Mattbonsai

Hi all,

I've just purchased 2 Amarylis bulbs, Picotee and Mary Jane (Cultivars), And I want to keep them for a few years, mum gets one from grandad every year, and every year after it flowers she cuts it down, leaves it a couple of months, it does nothing so she bins it.

Does anyone know the secret to getting the bulbs to grow again year after year? If it is at all possible?

Cheers,

-matt-

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Prowler

Yes.
Cut off the flowers when they wilt, hardly any water, when leaves wilt cut them off.
Roll them up in newspaper, put them in an airing cupboard, check once a month for new roots, once they are quite long, pot them up.
Not my idea but the wifes, but it works. Cheers.

Attached Images

ama2.JPG (43.0 KB, 6 views)

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centaura

My mother would let them dry out, then she'd chop the leaves off and put it away in the storage room. Usually several months would go by, but then eventually they would through a new flower bud. That's when we take it out, water it again, let the leaves grow for a few months after the flower is gone, and start over.

It always worked for her, though I just had my first one through leaves at me instead of a new bud, and now its all leafed out but no flower. I'm going to let it go for a while and cut it off and start again - maybe next year I'll get a bud.

-Centaura

Mattbonsai

Cheers Mrs Prowler :, I've always like Amarylis, but I was put off by my mum not being able (or willing) to keep them year after year ( I really don't like and don't see the point in annual plants).
I think its fascinating the way they grow towards the light, we've had some before that actually kept pushing their pots off the windowsill where we wern't turning them often enough, and this was sometimes during one day after being turned! :

Cheers, Centaura, I've got two bulbs so I can probably try both methods, and when my mum gets another one this year I can try any other methods which arise

-matt-

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Prowler

Centaura
Those old geezers new how to grow plants.
The wifes ones grow very long leaves for a start, she has to tie them together.
You will see a small thing almost like a spear growing, once that starts they grow like a rocket, that particular one in the pic has four heads to it and large blooms. Cheers.

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Prowler

Mr Matt.
Forgot to say at this time of year supermarkets have them for sale, all diff. colours.
They come planted up in a pot, the compost looks like Peat, so don't go dragging them out and use any fancy Japanese stuff, leave well alone.
If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.
Don't bury the bulb leave about a quarter of it above compost.

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Mattbonsai

Prowler, Mum wont let me pot hers up, but for my two when I bought them they came bare rooted (one even had a little bulbil sticking out of the base), I just put them in plain old multi - purpose, most things I grow do fine in it, I even grow trees in it until they are ready to put into a decent more expensive soil.

I don't use any fancy Japanese stuff I use fancy British stuff, and sand, and Vermiculite / Pearlite and mulit-purpose

-Mr Matt-

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AlainK

Me Mum keeps hers outside in summer and takes them indoors before the first frosts.
She rarely repots them, they naturally divide, and every year, they have wonderful flowers.
Maybe, like other bulbs, the tighter they are planted in a pot, the better they flower...

The thing is : put them outdoors in the summer, that's the trick.

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Prowler

AlainK
I forgot about that, the wife takes them out of the pot, then re pots them when it is time, into the same pot.
If i remember the rule of thumb is, about 3/4 inch of compost around the bulb, to keep them confined.
I wonder if they would grow in those Hyacinth glass jars you get, the bulbs sit just above the water, and simply sends down roots into it. Maybe i will have a go at that. Cheers.

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JLDoggett

Grumps I tried that, you get a bulb that rots... I ground plant mine in June (if the snow is gone) and dig them in late september.