For Balcony

When I've grown them the flower always appears before the leaves.

There's nothing wrong with your Amaryllis, Julia, as Hywel says the flower stem (scape) often appears before the leaves. In fact just a couple of weeks ago I started into growth 4 pots of Amaryllis, one is from my son from Christmas 2022. At the moment there are no signs of any buds in the necks of the bulbs just the leaf tips emerging. The buds will appear when they are good & ready. So I'm not worried.

If by planting the bulbs in September you aim to get flowers for Christmas you had better know how to go about doing that - or buy new bulbs!

It's not as simple as planting any bulb & expecting it to flower when you want it to! Unless its a bought bulb, & not one of your own, then that's no problem. In fact you will want to plant it a lot later if you want flowers for Christmas.

Amaryllis, if left to their own devices, will flower in March/April! To get flowers for Christmas the bulbs have to be prepared or forced - like Hyacinths, you wouldn't expect to see a Hyacinth flowering in your garden at Christmas, would you? But just like Daffs & Hyacinths need a couple of months of cold & rest before they flower in the garden so Amaryllis need the same. The only difference is that Amaryllis, while needing a cold, rest period, mustn't be allowed to freeze.

If you have a bulb you want to flower at a certain time you must provide the right conditions; a cold, dry period for 2 -3 months. Darkness is not necessary. Then a warm, light position when you can start watering again. Just be careful with watering as the old roots will have dried up & they don't really grow again till the bulb starts to flower. Once the flowers have finished you must let the leaves grow all year till they start to go yellow, like Daffs. You also have to fertilize them while they are growing as Amaryllis are heavy feeders. They need a lot of nutrients to produce the enormous flowers typical of Amaryllis.

You can always write on here in the future if you need anything else to do with Amaryllis or PM me.

Yes, that's normal. Sometimes they grow before the flowers open, other times they start to grow when the flowers are going over! When the flowers are over just cut them off -but be careful as the dying flowers can dirty your clothes. But they won't leave a permanent stain not will they hurt your skin if you happen to get some on your hands.