Amaryllis Planting and Care

Thank you Balcony. Seems a bit cruel making mine bloom again. Think I will let it have a cool rest for a year.

Thanks so much for this Balc, I'm just enjoying the second stem full of flowers of mine.. Now I know exactly how to look after it for next winter, and it's such a beauty, I do want to nurture it..:))

Balcony I think you have given me my answer as to why I don't ever get repeat flowers, its the apples, I've always rested my bulbs in the bottom g'house under the shelving, trouble is I have other years stored trays of apples in the same place for feeding the birds..Guess its time to give up on my bulbs and buy new ones, thankyou for the tip....

I'm glad this blog has helped people once again!

Diane, there is no need to worry about your bulbs I get mine to flower year in year out! You'd expect Daffodils, for example, to flower year after year, wouldn't you? Well then why not get your Amaryllis to do the same! If you treat them right then they will flower for you every year, just like Daffs!

Glad to be of help, Janey! ??

Lincslass, I seem to remember you have commented other times about your Amaryllis not flowering & you had me stumped! I'm glad now you have discovered that storing them with apples will make them sterile! I hope in the future your Amaryllis will flower - year after year! ?

Thanks. They are beautiful aren't they. We didn't get any this year.

You're welcome, Hywel. Don't you keep the bulbs after flowering? They are as easy as Daffodils to look after! They need very little fuss & can flower year after year, they are not at all difficult to grow & get to flower year after year! I'm sure if you can get your Fuchsias to live & flower for years you would have no trouble getting Amaryllis to do the same!

Can't ever get them to flower nicely after the first year. The one I had died last summer.

That's right Balcony, I will purchase new ones for next year and make sure they go nowhere near any apples in the future...

Sorry to hear about your Amaryllis dying on you last summer, Hywel ? Did you perhaps overwater it? They are difficult to kill any other way!

The bulbs have very thick roots & so hate being in waterlogged conditions which cause them to rot quite quickly. Even I've lost a couple over the years due to overwatering! They resist drought far, far better than overwatering. I stop all water for my plants at the end of September but to look at them a couple of months later you'd hardly notice the difference!

I don't know what I did to it. It just grew a few weedy leaves and then died. They always do the same - they just shrivel up.

I've grown them ever since a sister of mine gave me my very first one for Christmas - in 1981!

I can only think of one possible explanation for that happening & that is your bulb may have Narcissus Fly grubs eating their insides!

These flies lay their eggs at the base of the bulbs & then the lava tunnel inside the bulbs & feed on the interior of the bulbs which probably explains why your bulbs are shriveling up & dying on you.

It happened to me for the very first time back in 2010. That was the first year I joined Gerry on his allotments. In May 2010 I took all my Amaryllis down to the allotment & planted them all in the ground. Unfortunately I chose to plant them near Gerry's Daffodils which were dying down (it was May) but I didn't realize that they had Narcissus Fly & neither did I know at that time that the grubs could eat out the heart of my Amaryllis!

During the summer I noticed that some of the bulbs didn't seem to be growing very well - if at all! Some of them had yellow, stunted or twisted leaves but as I was always busy on the allotment I didn't take much notice. When I went to dig them up in October to take home I discovered some of them had a small hole near the basal plate. These were the bulbs that looked bad & so I threw them away. It never occurred to me to cut one or two open or I would have found the grubs.

I commented on these poor looking bulbs & the holes in the bulbs & someone suggested Narcissus Fly could be the culprit. It may have been someone in an Amaryllis group I joined on Facebook, I'm not sure. Anyway the following years I took them down to the allotment again but left them in their pots & put the pots on shelving way above ground level & I have never had a repeat of the incident.

That might be what happened to your bulb, Hywel.

That could be it, I also have poor success with daffodils.