Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Indoor gardens fall winter 2013, 2 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Cat--

In the 3rd picture of the Amaryllis bulb---it looks to me that the "neck" of the bulb
is too long and should have been cut back. I do this every year...
After all the blooming and growing the "neck" elongates with old growth.

A few weeks after the beginning of the dormancy (all leaves have yellowed and fallen off)
you should take a sharp, clean knife and slice the "neck" straight across closer to the bulb.

If you look in your picture--there is a bloom bud coming out from below all the "neck" layers.
That should tell you that all that "stuff" above the bulb is NOT necessary.
It is just baggage! Can you see it looking at it?

The bulb in the last picture looks like it could use the neck trimmed down.
The worry I have is that, just maybe, the new leaves and the bloom MAY already
be on their way inside the neck. That is why you cut them back way before
they would put out new growth.
I would chance it and cut it off level no longer that 1" above the bulb.
Do it in baby steps--and see what shows....

Cutting the necks back opens up the tight rings of the leaf remnants the
new growth has to navigate through...You caan, immediately, see if the
growth is a bud of just leaves.

I will go downstairs and take a picture to show you what i am talking about.

G.

Here are 2 different pots --they are still bone dry--but some leaves are trying
to come through. They were there before I even brought them in, so they don't count!

See how I have cut the necks straight across? I do this every winter....then I wait....