Amaryllis ( Hippeastrum)

Hi
I enjoy growing amaryllis bulbs.

I have been buying these bulbs for more than 10 years now and although I tried to get them to flower next year, I wasn't lucky.
I started searching the web for information and stumbled across the garden web. There is a wealth of information on how to get these bulbs to re-bloom the next year.
What really made sense to me was the size of the planting pot, a lot of people recommend a pot one inch wider than the bulb, which I think is very restricting.
Growers on the garden web recommend a bigger and a somehow deeper pot to allow root development (one of the comments was if you restrict the bulb then its like putting it in a straight jacket).
They also recommend a very light and open compost as these bulbs don't like to stand in water.
The mixture that I have started to use is:

• 1 1/2 part multi-purpose compost
• 1 part orchid compost
• 1/2 part vermiculite

I also added one slow release tablet per pot.
And that's pretty much it.

I water them when the soil is dry and if I remember (and this is not that often) I add a weak liquid fertilizer when watering.

To my surprise, the bulbs kept pushing new leaves through the season.
I took them outside in July and left them standing in a tray on the patio (south facing) and brought them inside towards the end of September and reduced watering to minimum.
I started watering again in January and the blooms started coming.

H.tango

H.lima

Because these bulbs are not forced, they will not flower for Christmas but each one will revert to its natural cycle of flowering.
The added bonus to this is that quite a few of the bulbs started to have babies (I personally think it's because of the size of the pot).

This is H.lima with a few babies

I have had some of these bulbs for 4 years now.
This year I decided not to buy any more bulbs!! But I still got 2 bulbs as a gift from my son who went to Amsterdam last summer (we have been to the floating flower market together 4 years ago) and he remembered that I liked these bulbs.Thank you baby.

I will add more photos as they bloom,
Mrs Green Fingers (MGF)

Links
The Garden Web