Who'd like an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) thread?

[daisychain01]

I treated myself to 3 Amaryllis bulbs from M&S last week and reminded myself what a great addition those lovely big chunky bulbs are to the Christmas season.

It's such a positive feeling, giving them a water and watching them turning green and the leaves emerging over the weeks, when most things in the garden are going to sleep.

The bulbs I chose are:

Dancing Queen
Apple Blossom
Minerva

Lesson learned from last year - stake them up before the flowers form, as their stems aren't always strong enough to hold the multi-flower varieties upright. One of nature's design flaws! Supporting them when the stem is just emerging helps it a lot. Other than that, they are remarkably self-sufficient.

it will be lovely to see everyone's bulbs flowering as we get closer to Christmas.

Back later with my photos.

PS One of my bulbs from last Christmas started flowering in July so I put it in a pot with some new compost and a bit of vermiculite, but it was very indifferent -a few leaves but no flower. It's now sulking in the greenhouse, I think it peaked too soon!

Here are my two. Both bulbs purchased on the same day and planted on the same day in identical pots, and they’ve been sitting in the same window.

Gervase is fully in bloom, with three flowers/buds on its main stem and a second stem coming up. Meanwhile Mandela has only just begun showing a sliver of green shoot. Thought it was a non-starter so I’m delighted it might do something after all.

So many lovely ones on this thread! Thanks for starting it, OP — any blooms yet for you?

@Maggiethecat @Carriemac @Trethew @IcakethereforeIam — your pics all look great.

That’s a lovely unusual colour @LemonJuiceFromConcentrate.

This is my £1 Ikea one in multiple flower.

That is stunning, @Maggiethecat. Seriously beautiful. So many blooms all at once, I’ve never had one like that.

It was one of the display plants near the snack bar at checkout (apparently to brighten the area up). It had 3 stems but hadn’t started flowering and I asked the checkout lady if I could buy it as they were out of stock in the plant section.

Gave her my brightest smile 😃

@Maggiethecat I'm thrilled with the one I got from IKEA, but yours is something else!

Good morning all, happy Sunday.

That's a perfect Amaryllis @Maggiethecat such compact strong stems and amazing blooms. ♥️

An update from me.

Ive had mixed fortunes with my 4 Amaryllis bulbs, which I planted on the same day.

2 are doing very well indeed up in our home office. One of them has a quadruple bloom and another stem only just in bud so I think it's going to give us joy for many weeks to come. The second of them is also doing well, not so advanced as number 1 but looking good.

Number 3 in our dining room is an interesting one. It seems to have 'bolted' ie it has shot up and is very tall and leggy unlike the compact habit of the ones upstairs. It's going to be one of those single bloom variety, Red Lion if I recall from the packaging. I've staked it up and hoping it will be OK but of course the long thin stem will always be a vulnerability, so I'm going to add more support to it today and 🤞

Number 4 is an interesting one that has become an experiment. It has been an extremely slow starter, almost no sign of activity other than a tiny starting of a bud. I decided to check out some advice on t'internet and found some research which shows that the best results from all commercially grown bulbs come from initially soaking the roots in a warm weak solution of camomile tea for about 24 hours before planting.

Given such a lack of activity I thought I may as well treat it as if it were a new bulb. So I removed it from its pot yesterday and found a very healthy root system so I know it has a high chance of responding well to a nice drink of tea and then repot it in new growing medium. I made a 4 bag pot of camomile tea, a cup for me and DH and the rest for our Amaryllis . I found a glass jug that is the perfect size to accommodate the massive root system, support the bulb out of the fluid and added the tea, cooled with some cold filter water so it was Luke warm as the research recommended.

It will be interesting to see if this experiment works! I will keep you posted.

Photos to follow .....

Apple blossom and Dancing Queen

Red Lion in bud (it also has a new stem)

Number 4 enjoying camomile tea before being repotted

I'm thinking of repotting her into a slightly larger pot, with normal compost. The compost these bulbs are supplied with nowadays is that vile coir stuff that's dreadful, doesn't hold any moisture, is like sand and not enriched.

all the gardening reports I've seen absolutely curse it and say they're going to campaign for the commercial suppliers to come up with a viable alternative to peat, which we all know is not sustainable. But that coir is neither use nor ornament as an alternative! Maybe my bulb was objecting and decided to go on strike we will see ....

Repotting Amaryllis that's gone on strike and refuses to grow

Ive put the pot that came in the bulb kit alongside the new one I've used instead, which is the next size up and definitely seems to be a better size for such a large bulb.

Plus I used new fresh compost (Jack's Magic from the local garden centre).

I gave her a little water with some of the camomile tea.

I didn't drink the rest 😱

Really interested to see how your experiment turns out @daisychain01.

Maybe I should try giving my slow-starting Mandela a camomile drink. Don't think it would be worth repotting as it's already in good compost (it didn't come with its own) - not that that's done it much good.

@daisychain01 the appleblossom is lovely but the red lion looks like it's going to be stunning.
I think my ikea one is in coir, it's not a substance I've encountered before. It seems to be doing okay but I'll put it in fresh compost when it's finished flowering.
Thank you for the update. I'm looking forward to how it turns out.

@daisychain01 - this is next level Amaryllis horticulture! 😂

I get it though - the rewards of these beautiful plants are worth it.

This is the last of mine, Red Lion from M&S I think (properly confused as to which is which!)

First of 4 flowers on the stem to open. It’s massive!

I'll definitely keep you updated on my little experiment maybe wishful thinking but I'm sure she's grown a little bit in 2 days....

Just beautiful, that Red Lion, @Maggiethecat wow, it's huge.

Your Mandela will like some camomile 👍 @LemonJuiceFromConcentrate give it a try

@IcakethereforeIam the sooner you can save your bulb from the dreaded coir the better, it's horrid stuff

This one greeted me when I came home from work ♥️

Looking amazing 😍

I was looking at Amaryllis porn earlier, for next season. I think I've already got a deep red one, like yours @daisychain01 I'm going to stop being so haphazard with them and try to get them to flower. Goddammit it!

You've all inspired me.

Beautiful @daisychain01 😍

Aww cake I'm so glad this thread has given you some inspiration. I have had a longterm love affair with two beautiful plants, amaryllis and dahlia. I just love the miracle of such a huge flower emerging from the bulb. And the wonderful varieties and shapes of dahlia.

I'd be more than happy to keep the conversation going on here.

Thank you @PritiPatelsMaker and @LemonJuiceFromConcentrate ❤️

I'm going to check out some YouTubes on how to get them to reflower, I'm not fussed about it happening at Christmas. A lot of the ones I've seen so far are American, so the timings, daylength, etc are wrong. Still some useful information though.

If I find the room, I'd like to have one of the really dark ones, like Black Pearl. There's also Half and Half, which seems to be a new variety and not yet available in this country. Ooh, there's this white one with pink/red edges to the petals, Picotee can't remember the variety. I'll stop now.

And I agree about dahlias. I dare not even look at 'mums and peonies.

These are my £2.99 lidl attempts. 1 looks fabulous and has a 2nd flower spike coming up in the same pot. A 2nd on in the back ground is coming along

The 2nd pic shows my 3rd plant which hasn't flowered as yet, but does have a spike coming up. Does anyone know why there is a random leaf growing out of the soil? I only put 1 bulb into the pot!?!

My money @MarmiteCoriander is that you've got an offset, a leetle baby amaryllis. Lovely btw.

@IcakethereforeIam - Thanks. I wondered the same and was trying to recall whether there was a tiny bulb attached somewhere when I planted the main one? We shall see.