Amaryllis hybrids with buds in kitchen 14th January 2017 001

My Christmas gift bulb is just beginning to shoot David :o)

Those are looking healthy !

That's really good, Amy. :-)) Now just keep them in a light, frost free place & in about 6-8 weeks the flowers will open. Don't worry about watering them at present as the roots won't have grown much yet & you risk rotting them. They have more than sufficient water in their bulbs to tide them over till the new roots begin to grow quickly. You will notice that when the leaves begin to grow vigorously. Above all don't leave them with water in the saucer or they will surely rot. Once the leaves are growing strongly you can water them more often.

Once the flower head has finished you can cut it out at the base, just over the top of the bulb or leave it to die down naturally. I, personally, like to leave the stem to die down naturally as it contains a lot of water (as you will know if you ever cut one!) & I like to think this is reabsorbed back into the bulb while the roots are growing.

I water mine with a general, all purpose fertilizer till late June then as summer gets under way I water them weekly for 3 months with a tomato or rose fertilizer.

But use your judgement & don't be too strict about watering them weekly. If the pot is quite wet wait till the following week & NEVER leave them standing in a saucer of water for more than a day at most. Amaryllis have very thick, fleshy roots which store a lot of water & therefore will rot quite quickly if they stand in water for long periods of time. They much prefer to be dry than too wet.

When I have grown them on Gerry's allotments I've been known to go down & empty the saucers after a day of heavy rain & if I suspect more rain during the coming days I turn the saucers upside down & place the pots over two so they can drain very well. It has worked for me & I don't think I've lost any bulbs through them having been waterlogged while down on the allotment. Obviously if it rained much I couldn't work on the plots but I still went down to empty out any water in the saucers after a day of rain.