Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Amaryllis thread part 2 , 0 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
My amaryllises were really neglected last year, spent the summer in the basement with infrequent watering... most hung in there, but I only got a few blooms from my older bulbs. So I've been enjoying blooms from some bulbs I bought in the fall. Some have been slow to break dormancy, just now showing a bud tip, so we'll have blooms for a while.

I've found that if I keep them in their pots, water regularly, and fertilize occasionally, bringing them outside for the summer so they get good sunshine, the bulbs will recover at least to the size they were when I bought them (before they bloomed), and usually they get a little bigger (bigger = more bloom stalks). I'm sure they'd love manure teas, but they get along all right with half-strength or quarter-strength miracle gro. (I almost never use full strength miracle gro on potted plants, especially not during slow winter growth.)

The times that I have planted them out in a garden bed were when I got really good growth on the bulbs, including the formation of little offset bulbs. I am planning on putting all my amaryllis bulbs into the bed below my deck this summer, with a soaker hose running alongside them. I'll add some Osmocote (the veggie one, 10-10-10) at planting time and try to give them some manure tea and so forth during the summer also. I even reclaimed some bulbs I gave to my mom & my DMIL for the holidays, so they can spend the summer in what Jim is referring to as "Jill's Amaryllis Spa."

I've got a flat of amaryllis seedlings that made it through the summer and are starting to get a little size to their bulbs... I think it'll be a couple more years before they bloom, but maybe I'll try putting them out in the garden bed also and see if that speeds up their growth!

If amaryllises weren't so tough and easy to grow, I'd never have the patience to grow them from seed... but it's really a "set it up & forget it" sort of project... stick them at the back of your plant shelf, give them a little water on occasion, and they'll keep doing their thing until they've reached blooming size.

I wrote an article on growing them from seed... http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2977/ Give it a try, even if you just grow a couple of seedlings. It's fun to experiment with different crosses. I couldn't resist trying to cross 'Lima' and 'Benfica' this year, since I love the deep cranberry red color on both of them... LOL, I will probably end up with pink-blooming offspring or something totally unexpected.

'Princess' is a pretty double miniature (shorter stems that don't need support... I'm getting fond of minis!) that bloomed last week for me. The color isn't red, but rather an intense rose-pink shading across the white blooms. It has the picotee edges that I love, too!