Amaryllis questions

[desertcat]

Pots are about 3-5 inches bigger than the bulb and I'm planting fairly shallow, leaving the nose of the bulb above the soil.

They're starting to go dormant and I think I'm going to try a mix of the suggestions I've gotten here...have LOTS of bulbs to work with. With luck, I'll get this figured out and have pretty amaryllis this spring!

 

[catjac1975]

The bulbs need very little space within the pot. Let them totally dry out and the foliage die back. I normally do not repot them. Start watering them again and you should get nice bloom seeing you had good foliage growth. When the blooms are spent, water and fertilize them for the next years blooms, put them outside for the summer and start all over again. Picture what them looked like in the pot when you first bought them. When I buy new ones I open the box to see if there are any buds forming. SOmetimes when you but them they do not bloom. I also make sure they have not sprouted too much in the box or they will be stunted.

 

[chris09]

Are you putting them in a cool location (about 55*) and then letting them "dry up"?
Also as there growing they need a good balanced fertilizer to perform there best and form a good bud for the next year, we feed ours about once a week with Jack's 10-30-20.


Chris

 

[Wisher1000]

I'm with Baymule, just leave them in the ground. My Dad used to have the grandest Amaryllis show in the county! He planted them at the base of a brick wall that faced west. The stalks would be as big around as a golfball and three feet tall. His were the dark red ones with the scarlette throats. Sometimes he would have alot bloom out that were striped with a faded pinkish-white. He would mark those and discard them when he next dug them up. He separated the bulbs every three years or so. When he dug them up and separated the bulbs and bulblets, he replanted the mother (some as big as cantalope) and then a few of the biggest babies, the rest he gave away and there were tons to give away. He would add bone meal to the bottom of the hole and to the top of the soil after filling in around the bulbs. He would cut off the green leaves about two inches above the bulb just after the first frost and mulch with pine straw for the winter. I have a few, but my chickens deal them so much misery, I'm lucky to get any blooms at all.

 

[catjac1975]

Wow! I can't imagine what that looked like. Or what it would be like to garden where you could leave them in the ground!

 

[desertcat]

It would be nice to live where I could leave them in the ground! Although the way this fall is going.... Here we are at the end of Oct, and we haven't had a freeze at the house yet. Which is good since I haven't finished clearing space in the house for everything that needs ti come in for the winter.

On the pot size, when I have unpotted in the past, the pot has been full ( and I mean FULL) of roots. Do I need to trim them or just jam them back in a pot that's suitable in size for the size of the actual bulb?

 

[chris09]

It would be nice to live where I could leave them in the ground! Although the way this fall is going.... Here we are at the end of Oct, and we haven't had a freeze at the house yet. Which is good since I haven't finished clearing space in the house for everything that needs ti come in for the winter.

On the pot size, when I have unpotted in the past, the pot has been full ( and I mean FULL) of roots. Do I need to trim them or just jam them back in a pot that's suitable in size for the size of the actual bulb?

I trim the roots back to about a inch in length, then I re-pot into the pot of appropriate size, example a 32-cm bulb would go into a 4.50-in pot.


Chris