Amaryllis
By Aleyna
- 31 May, 2018
- 4 likes
I won this amaryllis last year in June. She had four flower buds that opened the following week. After these flowers withered, another has appeared with four more flower buds that also opened. Since then she is like this, with green foliage and no flowers. I do not know what to do. Any suggestion?
Comments on this photo
It's normal for them to grow leaves for about six months after they flower. You can read some of my many blogs on growing Amaryllis.
I have had 38 plants that have flowered for me, I have about 9 in flower right now on our living room table! I still have more to come yet!
Let your plant grow its leaves & feed it regularly while they are growing. Just today I gave all my Amaryllis plants a watering with a general fertilizer mixed into the water according to the instructions on the bottle. I generally feed my Amaryllis with general fertilizer for 3 months, to encourage the leaves to grow, then another 3 months with a tomato, or rose, fertilizer which has a lot of Potash, which is good for making next year's flowers. Do NOT cut back the leaves or they won't have flowers next year!
4 Jun, 2018
Aleyna is in Brasil, so the seasons are reversed. If the bulb had been forced into flowering, it could need some time to adjust back to a regular season.
4 Jun, 2018
Thank you Wylieintheazores and Balcony for your comments and tips.Wylieintheazores might be right about the pland has been forced. Flowers stores are known for these manouvers. It will be winter season in 20 days, so I will fertilize it for the next three months.
5 Jun, 2018
Whylie is probably right about it having been forced. It's a very common practice here in the UK to force them for December when they naturally tend to flower in April or May here. I have some pots of Amaryllis flowering right now on our living room table. I have had plants in flower since March this year & will still have plants flowering right up & into July!
If it is almost the winter for you then perhaps it would be better off not being fed. I'm not sure as I've never had a forced plant before so I don't know very well what to do with it.
On 2nd thoughts, perhaps you could feed it as I imagine the winter months in Brazil are a lot warmer than here in the UK! Just keep it growing till the leaves show signs of going yellow. But as it is warm there it might not hibernate but the leaves may stay green all the time & you will not know when it has stopped growing! Rather like when I used to keep them over winter on the windowsills of our flat. The leaves were green all winter & didn't turn yellow.
Having no experience at all of what the winter months are like in a climate like yours I don't know what to advise you! See if you can find somebody in your part of Brazil that has grown Amaryllis & they perhaps could advise you better than me.
You could look for a gardening forum in your country & see what they have to say about growing Amaryllis during your winter.
Another possibility is doing a search online & look for comments on how best to grow them there.
5 Jun, 2018
This past fall I added the bulbs of 3 Hippeastrums to my bulb group: H. papilio, H. striatum, and H. yungacense. I kept them lightly moist through the winter, and have now started watering & feeding them regularly. They are growing, but it will take another season or two before there are flowers because I bought young bulbs - much less expensive than a flowering size bulb. They never went completely dormant, but these are species types and not the hybrids.
6 Jun, 2018
Thank you again Wylie and Balcony. Looked for informations and found it out this: "Depending on the hybrid and climate, the leaves may disappear during the winter, in which case the watering should be reduced until the leaves of the plant are dried. Thus, in cold and dry winter, the plant goes into numbness and prepares for the new flowering. In early spring the flowers appear even before the leaves, in a way so fast and spectacular that it impresses."
The behavior of amarilis appears to be similar to scadoxus multilforus. After flowering, I prune the leaves and stop watering until early summer.
Now I am in doubt whether I should prune the leaves or not.
One expert says the leaves should be pruned early in winter if they do not yellow, another says the leaves disappear naturally.
Those of my plant look very strong and showy. I think I'll stop wetting.
Let's see what happens.
6 Jun, 2018
If your plants finished flowering only a short time ago & if your winter is warm then I see no harm in watering & feeding for a few months.
Do NOT cut the leaves back, especially if they are growing strongly, as you say. Doing so will stop the flowers from forming in the bulb for next year.
No bulb should have its leaves cut off as this will inhibit future flowering. Bulbs store energy for flowering in the bulb as the leaves grow & then start to die down & if you interrupt this process you will only get leaves the following year. This is true for ALL bulbs, not just Amaryllis.
7 Jun, 2018
Thanks for the information about the bulbs Balcony
11 Jun, 2018
You're welcome, Aleyna.
Only a few days ago I saw Daffodils leaves tied up in a knot in a garden I passed by. While not quite as bad as cutting them off, tying them up also reduces their ability to collect & store as much energy as they can to make flowers for the following year so therefore this should not be done either.
11 Jun, 2018
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Did you let it go dormant after the last flowers? There are a lot of videos on YouTube that show what to do after flowering. It should be easy for you since hippeastrums are native to Brasil. Also, they may be waiting for your spring to arrive.
31 May, 2018