Amaryllis..

A stunner!

Eight flowers? Wow, is that a record? These are real beauties. Love the little robin too!

Thank you M.land,it's been exactly as it said on the box,colourwise,and I was relieved when it finally stopped growing ! Lol.It's been a joy to watch every day ;o) x
.....
Thank you Ange..it really is,isn't it? I hope I can keep it for next year..
........

Thank you Sue.I've no idea if eight flowers are the norm,for one of the taller varieties,but I was surprised to see so many too. Ah,my little Robin,also a Christmas gift ,from my Grandsons,,which I decided could stay,for company :o)

Thank you Sheila,and M.land.My little Robin, was too cute to put him in the loft,with all the other Christmas Decorations.I love him too.:o)

Sorry,I seem to have posted twice.just still getting used to being able to access Pictures again ! x

That really was quite a gift! I have never seen an Amarylis do as well as yours, it really is a beauty.

Thank you Chris.It really has been a welcome sight ,and I never expected it to be so huge! I have only ever had one before,which was years ago,but it didn't get as big as this.

On reading my comment above,re posting twice,it seems I managed to remove one of them ! if only I could remember how ??? . x

That is lovely Sandra and you have brought it on a treat! Now me..I would kill it off ! Hahaa! Not much good with house plants! I also had two orchids bought me which didn't survive either !

Isn't it wonderful?

Thank you Rose, it really has been easy to care for,as the instructions were really clear,even for me ! lol I'm sure you could manage to keep one alive.
Oh,and before anyone asks how have they manage to stay upright ,being top heavy,and not leaning to the light etc..I took both stakes out and the garden twine off ,for the Photo shoot ! they are now back in and tied up again.. Sorry if I've shattered the Illusion! ha ha ..xx

Thank you,Linda,it has been a delight to watch it grow.

Really beautiful flowers and all from one bulb.

Thank you Linda,it's amazing isn't it? like all nature ,it's wonderful ..

Thats a beautiful one Sandra ,The Robin caught my eye to ,so sweet ... you can't go wrong with Balcony giving you instructions he's so clever with these x

How fabulous is that? So pretty . . . :o)

Thank you Amy,and Shirley,I shall be sad when it's finished flowering,but feel it won't last much longer,but what a joy it has been .My little Robin will be keeping one of my other Houseplants company,after all,a Robin isn't just
for Christmas ! Sorry,I couldn't resist !... It must be the side effects of the Vaccine I had last week ! :o)

Beautiful Amaryllis, Bloomer! 👍 👏 Does it have only the one scape (stem/stalk)? I've never managed to get more than 5 flowers on a single scape in all my years of growing them! But I have had up to 3 scapes at once on a bulb with 4 flowers on each!

These normally grow at least 2ft high & are very top heavy.

If you need any info on their cultivation just ask me & I will try to help you out. But if you can grow Daffodils you should have no problem growing these minus the frost bit!

Thank you Balcony,It has two scapes (thanks for the correct name !),and I only realised ,now one has finished flowering,there were four flowers on that scape,but the remaining one had five,one of which I've just taken off today,and yes,this was approx 2feet tall too,.I thought it was never going to stop growing ! Lol.
Thank you for offering me some advice,but I had already googled Amaryllis on Goy,and your informative blog came up,so I've saved it for future reference:o) It really is very helpful,so thank you for that too.

Just one question please,do you know why are they called Scapes,and not stems ?

I'm waiting to see if any more leaves appear now,as I can only see a tiny one emerging at the moment :o) No problem growing Daffodils,so I might be in with a chance :o) .

The stems are called "scapes" because they are leafless whereas "stems" often have leaves on them.

Here is a definition of "Scape" from the Free Dictionary:

1. (Botany) a leafless stalk in plants that arises from a rosette of leaves and bears one or more flowers.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/scapes

Here is a definition of "stems", again by the Free Dictionary:

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes:

https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Plant+stem

The article has more interesting things that it talks about, so do go along & visit the page.

Beautiful Amaryllis!

Thank you Mossy,and the leaves are huge,so I still have something of interest to look at.:o) .I'm feeding and watering ,then in May ,I will stop,and hopefully, I can start it off again in Autumn..:o)

Bloomer, don't stop watering & feeding your Amaryllis in May or you won't see any flowers next year! 😞

Just like all bulbous plants the leaves need to grow for as long as possible to bulk up the bulbs ready for flowering the following year.

I usually feed my Amaryllis with a balanced general fertilizer feed till the summer solstice when I change over to a tomato/rose feed for the following 3 months stopping at the autumn equinox. I stop watering altogether in early November & let the leaves die back - though some plants can keep green(ish) grey leaves for many more months even without a single drop of water in 3 months or more!

Be careful not to leave the pot in a plateful of water for more than a few hours. Amaryllis have thick, fleshy white roots that hang onto water for a long time but being waterlogged for more than a day or two can cause them to rot & you may lose your bulb!

They also need at least 6 weeks of cold (frost free) conditions if they are to flower again. Keep the bulbs away from apples as the gas they emit can sterilise Amaryllis bulbs!

Wow, who would have guessed that!

Well now you do know!

Presumably its the same gas that banana skins give off, that will ripen tomatoes. I wonder if it sterilizes the tomato seeds?

I doubt it very much as they are in the interior of the tomatoes where the gas can't reach. Amaryllis on the other hand (even though the flower bud is deep in its interior) can be affected by the gas as it can probably permeate through the skin & be absorbed by the scales below that make up the bulb.

I don't know the science behind it nor do I know it from first hand experience as I've never kept my Amaryllis bulbs in the fridge - nor apples! I've just read about it in different place over the years.

Balcony,sorry I didn't reply to your last comment in March,but my laptop decided it didn't want to play,for a few weeks,but hopefully,i'm back on track again.

I DID take your advice,and started to feed and water my Amaryllis,on a regular basis,and glad to say it is looking very healthy indeed,The leaves are huge,and as you suggested,I shall switch to a tomato food later on.I will post a photo of it,as it is now,so thank you for your invaluable help. :o)

Only too happy to be of help, Bloomer! 👍 Just keep doing that & next year you may well have as many scapes & flowers as this year!

Give it weekly feeds of tomato fertilizer from June 21st & stop feeding it when autumn (Sep.21st) begins. I did it that way for years as it was an easy way of remembering when to start & stop feeding & which to use! 👍

I look forward to seeing a future photo of your beautiful Amaryllis! 👍

Thanks Balcony,I tried to add a new photo to this blog,but it didn't work,so I added a sperate new photo,and I've seen and read your message on that now. All your advice will be followed to the letter :o) Those dates are a good guide to go by,and I've already made a note on my Calendar ,as I don't trust my memory these day:o)Lol.x

That's OK, Bloomer Anytime you want help just contact me & I will see what I can do to help out - even if I have to search for it online! 😂

Yes. it's a good idea to write things down! I've spent a while this afternoon updating some of my passwords for different email accounts & forums! I have to write them down so as not to forget them!

Snap ! I did the same last week,making sure all passwords etc were written down in my little 'secret' book ..ha ha.More so,since I had problems with my laptop,and my daughter set hers up for me to use in the meantime.Something she hardly uses these days,as most seem to use a Smartphone instead.. I don't have one of those,only a' Pay as you go',which is quite satisfactory for me.:o)

I'm finding that I spend more time on my smart phone than I used to. I've discovered I can do almost as much on the phone as I can on the computer! I always used to move all photos I took on my phone to my computer & then delete them from the phone. I've done this for many years but now with so much memory on the internal memory card that comes in the phone when you buy it & then all the extra memory from an external card I myself installed I find that even a year on I still have only used 1/3 of the memory on both cards & there is no need to delete them any longer.

There are actually several 1,000 photos in my phone!!! 😱😂 the rate I'm going I will still have plenty of free memory on both cards for a couple of more years even if I never delete a single photo in the future!

I'm pleased to say,I checked the roots this weekend,and they are pefectly white and healthy,and the bulb is firm.I found a pot of the same size,with drainage holes,so it has now been repotted ,and I renewed the compost in the bottom. It's been fed and watered,so I will start with the Tomato food on 21stJune,as suggested..
Onwards and upwards,hopefully,to have another good show .Thank you Balcony :o)

I'm pleased to hear the good news, Bloomer! It should last many more years & you may find you get little offshoots that will develop into baby bulbs you can remove in the spring, before growth restarts.

I do hope so,Balcony.It had better behave itself,after all the TLC it has had,with your help :o) Just noticed another leaf appearing today.so that's a good sign,that it must like living here .Thank you...Lol.x

You're welcome any time, Bloomer! 👍

Hello Balcony..I am now starting to feed my Amaryllis with tomato type feed,albeit 2 days later than the summer solstice,as suggested.. Lol I forgot to check the Calendar ,so smacked wrists time :o) It has still has been producing lots of healthy green leaves,although two were so heavy,they drooped down ,and bent in the middle,so I've cut them off !:o)It's still got five large ones !
I'll update you again on 21st September,(or near abouts ),watch this space :o)

Glad to hear that you have started to feed it with tomato fertilizer!

As for cutting off the leaves that's a NO, NO! The leaves will never stay upright, they are too big & "fragile" for that but if you cut them off you are losing all the food they would have stored in the bulb & thus make it a little smaller for next year.

My bulbs have always had the leaves drooping down & I've never been bothered about it. It's a perfectly normal thing to happen.

While on the subject of my bulbs - they have done exactly the opposite this year of what they should do! In the spring instead of the flower buds forming the plants went into shut down! Now we are in summer they are forming buds!!! I shan't be able to fertilize them with general fertilizer as I normally would have done after flowering. I will have to go directly to the tomato fertilizer!

I will upload a photo of the most advanced bulb which will probably open its bud in a couple of weeks time. When it does I'll upload a couple of photos. I have about 6 or 7 others of which at least 3 others have buds at different stages of growth.

Last year I had to throw away the great majority of my bulbs because they had become infested with Mealy bug & even though I spent months trying to get rid of them it proved impossible. The 10 or so that didn't become infested are the ones that are growing now. I'm trying a different product this year called Neem Oil. I've spayed the bulbs with it & hopefully they will not get infested with the Mealy bug.

Thank you Balcony,I won't cut anymore off then,I didn't give it some proper thought.Ohwell,it's done now,so I will leave the rest alone :o( .
Sorry you lost so many of yours to mealy bug,so I will keep a look out for that,just in case,but only having the one,and it's the only plant in my Kitchen,I presume it should be ok..

I look forward to seeing yours when the buds open,I'm sure they will be a lovely sight,as usual :o) .

I've uploaded a picture of the Amaryllis that is the most advanced at the moment.

You should be fairly safe from mealy bug than, but look at the base of the leaves where they come out of the bulb, especially on the inner face & if you see any fluffy white bits they will probably be mealy bug.

I had never had this problem till about 3 years ago. I had put some of the pots on the balcony behind the tomato plants in growbags. There is a ledge there that runs the length of the balcony & it seemed a perfect place to keep them. By the time it occurred to me to do that I'd removed lots of the lower leaves on the toms, so plenty of light reached the bulbs. They were also out of my way as the long leaves were a nuisance on the balcony.

A few months later I thought they weren't looking very well so I inspected them close up & that was when I discovered the first infestation. I painstakingly went over all the plants & removed the mealy bugs from each bulb & I thought I had won the battle! I may have won a battle but I certainly didn't win the war! While the bulbs were hibernating in a warm dry bedroom, on top of a wardrobe, the mealy bugs were quietly reproducing & feeding on the dormant bulbs where I couldn't see them. When I decided to get some down to start into growth, I only wanted to start off a few, perhaps 10 or so, to my horror I found myself fighting another battle with them!

I stripped off the outer tunic & removed the compost to remove any potential hiding place & did it to the whole lot - about a 100 bulbs! I repotted them al in fresh compost & then I put them aside so as not to cross contaminate cleaned bulbs from infected bulbs. Once again I thought I had won!

But it wasn't to be & they came back for a 3rd battle with me! Not wanting to use chemical products & seeing there was no way I would win this war, I decided to get rid of them. I did so over a few months till I had none of the original plants left. But in the end I won the the war - even after the battles were ended as I had about 10 bulbs in the bedroom window that, miraculously, where never contaminated & it is those ten that are now growing on the balcony & will flower in the coming months!