Indoor Gardening and Houseplants: Water growen Amaryllis, 1 by kdjoergensen

kdjoergensen wrote:
This is an excellent thread. A lot of goods comments.

Caron, nice to hear 'bout your flower-power amaryllis.

I don't doubt that you can get 4 flower stalks (I have had this, too) but this is not extremely commen for the small 22-24 cms bulbs from walmart. Just didn't want anyone to get excited and then let down.

If I am not mistaken, a flower stalk is initiated inside the bulb for every 4-5 leaves produced during the active growing season (do I remember right ??). Last year I had my plant producing 22 leaves, which would correspond to 4 flower stalks. I had the bulbs shown below in dormancy for 3 months, and now 2 flower stalks are showing. I would not be surprised (and definitely not disappointed either .. *lol*) if it sends out more than 2 flower scapes this year. However, I have never bought a bulb at discount stores that did this (but if you are lucky you once in a while can pickup nice stuff, eh ?)


As far as I remember, the bulbs grown in water (vases) rest on part of the glass vase with the roots growing into the water. The water level never reach so high as to touch the bulb. I don't think you have to worry about rotting, in fact, a poorly drained soil outdoors, or a pot where the saucer does not get emptied, are probably more likely causes of rotting whereas the vase type growing will usually not rot the bulbs.

What I did find, however, is that you need to remove any dead roots (not the plump life ones, but the dead ones) as they can foul up the water in no time. Changing water frequently is recommended. Once the roots start to grow, you can even add liquid fertilizer to the water every week and get good bulb grow. My main problem was keeping the darn thing straight on the vase without tipping over - especially when flowering.

Personally, I do prefer planted bulbs as opposed to water grown bulbs, but just saying that it can succesfully be done (I have done it several times because the family likes to watch the roots growing into the vase). If you fertilize the water, you can even get very good bulb growth.