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Amaryllis Care



Everything you need to know to grow and bloom your Amaryllis



Growing & Flowering Your Amaryllis





Growing and flowering your Amaryllis is easy if you follow a few simple steps. Here we'll learn everything from planting your bulb, proper light, fertilizer, and how to give your plant a rest so it can prepare for flowering. We'll start with potting a dormant bulb, since this is how most of us receive our first plant. If you are starting with a plant already in flower, you can skip the potting part of this article, but you'll need to come back to it when you start to grow your bulbs again in late winter/early spring.







Potting



Let's start with potting your Amaryllis bulb, since most us us start with a bulb purchased around Christmas time or as a kit with potting mix and a pot.


Plastic vs. Clay

Either type of pot will work. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A clay pot will dry out much faster than a plastic pot thus requiring more frequent watering. Clay pots have the advantage of being heavy which keeps those huge, top-heave blooms from tipping the plant over.

A good compromise is to grow you bulbs in plastic pots and slip the plastic pot inside a decorative clay pot when it is in flower.


Pot size

Select a pot so there is one inch of space between the bulb and the side of the pot. Amaryllis bulbs don't need a lot of pot space and like to be pot-bound to grow and bloom. A smaller amount of potting mix around the bulb also dries out quickly so the bulb doesn't set too long in wet or moist conditions. This can encourage root and bulb rot.


Soil Mix

We use the same mix for our Amaryllis that we do for our African Violets: One part vermiculite, two parts perlit and one part milled sphagnum peat moss. Never use garden soil, as this will soon become clay and very detrimental to your plant. Amaryllis kits and most standard potting mixes sold over the counter are heavy on the milled sphagnum peat moss in their mix. We suggest adding perlit to these mixes to increase drainage and air flow to the roots.


How to pot

Bury the bulb in your potting mix leaving the top 1/3 of the bulb above the soil surface and 1/2 to 1 inch of space between the soil surface and the top of the pot. This space allows for water to collect when being watered. Again, the inside wall of the pot should be about one inch from the side of the bulb.


Re-pot

Replace the old potting mix every spring. As with all your plants, it's important to keep your potting mix fresh so it doesn't break down and rot your roots.



Light Water & fertilizer



Light

Like most sun-loving plants, the more light you can give your Amaryllis, the better it will grow and flower for you. Since most of us acquire our bulbs/plants during the winter, we'll be growing them in the brightest window we have. Your glass window can intensify spring and summer sunlight, so be careful that the direct sunlight does not burn your leaves. In northern exposures, you may need to provide additional light to get them through the winter. As your bulbs develope bloom stalks, you will need to turn the plant every day to keep the stalk growing straight. These plants can grow so fast, forgetting to turn the plant for a couple of days can result in an arching inflorescence.


Watering

Water your dormant bulb with room temperature water and NO fertilizer. Your bulb does not need fertilizer at this point and can't do anything with it since it has no leaves yet. Place your newly potted and freshly watered Amaryllis bulb in a warm location being careful not to over water or keep the mix too wet. The moist warm conditions will encourage your bulb to "wake up" and start growing new roots, leaves and hopefully flowers. As new roots and leaves develop, you will find that you need to water more often as the plant takes up more water.


Fertilizer

After your bulb as flowered, you can start using a well balanced fertilizer every time you water. We suggest cutting the strength of the fertilizer in half. Use an all-purpose fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 20-20-20. The numbers on your fertilizer should all be about the same. If they vary a little, that's fine. Just make sure you're not using a fertilizer where one number is much higher or lower than the others.

It's a good idea to water with plain water once a month to flush out any fertilizer salt buildup in the soil.

Stop fertilizing about 1 month before dormancy to give the plant a chance to slow down and prepare for its winter slumber.



Summer Care




Once our night temperatures stay above 50F, we move our plants outside for the summer. We begin with them receiving morning sun and afternoon shade for about a week or two. This gives the plants time to acclimate to being outside. We then move them into full sun for most of the day. Remember, the more sun you can give these plants, the better they will grow and flower for you. Sometimes the heat of the afternoon sun will burn the leaves, but new leaves will soon emerge, replacing the old. These new leaves will be acclimated to the brighter light and better suited for summer growing.

Allow your soil to go slightly dry between watering if you can. Sometimes, mother nature does our watering for us and we don't have to worry about fertilizer salt buildup as the rain waters our plants for us.

We keep our plants off the ground so bugs do not take up residency in our pots. This isn't always a fool-proof measure, but it does help.



Dormancy



In the fall, temperatures start to drop at night and daylight becomes shorter. These events tell our plants that it's time to go dormant and make preparations for spring blooms.


When night temperatures drop into the 40Fs we stop watering our plants and bring them in for the winter.

Now is a good time to re-pot your plant if you're concerned about bringing hitchhikers in your soil. Alternatively, you can wait until spring to re-pot. In either case, keep the soil dry and your plants in a cool dry place with good air movement.

We have heard that if you tip your pots on their side, this will encourage flowering in the spring. We haven't tried this, but it makes since that the plants would 'sense' being disturbed and make flowers as a survival response.

If your plants have had ample sun during the summer, they will flower in the spring.

Although your bulbs may appear to be sleeping during dormancy, they are busy preparing flowers for spring. give them time to rest and prepare. They will tell you when they are ready to flower by pushing up leaves or flower buds to the top of the bulbs. Once you see this, it's time to restart the cycle over again.



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