Why won't an amaryllis rebloom?

My friend has an amaryllis that she got 3 years ago. It bloomed the first year, but never again. It does die down and go dormant, then start growing again, but only gets 4 or 5 leaves and just kinda sits there. I've searched for an answer for her, but haven't found one. Any ideas as to what she is doing wrong? It's definitely not crowded in it's pot either.
Joan

you should read all in info available at this site dedicated to Amarylis http://www.veronicareadhippeastrum.com

Mark

same thing as mine too.

plants, regardless of variety, like people need to eat. wonder when the last time ur friend fertilize the plant??? there are other considerations too... amaryllis love to be snug on a pot. my amaryllis are planted on pots with only about an inch space between the bulb and the pot. when planting i add fertilizer on the soil, during growing season, i liquid fertilize twice a month. once they have outgrown their pot, i move to a pot next size from the original pot size. hope that helps... ma vie

Thank you. I will pass that information along. My friend is my co-worker too, and she brought the thing to work today, so trying to make it bloom again will be an office project. The bulb is in a pot twice as big as it is. Maybe we should put it in a smaller one? Also, I don't know when the last time was she fertilized it, but maybe we will try that too. I have some all-purpose plant fertilizer, will it work to just sprinkle some of that on the dirt or should we get something else? I'm not a houseplant person, can you tell? LOL!

print this url & give it to ur friend... http://pine.usask.ca/cofa/departments/hort/hortinfo/plants/amaryll.html it has all the info i believe she will need.

Did it ever work out???? I have had one in a pot since Christmas. the bulb was a gift. And its grown maybe an inch ....and thats probably stretching it. Its in a morning sun window in a warm room and nothing has happened. It was from the Arbor society andit came with a guaerntee to bloom. Right!

yes it does MM. here is another url for u to try, just in case u are in doubt... http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/Horticulture/g188.htm ... mine is having not one but 2 buds!!!

lolol! it says EASILY GROWN! HAH! I"ll have to drag myself up to my glass studio where it is and take a photo of it for you and post it.You will not believe how it hasn;t grown!

mingsmimi, I'm in the same boat as you, no progress whatsoever and I feed mine :(

mine would grow if I gave it a filet! lolol. Its a shame. i was so looking forward to it too. I will post a photo of it over the weekend and you can see how pity~ful it is

MM,

are u by any chance over watering??? how long has it been since u last feed ur amaryllis? i do mix my own soil, add fertilizer when i first planted. amaryllis loves to be snug in a small pot- with about 1-2 inches space from the bulb to the edge of the pot. so far mine bloom for me every year. no problem there. after the last bloom, i held off water for a while and put it side. earlier this year is when i resume watering. during the dormant season, i barely water to prevent it from drying completely. sort of stressing the plant some. they need to rest during dormancy to produce good flowers. the leaves on the amaryllis i have is about 2'tall, the bulb is about 3" in circumference. i will try to post a pic for u tomorrow, if not send u the photo, so u see what i am talking about.

edited to add link http://davesgarden.com/showthread/186093.html

This message was edited Saturday, Feb 23rd 5:00 AM

Perhaps they don't do wellin North Dakota. Send to Texas where we can pamper the bulb nearer their normal habitat. I fthey do well, we'll send pic's. Get over zone denial!

how are u Alhanks ;)? got any bulbs/rhyzome to trade? i read u got a wonderful garden!!!

btw... my amaryllis is in the house, not outside... ma vie

My amarylliss live outside in the my garden. I usually try to buy a new one each each year to force in the house for Christmas. Afterwards I plant in garden. They are huge bulbs not rhyzome.....I thought a gardening guru like you would know that! I do have a wonderful garden and could be tempted to trade. Whatcha' got in mind?

when i meant rhyzome... i was referring to ginger plants. i just thought u might have extra bulbs or rhyzomes. what are u looking for? i have lots of asiatic and oriental lilies around if interested to trade?

food? hummmm No food. atered once a week. Maybe I am killing it and not knowingit. I;m a bad mother!

MM... by now u know why i love to research plants and help others. doing research does pay off to learn as i try to help. knowledge gained, my plants benefit for knowledge learned. in turn my plants give me great pleasures.

Feel free to correct me here, but I was under the impression that amaryllis need a dry, dark dormant period in order to produce blooms. Water well first time, and let alone until almost dry and then begin watering once a week until blooming and through the leaves green life. Can be left in the ground zones 7-10....lower zones lift and store.
Will not bloom if planted with less than 1/3 bulb above soil level. Fertilize twice a month.

"eyes"

Eyes... that is what i've read too, if u want to force 'em to bloom. i never force my amarylis to bloom. i go the natural route.

my experience was when i 1st got this amaryllis i am referring to and didn't know any better. since i got a big bulb, i placed in a 3 gal. pot... it didn't do nothing. immediately after i have done research i moved it to a gal. pot... followed direction. the amaryllis start growing nicely and bloomed. this amaryllis i am referring to is the 'Stitched Red' variety http://www.aaronscanna-amaryllis.com/Amaryllis/dutch2.html. it has been doing great since then. i keep 'em indoors cause the winds here are too strong. and winter temperature sometimes go down to 10 deg. F. i was afraid the winds would break the flower bud or the flower stem for lack of a better term to use. the leaves areabout 3" wide and long. the plant itself from ground level up is more than 2' tall. right now it has one bud on each side.

whereas the others i got in a trade 2 yrs. ago, supposed to be red... planted outside on the ground. never bloomed... it just keep producing new babies, no blooms. i do not know the variety since i never saw any blossom. last month, i dug out some of the bulb[planted in pots] and been observing what will happen.the other bulb i left on the ground. will keep u posted.

see, here in my zone. they have them in boxes at christmas time and they are already started and you just let them grow in pots. This came in a box, I just put it in a pot of potting soil..This is teh first one that I have started that wasn;t already green and growing. It was just the bulb, more or less. more Less than more!

Same thing here Mingsmimi and I live in zone 5 too. I have mine in the house but I see this beautiful Amaryllis every time I drive to my friends house in someone's yard that is still in full bloom even with this horrible cold weather we are having. I'm amazed every time I see it because it's the only thing that is green and blooming :)
Mine is not doing diddly squat

lolol. I hear ya!

Good morning all,

I have about 8 amaryllis bulbs outside in my garden, south side of the house. They are heavy, heavy eaters (that big bulb!)and I've already had one plant with 2 blooms and a third is coming. In my other patch, I counted 5 blooms coming up. I feed them a mixture of: 1/2 c. epsom salts, 1/2 c. bone meal, 1/2 c. blood meal (smelly stuff), 3 T. super phosphate and 3 T bulb food. Mix together and this will be enough for a clump of three bulbs. This also works well for agapanthus and daylilies.

This is my website and if you go to Flowers and check on amaryllis, agapanthus and daylily, you'll see some of my bulbs. The amaryllis picture was taken just a couple weeks ago.

http://home.cfl.rr.com/pamj/Flowers/index.htm

Does anyone else garden in Central Florida??

I have about 10 pots of amaryllis that are starting to bloom now. This is their 3rd year, and all will bloom again, as they did last year. When the weather warms in the spring (I am zone 4b) I put the pots outside on the south side of my house and let 'em do their thing. I water when soil is dry, and fertilize once a week with Miracle grow, like I do with all my other potted plants. Mid September, I put them, still in their pots, in the dark old wood cellar of my house, and bring them up about Christmastime. I don't care that they don't bloom for Christmas, flowers at this time of the year are great too. I bought a 40cm. bulb last fall, it is blooming with its 3rd flower stalk right now. The first one had 6, the 2nd one had 5, and this one has 6. He will take ALOT of fertilizer to get built back up. Most of my bulbs that are blooming now are going to have 2 flower stalks, so I must be doing something right. I'll not repot till the kids they are all having push the pot out of shape. Oh, and one of the "kids" bloomed this year too, nice big flowers just like mom's. The kid is still attached to the mom bulb.

that is the key Anna_Z!! do not over water. some people are heavy into over watering, which is a total mistake! i allow most of my plants indoor to dry out before i water again. good work! Congratulations.... ma vie

Alhanks - I'm sure an amaryllis would hate living outside in North Dakota's zone 4, and I never meant to imply with my original post that I expected it to. I'm sorry for that misconception. I don't know if it's actually zone denial that I have though. I guess maybe it is, but I also like to have pretty flowers even if they are inside. This one, however, doesn't belong to me, it belongs to a friend who got it as a Christmas present several years ago. I was just trying to help her figure out how to get it to bloom again, as I know that they will, even here in North Dakota. I will ask her about sending it to Texas though. Since we aren't doing so well with it, she just might be willing to do that.

They are fussy bulbs aren't they!! I recieved one and it is to be in water only..and it did bloom 2 times!! shot up one stem - had 4 flowers and then it seemed like forever shot up another and had 4 more flowers beautiful.. none of mine act the same or behave the same.. another came with pot and soil.. was about 2" for about 2 months-- then all of a sudden got flowers.. wierd.. no rhyme or reason with mine.. but they are pretty things..