Gadenin日本語Get the appDeadhead each flower, then cut the stalk
As each trumpet fades, snap or cut it off where it joins the top of the stalk. Left alone, a pollinated flower starts building a fat three-lobed seed pod, and that pod draws on the bulb for weeks. Seed is worth having only if you intend to grow from it, which takes four to six years to reach flowering size. For any bulb you want to flower again next winter, take the pods off.
When the last flower on a stalk has gone, cut the whole stalk down to about two inches (5 cm) above the neck of the bulb. Do not cut flush with the bulb; the stump seals over and shrivels on its own, and cutting into the neck opens a wound in exactly the place that rots. Do not pull the stalk out either, which tears the crown.
The hollow stump will yellow, soften and come away with a light twist after a week or two. Take it then. Leaving a rotting hollow tube standing in the crown through a wet spring is one of the easier ways to introduce soft rot into a healthy bulb.
If a second stalk is coming, and a large bulb often gives two, leave it entirely alone while you deal with the first. The second stalk usually opens a fortnight or so behind the first and extends the display considerably.
Do not cut the leaves at any point during this process. Cutting the stalk is right; cutting foliage is not. The leaves are the only thing that will build next year's flower, and a plant stripped of leaves for tidiness will produce nothing the following winter no matter how it is treated afterwards.
The whole summer is the growing season
An amaryllis is not a plant that flowers and then rests. Immediately after flowering it enters its real growing season, and that season needs to run for a full five to six months before you even think about a rest. This is the single fact that separates people who get flowers every year from people who get one Christmas and then a pot of leaves forever.
Move the plant to the brightest place you have as soon as the flowers are done, and raise the temperature rather than lowering it: 65 to 75F (18 to 24C) suits it. Water whenever the top inch (2.5 cm) of compost dries out and feed every ten to fourteen days without fail. This is a hungry plant in growth, and underfeeding at this stage is the most common reason a bulb shrinks over a summer instead of swelling.
Once night temperatures are reliably above 55F (13C), put the pot outdoors. A summer outside in full sun with rain and real air movement builds a bulb faster than any windowsill. Harden it off over a week in light shade first, because leaves grown indoors scorch in a day of unfiltered sun. Sink the pot to its rim in a border or plunge it in a box of sand so it does not blow over and so the compost does not swing between bone dry and sodden.
Expect the plant to make new leaves steadily right through summer. Six to eight strap leaves by the end of the season is what a bulb that is going to give two stalks looks like. Four or fewer means it will probably give leaves and nothing else next winter.
| Period after flowering | What to do | What you should see |
|---|---|---|
| First fortnight | Cut stalks, move to brightest spot | New leaves pushing from the neck |
| Spring, indoors | Feed every 14 days, water normally | Three to four leaves, upright |
| Once nights exceed 55F (13C) | Harden off and move outdoors | Faster growth, thicker leaves |
| Midsummer | High-potassium feed every 10 to 14 days | Six or more leaves, bulb visibly wider |
| Late summer | Continue feeding until you stop for rest | Bulb firm and fat, shoulders swollen |
Why a bulb comes up blind next year
A bulb that produces leaves and no flower stalk is not diseased. It is a bulb that did not store enough over the previous summer, and the cause is nearly always one of a short list. Working through it honestly is more useful than buying a new bulb.
Too little light is first. A summer on a north-facing sill or in the middle of a room is not enough. Amaryllis leaves are built for full tropical sun and they need hours of direct light to pay their way. Second is not feeding, or feeding for a month and then forgetting. Third is cutting the leaves off after flowering, which people do because the plant looks untidy.
Fourth is no rest period, or too short a one. A bulb kept growing straight through winter with no dry rest often refuses to initiate a flower bud. Fifth is a bulb that is simply too small: bulbs under two and a half inches (6 cm) across frequently take a year of growing on before they have the mass to flower, and offsets separated from a parent take two to three years.
Sixth, and easy to miss, is a pot full of offsets. A parent bulb crowded by four or five bulblets shares everything it stores with them and none of the group is big enough to flower. If a bulb has been in the same pot for three or four years and has gone blind, tip it out and look.
Deciding when to stop and rest it
The growing season ends when you decide it ends, and that decision is the one piece of real timing control you have over an amaryllis. Count backwards from when you want flowers.
- Count back from your target flowering date Allow about ten weeks in total: eight weeks of dry rest, then six to eight weeks from repotting to open flower. Sixteen weeks from stopping water to a flower on the table is the working figure.
- Check the bulb before you commit Feel the shoulders. A bulb that has fattened over summer and feels heavy is ready to rest. A bulb that is no bigger than it was in spring should be given another six weeks of feeding and light before you stop it, even if that pushes the flowers later.
- Bring it in before the first cold night Move a plant that has summered outdoors back under cover well before frost. A frosted amaryllis leaf collapses and the damage can run down into the neck. Check the pot and the leaf axils for slugs, snails and mealybugs at the same time.
- Stop water and feed on one chosen day Do not taper. Pick the date, stop watering entirely from it and note it down. A gradual reduction just produces a plant that limps on with half-yellow leaves and never properly rests.
- Let the leaves die back naturally They will yellow over three to four weeks. Remove each one only when it is fully yellow and pulls away with a light tug. Cutting them green shortcuts nothing and wastes the last of what they were sending down.
What to write down this year
Record the date you cut the last stalk, the date the plant went outside, the dates you fed, the leaf count in late summer and the bulb width in autumn. When a bulb comes up blind, that record almost always contains the answer, and it is usually the gap in the feeding dates or a leaf count of four.
Also note where the pot stood over the summer, described against something fixed such as a wall or a fence rather than as a general impression of brightness. Two pots four feet apart, one in sun until midday and one until evening, will produce noticeably different bulbs by autumn, and only the note will tell you which spot was which.