lift the root ball from the pot onto a newspaper and check out the roots. They should be fat and white, not shriveled and dark colored. If they are tightly wrapped around the bulb, then you can gently wash and loosen them slightly in preparation for replanting. Replant the plant in new, well-draining potting medium and return to a low 70s location in bright but not direct sun which could burn the new leaves. Once the late spring frosts are done, with 50 degrees at night, you can either plant it outside in a well fertilized garden or in a pot with large drainage holes where it will be kept watered regularly and fertilized through summer till before the first fall frost. Use a quality liquid 10-10-10 fertilizer when watering from March till flowering begins or slow release 2-3 times a growing season. Do not store in a refrigerator where there are apples. The plant will rest in the very cool temperatures which it needs to trigger re-blooming but do not let it freeze! As late as possible but before a freeze, bring it indoors into a bright window to develop buds and flowers. After blooming, replant and set back into its indoor home for the winter. It will surprise you by blooming at just the right season. My Amaryllis lovelies are planted in a large deep window box that goes out into my deck garden all summer and back into the house to the front window for the winter. In early December they were developing stems and buds. I had 24 flowers after December 15 and still have a few days on the last three blooms. Once they are done flowering, which should be in mid to late January, I will reduce watering till about March. At that time I will water more and feed the plant through the summer. The plant can remain in that container for years as long as it is fed and watered properly. In a commercial greenhouse near me, the owner had about 50 bulbs in a very large garden pot for years. The plants bloomed profusely and people even came from other states to photograph it. Remember that in the tropics, they grow outdoors all year unbothered and successfully figure out when to bloom for themselves. Although the stores will assume you have given up, tossed your old Amaryllis and will then buy another one the next December, you won’t have to because you will already have a healthy bulb that you spoiled, fattened and then allowed it to sleep cool for 8 weeks in order to bloom again! Buy late sale Amaryllis and add them to your collection, just adding them to the bigger pot. You can possibly get blooms over a longer period by staggering different colors and even ordering some catalog varieties. Now, are you still ready to toss that Amaryllis or do you want to really enjoy what they are capable of presenting for the next holidays! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 I always got mine to bloom 4 times during the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 4 hours ago, Bon said: I always got mine to bloom 4 times during the year. How did you get them to do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 19 hours ago, Petee said: How did you get them to do that? I would let it dry some after it bloomed & wasn’t pretty anymore. Once the stem started to dry up, I cut it back to 2-3” and not water it for 3-4 weeks. Start watering again. Soon you should see the green moving up a little bit each day. Make sure you keep the flower in a spot where it gets lots of light. Make sure they are watered, but not in standing water. You don’t want the bulb to rot. Put your finger down in the soil about an inch or little more, is the soil damp or dry? If dry: water 💦 Thats all I did, nothing extraordinary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 OK, I may have to try that! I cannot find any information that supports it, but I would definitely be interested in an experiment. How many years did the bulb last? Did it gain weight or get smaller? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 It lasted about a year and a half by doing it that way. I never pulled the bulb out of the soil it came in. It probably needed repotting towards the end, but I never thought of it. I just threw it away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 I did finally find an article on it. Four times a year! You're more dedicated than me! How to Get Your Amaryllis to Bloom Twice a Year | Garden Gate (gardengatemagazine.com) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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