Trying amaryllis

I found some red amaryllis bulbs that I"m going to try. They were on clearance from Christmas. Anyone have any tips or suggestions for planting? I'd like to put them out in the yard under some trees. I don't think they'll take the hot summer sun here in FL. I'm in zone 9B.

all I know is they like their neck and shoulders above ground and flower better when pot bound.

Butterfly, my mother lived in Kissimmee, and had several amaryllis which all bloomed for her. I believe they got some late afternoon shade. (Sorry I cannot ask her for specifics... her stroke has left some holes in her memory.)

BG, I have some planted in rolling shade and some in mostly sun and will be planting some in full sun to see what happens. THey bloomed last year.

We have ours in partial shade underneath some trees that are high branching i.e. old oaks...

they bloom very well for us

Katrina

Just be careful if you have snails or slugs. They will eat the whole bulb! and do enough harm in one night that the bulb will never recover.

I have another question about amaryllis. My sister dug up a huge clump of them and brought them to me to plant. Trying to separate them from the clump, I damaged many of them. But most still have roots. Will the damgaged ones still live and bloom? How mush damage can the bulb take before it is not any good? Cheryl

This message was edited Monday, Jan 20th 10:46 AM

depends on what you call damage. can you elaborate for you to be able to tell you?

Were they dormant or growing? If they had green leaves and you cut their roots I would think you may lose a blooming season or 2.

I just love amaryllis. I buy tons of them every year and grow them first indoors. I plant them in those huge pressed glass pedestal punch bowls of the 1920's. I put 3 to 4 in one bowl. And even after the blooming, the lush green strapping leaves look great in the pedestal bowls.

I have so many this year and then I just succumbed to Jackson and Perkins and Harry and David's after Christmas sale. Their bulbs are better then most. You can buy them in bags so they are much cheaper. I also bought some for Valentine's presents and had them hold them and send them later. They were half price.

Another trick is to put them in your refrigerator and then take them out as your current ones finish blooming......you can have them for months if you retard their growth in the fridge. I use them instead of cut flowers alot of weeks.

Home Depot had lots of them this year, but unless you pick thru and get the biggest bulbs, they usually do not bloom or maybe you will ge only one stalk to a bulb. They had a some different ones this year. I got some Amputo ones that I have only seen at Van Engelen. I usually plant the HD ones outdoors before they bloom, while I plant the better ones indoors to bloom then move them outdoors.

I hope you get great flowers ButterflyGardnr!

I just recently cut them so they were beginning to die back from blooming when they were lifted out of the ground. I cut off chunks to try and not cut through the bulbs but I did cut through the edge of a lot of them. Some of them were almost halved bu most had one side cut off. But like I said the roots were still good. I planted some of the least damgaged ones in my bed but the most damamged ones I dd not know what to do with. Cheryl

PLant them.

Anyone know how long they take to bloom from seed?I crossed 2 of mine last year and surprized my self by getting the seeds to germinate,have about 30 babies,don't know what to do wth them all...LOL

But is this one of those 6 year plans?

Horticulture society A-Z of garden plants says for the large size Amaryllis (Hippeastrum),Sow seed at 61°-64°F as soon as ripe; keep sedlings growing with no dormant period to encourage early flowering, then remove the offsets in autumn. For standard Amaryllis (A. belladona) all is same except to continue growing offset bulbs for 2 seasons before planting outdoors. What you normally get at stores are Hippeastrum.

here is picture of Amaryllis belladona:
http://davesgarden.com/t/316572/

I did get some blooms, but only one of the plants was properly labeled as "Red Lion"--I really like that one with the deep red color. The other with the red striping is ok, too. Here is "Red Lion"...

This was supposed to also be "Red Lion" but obviously wasn't...