I have had this bulb for maybe 25 years now. I just keep watering it and occasionally feed it.. it is very neglected... poor thing. This year, though, It has 6 flower stalks on it and every one is blooming. It is spectacular! and after I uploaded this I see my little clivia in the bottom left corner....Cayuga Morning sent me these as seeds a couple years ago... Thanks Mary.
Such a beautiful Amaryllis! 25 years? That's amazing! I have a hard time keeping them alive for a year!
Man, oh man, oh man...I shall have to fall down on my knees to you, Carolyn. That is an accomplishment like no other. I hold mine over as well, but after a few years give them away and acquire new and different ones. This is such a great accomplishment, albeit one that you do not put much time into. It says a lot about your natural ability. Chapeau! BTW--great job with the Clivia's. That Cayuga woman is too sweet. What a great gift. I hope that it will bloom in a couple more years. Well done on that too. Do you know if it is the orange one or a different colour.
Thanks Netty and Sjoerd. I really don't do anything special to it. Maybe its the weather here. No idea what color the clivia is. I don't expect to see a bloom for several years.
Why, thank you Zuzu! I just don't have the heart to toss a perfectly good bulb... I let the foliage stay on there as long as it is green. I never clip the foliage off. if it goes dormant fine, if not... fine. I just keep watering it. This year I think I need to pot it up or divide the bulbs.
Oh dear how I wish I hadn't thrown out my amaryllis bulbs now. If I ever get another I'll do exactly what you have with yours as it obviously works. Your clivia is doing wonderfully too. I have one and the flowers are orange with a white centre - maybe yours will be the same. It had ten flowers on its stalk this year and looked lovely.
Eileen, I have no idea what color it is. I had a friend offer me one of hers when she divides it and she doesn't offer them to "just anyone"... I was quite honored, but I turned her down, then changed my mind and said I would trade her one of mine for one of hers. My other one Waretrop sent me and it is beautiful, too. It is a peachy orange with a yellow throat. I will have to look through my files to see if I have a pic of it.
Oh dear...this thread has made me realize that I, neophyte that I am to gardening, am an Amaryllis killer!! I got an Amaryllis kit couple christmases ago..y'know, a bulb, planting medium, pot etc. I planted it and got a kinda ugly stalk that wouldn't stand upright, with one sort of deformed looking bloom at the very end of the stalk. It was not a happy looking plant and honestly I was relieved when it died back enough that I thought it was done for and threw it away. I had no idea they came back!! So in essence I trashed a plant that had just gone dormant, not dead. Oh dear. Now I feel like I make up for that by buying another one and showering it with love and attention.
Aww, Ronni! just try it again. Don't feel too bad. It is what it is. I do have the advantage of keeping it in a greenhouse and never do I have to bring it inside and see it struggle because there just isn't adequate light and humidity for it. They really are marketed as a disposable item. don't feel so bad.
Carolyn is right--they are indeed marketed as a disposable item. Ridiculous, I know....but it is true. I do not know a single other person over here that saves theirs, besides myself. It is sort of crazy, that. Ronni, it is possible that how things went with your Amy was down to its handling. Do you think that could be true? I have notes that I have to turn the plants on the windowsill daily, otherwise the bloom stem will arch over dramatically towards the light. Further, when it becomes really tall, I have to stabilize it with one or two little bamboo sticks (or sticks that come with orchid plants). Watering is another thing...I give my flowering amaryllis almost no water whilst it is blooming. Why is that , do you think? It is because the nature of the plant is to throw-up a bloom stem from the bulb itself. It would produce a flower even if it was not in soil. All the production and life comes from the bulb. See, what I mean. The reason that one holds the plant over is to let leaves grow to allow the bulb to swell again before repeating the flowering again the following season. Hoe does this happen then? By planting it is soil (either in a pot or in the open ground , as I do). This way it gets plenty of water and develops roots that take minerals from the soil... and in the presence of sunlight utilized the elements in the air and from the ground to re-swell the bulb. So you can see, there really is no reason to throw them away simply because the blooming is over. Granted that if you push in on the brown husk of the bulb after blooming, you will notice that there is suddenly a noticeable air gap between the husk and the hardness of the bulb. This is because it has shrunken during the process of making the flower stems with their flowers. I have just described what one can do above, to return your bulb then to it's former robustness. Try it next season, You may be pleasantly surprised. Fingers crossed forya.
Don't know how I missed this post til now, but the Amaryllis are beautiful. They are one of my favorite bulbs and I'm glad to hear that they can last so long. I had no idea.
One of the advantages of living in the steamy south is we just stick amarilises in the ground and forget them. They come back year after year. our Dark Red ones we got from Peggys old uncle and ant have been blooming for several weeks now. our candy cane ones are later blooming so haven't shown yet.
