Keeping An Amaryllis

Published: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:26:42

By: CL Fornari

Save your amaryllis bulb and enjoy the flowers for years to come!

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If you’ve purchased or been given an amaryllis bulb for the first time, your logical question after it finishes blooming is, “How do I save this so it’ll flower again?” Amaryllis are beautiful in bloom and thankfully, relatively easy to keep going from year to year. Just follow these simple steps: • If your Amaryllis bulb was in a plastic pot you’ll want to transplant it into a slightly larger clay pot right away. Use a clay pot that has a drainage hole and good quality potting soil. Leave the top ¼ to ½ of the bulb sticking up above the soil. • When you pot up the bulb in the new clay pot, mix some organic fertilizer in with the soil. This will slowly feed the bulb during the growing season. Use any granular organic fertilizer according to directions. • Until it’s warm enough to put the Amaryllis outside, leave it in a bright window. An eastern, western or southern exposure is fine. Water the plant well once a week being sure that all the soil is getting moistened but not letting the pot sit in a saucer of water for longer than an hour. You want to water thoroughly but you don’t want to keep the soil swampy-wet all the time. • The bulb may put up foliage – just let all leaves grow. • Put your Amaryllis bulb outside as soon as all danger of frost is gone. Place the pot where the plant will get dappled sun or morning sun, and in a location where you’ll remember to water it. • While the plant is outside water twice a week through the summer – more frequently if you live in a very hot area. • In the fall, before a hard frost, put the pot in a cool place such as an unheated garage or basement and let the plant die back naturally. Do not water. Cut all browned leaves off after they are dried and crispy. • Let the bulb stay dormant and cool for about two months, not watering at all in this time. • After the resting period, bring the pot into the house and begin watering. Repot when the bulb fills the pot or puts out side bulbs and becomes crowded.