Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) in time for Christmas

kansuze (63)in #flower • 6 years ago

43 days ago I planted a Hippeastrum bulb, what we call 'Amaryllis' here, hoping I would have blooms for Christmas. Here is the second stalk of 'Apple Blossom.' I documented it in my post 'Growing 'Amaryllis' - Hippeastrum.

5 flowers on this one!

I nipped off the old flowers and as the old stalk withers, some energy will go back into the bulb. At that point, I will cut back the stalk to the top of the bulb. Meanwhile the leaves are just starting.

When the flowers are out full, they should only have indirect light so the flowers last longer. This is also the time to start fertilizing but don't water them too much or the leaves will be pale and flopping over. The biggest mistake with amaryllis is to water them too much and fertilize them too little. For this plant, the potting mixture was thoroughly soaked when the bulb was planted and then I did not water it until a week after the first stalk flowered and then, only a little, so 5 weeks later!