Carol Dee
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STUNNING
Look at what I found in my greenhouse.
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thistlebloom
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Amazing bloom Cat.
flowerbug
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i just started watering mine for them to break dormancy. not sure how many flowers i'll see. takes a few days before they perk up. i don't want to start them growing too early because the light coming in isn't very strong yet, but by the time they get enough leaves on them it's around the equinox.
the rest i am leaving dormant so they can be mailed to their new homes.
the rest i am leaving dormant so they can be mailed to their new homes.
flowerbug
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i think they are one bloom per bulb, so you likely have multiple plants in that pot. which is ok, i don't think they really mind being a little crowded at times. even my youngest bulbs send up side shoots...
Nyboy
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I have got 2 blooms out of many single bulbs. Not sure if its because of variety or bulb size
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catjac1975
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I never worry about the season.i just started watering mine for them to break dormancy. not sure how many flowers i'll see. takes a few days before they perk up. i don't want to start them growing too early because the light coming in isn't very strong yet, but by the time they get enough leaves on them it's around the equinox.
the rest i am leaving dormant so they can be mailed to their new homes.
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catjac1975
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Bulbs increase in size every year. I put mine outdoors all summer and let them dry out for quite a long time before reinvigorating them with water.. I fertilize them after bloom. The bulbs increases slowly. I have tried to get info online about how the pros do it to no avail. There is no way they wait years for a seedling to bloom like I do.
flowerbug
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always faster to grow from the side shoots than from seed. plus this way they know for a fact which color the blooms will be.
i've experienced the very same issue with the tulip crosses i was trying to grow up. takes 3-5yrs if you're lucky to keep it alive (around here is not prime habitat so i've largely given up on my tulip breeding plans and switched to beans). tulip bulbs form so many side bulbs that if i were to divide them up each year it would vastly expand the numbers, but it also vastly expands the amount of labor and i'm not having that much time free to do. but much faster growing those side bulbs as they start even in their smallest in the first year about three times the size of a tulip seedling. i have examples of tulip seedlings (goes and digs it up):
flowerbug
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if i had a lot more space i'd stagger them so i could have blooms all winter, but it would also mean having more warmth and sunlight too. we just don't get enough light to support them growing well in the mid-winter. at times we can go weeks at a time without any sunny days.
in previous years when i've stopped watering them in the fall so they'll go dormant the plants would quickly lose their leaves because i was keeping this room 5-10 degrees cooler. the past few years Mom has been home more (she used to be a nanny so was away for parts of the week) and so the house is being kept warmer and the plants are not dropping all of their leaves. this spring i have a few plants with a few leaves still green even if i've not watered them since last fall.
nice sunny morning now and the plants have sun on their leaves for a while. i can't put them outside until mid to late June.
flowerbug
Garden Master
note, i'm not talking about multiple blooms on a single stalk. the variety i grow here will have 2-4 blooms per stalk and it depends upon bulb size, but also how much energy the bulb was able to store over the growing season. many bulb plants will reform the entire bulb each season and that is when they also form the flowers for the next cycle. i don't think the amaryllis does this quite so aggressively because it seems that the outer layers persist a while longer, but i'm pretty certain the inner layers will split to form new bulbs that eventually show as separate bulbs when the outer layers finally do wither away into tunics.
i am talking about multiple flower stalks. those i've only seen one per bulb. if examined more closely all bulbs that appear to have multiple stalks are more likely just as i mentioned above, two bulbs smashed closely together. if you pulled the plant out of the pot and removed the outer tunics/layers you'll find more than one bulb in the middle. if this isn't the case i'd be very surprised and also very interested in examining the plant closely. i'm also sure that many people would be interested in such a plant because more blooms are always desired...
