Amaryllis

[Maggiethecat]

Excited to have got mine now.

Got one in a glass vase with clay pebbles but the care instructions do not mention watering. Is that an oversight?

Yes, you’ll need to water as needed.

If you want to keep the bulb for flowering in later years, you’d be better off with soil. There’s not enough nutrients in water to build up the bulb for flowering next year. But if you’re happy to re-buy next year, water will be fine. There used to be a fashion for hyacinth glasses, a glass vessel with a constriction half way to hold the hyacinth bulb. You kept the lower part full of water, and the glass meant you could see the roots fanning out in the water.

Aah ok, I’ll leave some of the pebbles at the bottom for weight and finish off with potting soil on top as I would like to have a shot at them flowering again.

I thought I'd bump your Amaryllis thread, @Maggiethecat as I've only just put my (5) Amaryllis bulbs into soak, in camomile tea in a bucket, ready to plant them tomorrow in separate pots. I'll take them out before bed tonight and wrap loosely in newspaper.

I decided to buy them online this year because I fancied something a bit different

Red Lion (giant bulb - I've got an extra large pot for it) - my fave
Papilio x 2 (they're quite small bulbs) - White with red stripes
Gervase - Pink and white
Green Magic - greeny/cream, with pink edges, quite a small flower.

How are your's doing? You've got 4 weeks on me!

@daisychain01 - I remember your success with the camomile tea!

I soaked the roots of my bulbs this year overnight in water before potting. I wouldn’t say that they’ve shot up brilliantly but they are doing okay. I’ll certainly have some opening up around Xmas.

The flowers in the photo are a £3.99 Lidl bulb that had already sprouted when bought. The one in the green glass vase is from Sainsburys and which I had enquired about in the original post.

The one to the right is a Farmer Gracy - Cherry Nymph, I think. The bulb is massive. I’ve another FG - a Papilio, the bulb is smaller and not much happening at the moment.

Hope you have lots of success growing this year, they certainly make me happy!

@Maggiethecat your collection is looking very healthy. You'll have many weeks of beauty with that lot!

I'm well behind my normal schedule because I've been very busy at work and also jobs in the garden and greenhouse seem to have mounted up this year. I bought a big supply of bulbs which took a while to plant, so i only just got round to got the amaryllis sorted out last weekend. My Red Lion is massive, I had to find a supersize pot for it.

You remembered well re the camomile soak, as I bought the bulbs loose, I made up the tea in a bucket this time and left the 5 bulbs soaking for a few hours, and the other improvement was that I used bulb fibre to see if they like that more (that coir isn't my favourite!). I've heard many positive things about Lidl Amaryllis.

Have fun! I'll post up photos later on when they've sprouted.

I know how it is! Last year I think I planted mine about this time, still managed to get blooms for Xmas.

I speed up sprouting by placing them near radiators or somewhere warm.

I’m going to try to slow things down a bit because it looks that a few might bloom together this/next week.

Not fond of coir either but if I did use it I’d probably try to get the bulb in compost after flowering to try to fatten the bulb for next year.

Look forward to your pics!

I don't have a pic of it, but dd has managed to save hers from last year. She let it grow right up to the end of August, and then stopped watering so the leaves died back. We repotted it in fresh compost a couple of weeks ago. I'll have to ask her how it's getting on.

I hope it does flower again for your dd @Yamadori

It’s brilliant the excitement when you see that stem first poking through!

They flower a bit later if you grow them oN, you won’t get them out for Christmas.

I'm more of a 'get one as a Christmas present and have flowers before March' kind of person.

Ditto. There’s plenty of excitement at Christmas, it’s the grey days afterwards I need help to get through

I have two old amaryllis bulb which have 2/3 leaves but they seem to have come to a standstill and a new one which also isn’t doing much. They are already planted - any ideas as to how I can encourage some growth?

Make sure they're in the right size pots. They seem to be very sensitive to the wrong size especially if too big. Nature is amazing that the bulb should sense that. I only know this because I once planted a bulb in a shallow, wide container and it really didn't like it, so I repotted it into a narrow deeper pot and within a week it sprouted and grew healthily.

Also make sure the bulb is in a good quality compost. Giving it a feed with baby bio may help give it some umph.

Also the right position, in good quality daylight and keep the compost moist (don't over-water). I haven't ever put mine near a radiator so I'll take @Maggiethecat recommendation that they might enjoy a bit of heat to get going and accelerate growth.

All exciting - I love amaryllis when nothing much is happening outdoors in Dec - Feb

My dad has had the same amaryllis bulbs for 40 years..... he's even built it a support frame!!

The new one should grow, but they start slowly because they push out the flower bud first. Leaves don’t start till the flower stem is on its way (One of the reasons to have a bulb is you do all the work one year, then store it all-in the bulb, so next year you can push out your ready-formed flower and monopolise the pollinators while other plants are still growing leaves to get the energy to make their flowers)

The old one probably won’t flower till later in the spring. Or it may not flower - depends how well it grew last year and whether you fed it.

All of mine save one are in full bloom!
Simply beautiful.

@Maggiethecat absolutely gorgeous!!

One of mine is just leaves at the moment , no flower
Will it be OK?

Thanks for posting this thread. I'd forgotten about amarylis. I loved them when I was a teenager.

I'm absolutely creasing myself that the instructions don't saw to water it. LOL.

Can I ask an amaryllis question. I bought one in a box like the one in OPs photo as a present. I have wrapped it up but now I'm worried I shouldn't have wrapped it. Does it need to 'breathe'? Sorry if that's stupid I am not a plant person. Do I need to water it before a Christmas Day?b ut that would involve taking it out of the box.

Is it a new bulb or was it grown before? I struggle to get old bulbs to re flower and am told that it’s likely because the bulb was not nurtured enough to allow it to bloom again.
After flowering this year I’ll keep gently watering until the leaves die back and then store until about summer when I will feed them for a couple of months and then put them away again until November.

It will lay dormant if all wrapped up until it’s taken out, put in growing medium, watered and exposed to light.
Some bulbs may have even started sprouting in their boxes but they’ll be fine until handled as above when proper growth will begin. This would actually give the recipient a bit of a head start.
Don’t worry, it should be fine!

Great thank you.

@Littletreefrog - having said that I would gently suggest to the recipient that they get it going soon after receiving.
I gave one to a friend for Christmas and when I visited her in February, it was still in its box, the poor thing struggling to burst free of it!

I will thank you although they are a lot more plant friendly than me so I'm sure they will.