What You Should Know About Amaryllis Bulbs

In early October a catalog reliably arrives in the mail. It’s the White Flower Farm holiday catalog, and I immediately turn to the section where the Amaryllis bulbs are offered. This year there are about 30 different varieties offered, but if you check other catalogs like Bluestone Perennials, Van Engelen and many others you can find as many as 50 varieties. So what?

Ah, I’m so glad you asked because up here we treat these bulbs as houseplants, flowering houseplants that can brighten up any drab interior with exquisite flowers that begin to bloom six to eight weeks after planting. The blooms last for two to three weeks while the foliage, long swords of green, last into the summer. And if you follow a few simple instructions these bulbs can be forced into dormancy and they will bloom every year for several years, with some yielding dividends in the form of smaller bulbs that can be grown into giants.

What I like most about these bulbs is that they make great holiday gifts if you can find a vendor that will ship them later in the fall or you can give them as Thanksgiving gifts or just as great presents that come into bloom when few other plants in the house are showing color, let alone huge, beautiful flowers from 2 to 6 inches wide on stems 2 to 3 feet tall. They are truly magnificent.

My preference is to buy unrooted bulbs which can cost from $18 to $35 each unless you buy three or six of them from Van England, in which case the price can drop to $10 a bulb.

Ah, but there are Amaryllis bulbs and there are Amaryllis bulbs. The difference? The bulb size. These bulbs are sized and sold based on the circumference of the bulb as measured at its widest point in centimeters. The largest and most expensive will run about 40 centimeters while most of the top quality bulbs we find are 30/32-centimeter sizes. You can also find “bulk” boxes of these bulbs at some garden centers, and last week I found one box with bulbs as large as 47 centimeters. And when it comes to Amaryllis bulbs, size does count.

The size of the bulb often relates to the number of stems, and blooms, that the bulb will produce. The largest bulbs can produce three stems with up to nine flowers. The more standard 30-centimeter bulbs will produce one to two stems and four to six blooms. The color of the blooms depends on the variety and the blooms can be solid colors, bicolored, double and frilled, and some like Picotee are white with a fine red edge along the outline of the flower.

As a gift you can buy a package deal that includes a pot, the bulb and soil in a boxed kit or as a prepotted bulb in a decorative pot. This raises the price to over $30 but if you’re buying the bulbs for yourself all you need is the bulb, a 6-inch pot and some peat-based potting soil.

Most failures when growing these bulbs take place because of improper watering, potting or care. Keep in mind there is nothing you can do to make the flowers bigger once you buy the bulb. The flower, just like a tulip flower, has already been formed and is inside the bulb. Once planted the bulb needs no fertilizer (it will later) and initially it simply needs warmth and not sun. No, you can’t grow it in a totally shaded spot since once the stem emerges it needs more and more light. A bulb not getting enough light will result in a weak stem that may collapse under the weight of the large flowers. The foliage that develops needs bright light to grow and thrive as it’s the foliage that feeds the bulb and the health of the foliage will determine the size of the bulb and the number of flower stems it will produce the following year.

If you tend to be a heavy waterer, you’ll want to pot into a clay pot. For those who are better with watering a plastic pot is fine. The bulbs can also be grown using “water culture” in a special vase containing pebbles and water. While this growing method works and looks cool it’s not the way to grow a plant that will reflower as you’ll probably only get one season of bloom from this method.

Pot your bulb in a pot that’s about an inch wider than the bulb. They prefer a tight fit. Most bulbs will do well in a 6-inch pot. Fill the pot with lightly moistened soil until you have several inches of soil at the bottom. Place the bulb on top of the soil to see how high the bulb sits. When properly potted the bulb should sit so that a quarter of the bulb sits above the soil. Planted deeper the bulb may rot. Planted higher it won’t be stable in the pot when the stem develops. DO NOT add any fertilizer. This comes later.

For delayed planting and blooming, keep the bulbs in a cool and dark spot. Once the flower bud emerges from the bulb it’s hard to stop its progress. You can store the bulbs for several weeks and make successional plantings for blooms that are spaced out over several weeks. No, you can’t refrigerate the bulbs, and if not planted they will either sprout on their own or shrivel.

Once potted, gently water the pot (tap water or mildly warm water) until the soil is moist, then hold off on more water. In days the bulb will show signs of a stem emerging from the top. At this point water from the bottom by allowing water to sit in the saucer and refill for about 15 minutes until no more water is soaked up. This will force the roots to grow down and become stronger than top watering methods. Strong root development is critical to support the emerging stem and flowers that will follow.

Grow the plant at about 70 degrees and give the plant more light as the stem emerges. It will tolerate bright light (which it needs) and can be grown on a table or near a window where the sun hits it for part of the day. As the foliage emerges, after the stem elongates, it will need more light.

Flowering on a cool windowsill will extend the life of the flowers and promote foliage growth. Flowers usually emerge in six to eight weeks, and each flower stalk should last a week or more. When the flowers are done, cut them off and don’t let them go to seed. When there are no more flowers cut the stem off an inch or so above the bulb and let the stem heal but leave the leaves alone.

Once the long narrow leaves emerge it’s time to start adding fertilizer to your water. An organic, liquid fertilizer in a ratio of about 1-1-1 or so would be great. At this point the nitrogen number, the first one, will feed the foliage, which in turn is feeding the bulb where the new flower buds are developing for next year. Feed weekly at the label rate or more diluted at every watering. The plant can go outside in bright light (not full sun) for the warmer months.

Now comes the trick. You must force the plant into dormancy. Stop feeding and begin to hold back water late in the summer (September) to force the foliage to yellow and die back. By late September the bulb should be dormant (no water and no sun). Cut the foliage to a 1-inch stub and place the potted bulb in a cool and dark closet or basement. This dormant period should last for six to eight weeks so check your calendar. At the end of the dormant period begin the growing process once again and expect flowers about six to eight weeks later. I’ve always found that keeping notes when you want reflowering and counting backwards for cutting back and dormancy can be very helpful

I’ve been known to forget a bulb or two in the cool closet and discover them way too late as they become shriveled memories. Most years though I’m able to force at least six of these beauties back into bloom or add a new one or two to the collection.

Your bulbs will inevitably develop bulb “pups” to the side of the main bulb. These can be removed by simply breaking them off. Leaving them on the parent plant will drain energy from the parent bulb, but the pups can be put into smaller pots and grown on. Follow the process and don’t expect flowers on them for at least three years. Don’t wait to buy your bulbs. Great ones are at local garden centers. Keep growing.