Okay Garden Stew I need your help here, when it comes to veggies I know what i'm doing,, when it comes to bulbs an flowers,,, not a clue. I recieved an amerylis also for christmas, and its just starting to bloom, so i have been researching on how to take care of it, since bulbs are like alien life forms to me. I get how to talk care of it but what i can't figure out is the seed pod that comes after the flower. Not one article explains. also the children bulbs that may come also after a few yrs... I know someone out there can help me,,, Also this amerylis has one heck of a thick stem on it,, not like all the ones i seen pics of... I'll try to take a pic so you can see,,, thanks
I used to cut the seed pods off when the blooms are done. Then I just watered it, and dug it into a flower bed during summer, pot and all. The leaves died back, and I lifted the pot before frost and put it into the sill. When the leaves and buds started showing, I fertilized with every watering. I don't know whether this is correct, but it bloomed again for me. Then one autumn I forgot to bring it back inside, so the frost killed it.
Hiyah Biita, Well, you have read what Droopy does, and that it is successful. There's nothing I can add to that-- They say thet the shortest distance between two points, is a straight line. What she does is simple and uncomplicated and it gets results. Now if my mate were sitting here at this moment, this is when she'd say, "yes, it works just fine, but you just have to do it defferent, don't you"...and I look up and gaze all innocently at invisible places on the ceiling. --I lop off the stalk when the flowers have finished blooming in the winter. (I have never pollinated the flowers and saved the pods). I continue giving them some some water and occasionally some liquid plant food until I can safely plant them out in the garden in May. --I dig a hole in the garden and fill it with a small amount of bone meal mixed with a good compost and place the bulb in it (no pot), leaving half the bulb sticking out of the soil. I water it a few times during the first 3 weeks in it´s new place, then only as necessary during `droughty` periods. --As the first frosty night approaches (± October), I lift the bulb and clean the dirt off with my hands only. I never wash the dirt off with water, because fungal colonies can form when the skins get wet. --I cut the foilage off about 1½ fingers above the crown of the bulb, then wrap the bulb in old newspaper´-- roots and all, and leave them stored in a cool and dark place until December or so. I sometimes change the newspaper wrapping 3/4 times until it doesn´t get moist anymore from the bulb. Some folks remove the `babies` at this time and wrap them separately, but I do it differently, as you shall see. --When it is time to plant them in pots in order for them flower again, this is when I break-off the `babies` and put them singly in little pots filled with compost and seeding soil mixed. I never give water from above because I have had probs with fungus forming on the dry skins of the bulbs at the soil line. Instead I set a saucer-like thing with highish edges under the pot and apply water from below. The cycle is ´round. While Droopy´s method is quicker and just as effective without all the fuss, I just can´t help doing it this way. I just tell my partner that I feel that it´s `professional-like` to do it this way, which elicits boistrous gales of uncontrolled laughter... :|
Okay here is the pics,, I tried to take the pics from different angles so someone can tell me where will these seed pods be,, the babies, are these the pods or are they bulbs also that grow in the dirt next to the mother bulb. I told all of you i'm just as stupid as can be when it comes to bulbs. What do the seed pods do if they aren't the babies,,, The info that both of you gave me is excellent, an i will follow that. But i think because it never gets above 18-20 deg C up here, i will have to keep it in the house,, what do you think? I mean we have the sun thing going but that don't mean its hot here all the time. so if i keep this in the house because of weather,, i can still follow the guide lines then. or does it change,,, Geez i'm sorry but i honestly don't have a clue with all this,, I panicked when i got an orchid last yr, but did fine with it, so maybe i am panicking over nothing...lol. Thank you so much for helping,, (now if you can just point to where those little pods will be an the babies,, i will be in a state of zen)
Biita, Is that little pink-looking thingy at the edge of the pot in the lower picture a baby? That is where thay can appear. The seed pods will, of course, be up where the flowers will ultimately open from at the upper end of the stalk. I expect that you may get 3-4 flowers there. However, if you want seeds-- pollinate the flowers with pollen from a different plant...then see it it works. I suppose that it would work, but I have never heard of it. AS for the temps, 18/20°... I believe that that will be fine...just choose a protected and very sunny place then.
I will do my best to help....... I will say what I am thinking, and I know that Sjoe will correct this ....New to me. Ok seed pods are out after the flower is done blooming..Yours looks great It will pop in about 4 days from what I see.. You have leafs and mine are just getting some. I think the babies she is refering to , are tiny lil bulbs growing from the mother bulb .. Lilys do that and so do most bulbs like tulips. Your not dumb.. We all started at the bottom, and helped each other.....I was so scared to send my seeds to anyone .. Thought they were not seeds. So I had 2 ladies try them for me, and a year later tell me if they did grow.. See.....Now stop shivering and good luck.. Ps ....my Orchid is now in bud......for 2008.
Wow, thank you,, okay i think i got it as far as seed pods an babies are concerned,,, that pink thing is a piece of rock from outside to hold that big top heavy thing in place,,,lol. if i take it out it tends to start to fall over,, but i read that the dirt that i have is enough an not to add more,, so i plopped a rock in it,,,lol. so far its working,, i guess when the blooms are done and i cut it back i can take the rock out then,,, Thank you for the help Looking at Sjoerd for his other way now,,, this is fun!!!
Any of the commercial liquid plant food for blooming plants that you can buy in supermarkets or garden centers... Like the stuff from Pokon (that´s a brand name). One final tip, Biita: Don't feed the plant if the soil is totally dried out. The roots and soil around them need to be a bit moist otherwise the plant food that you so loveingly give will severely injure, if not kill your plant. I only add this tip because you said yourself that you have no experience with indoor plants.
