How to Propagate Amaryllis from Offsets, Cuttage and Seed

Offsets: the easy method, and the slow one

A healthy amaryllis produces small bulbs, called offsets or bulblets, from between the outer scales at the base of the parent. They appear as short pointed noses pushing up beside the main bulb, each with its own leaves. This is the simplest way to increase a plant you like, and because they are attached to the parent they are genetically identical to it.

Take offsets at repotting time, once the bulb has finished its dry rest and before it starts into growth. Tip the whole plant out, wash enough compost off the base to see what you have, and look at how each offset joins the parent. Ones that have their own basal plate and their own roots can be separated. Ones that are still fused into the parent's plate should be left; forcing them off makes a wound on the parent and gives you an offset with no roots.

Twist rather than cut where you can. A clean twist parts an offset at its natural join. If you must cut, use a blade sterilized in alcohol, leave the cut surfaces to dry in the air for a day before potting, and dust them with sulfur if you have it.

The slow part is what comes next. An offset the size of a walnut needs two to three years of full growing seasons before it reaches flowering size, which is about two and a half to three inches (6 to 8 cm) across. Grow them on in individual small pots, keep them in growth without a dry rest for the first year or two so they build mass as fast as possible, and feed them exactly as you would an adult.

Cuttage: turning one bulb into a dozen

If you want numbers rather than one or two extras, an amaryllis bulb can be cut into vertical wedges and each wedge persuaded to make a new bulb. It works because every piece that carries a section of the basal plate plus two scales can produce a bulblet between those scales. You lose the parent, so do this with a spare bulb rather than your best one.

1. Prepare a clean, firm bulb Use a dormant bulb at the end of its rest, with no soft patches. Cut off the dry roots and trim the neck back to about half an inch (1 cm) above the shoulder. Sterilize your knife in alcohol and work on a clean surface.
2. Cut the bulb into vertical wedges Halve it top to bottom through the basal plate, then quarter, then eighth. Each wedge must carry a piece of the basal plate. A large bulb gives eight to sixteen usable wedges; a small one, four to eight.
3. Dry and treat the cut faces Stand the wedges cut side up on paper for a day so the surfaces seal. Dust the cut faces with sulfur or a fungicide powder. Skipping this step loses most of a batch to rot within a fortnight.
4. Set them in damp perlite or vermiculite Push each wedge base down into a tray of just-damp perlite so only the top third shows. Cover the tray loosely to keep humidity up and hold it at 70 to 75F (21 to 24C). Do not add more water; condensation on the lid is enough.
5. Wait, then pot up individually Bulblets form between the scales at the base over six to twelve weeks and push up a first thin leaf. When a bulblet has two leaves and its own roots, pot it into a two inch (5 cm) pot of gritty potting mix and grow it on in full light.

Twin scaling is the same principle taken further: pairs of scales with a sliver of basal plate attached, rather than whole wedges. It gives more plants from one bulb but is far less forgiving about sterile technique, and losses of half a batch are normal for a first attempt.

Seed: only if you want something new

Amaryllis set seed readily if the flowers are pollinated, and a single pod holds dozens of flat black papery seeds. Seedlings do not come true: cross two large red-flowered plants and you will get a range of colors, forms and sizes, most of them less good than the parents and one or two of them interesting. That unpredictability is the whole reason to do it.

Pollinate by hand when the stigma at the tip of the style has split into three and looks sticky, which is a day or two after the anthers shed. Brush pollen from one flower onto the stigma of another, or of the same flower if you only have one plant. The pod swells over five to six weeks, then dries and splits at the top when it is ripe.

Sow the seed fresh. Amaryllis seed loses viability within weeks of ripening, so a packet that has sat around is usually dead. Press the flat seeds onto the surface of damp seed-starting mix, barely cover them, and keep the tray at 70 to 75F (21 to 24C) in bright indirect light. Germination takes two to four weeks and the first sign is a single thin grass-like leaf.

From then on it is patience and no rest. Keep seedlings growing continuously, in light and fed, with no dry period at all for the first two or three years, because every month of rest is a month of growth not made. Four to six years from sowing to the first flower is normal, and the pleasure of the first bloom is entirely in not knowing what color it will be.

Keeping track of what you raised

Label everything at the moment you separate it, not afterwards. Write the parent, the date and the method on the label, and if you have hand-pollinated, write which plant provided the pollen and which carried the pod. Amaryllis propagation runs over years rather than weeks, and nobody remembers in year three which tray came from which bulb.

Keep a simple size record for each young plant: bulb diameter measured once a year at the same point in the season. Growing-on stock is essentially a race to reach flowering diameter, and a bulb that gained half an inch (1 cm) in a season is on track while one that gained nothing needs more light or more feed. Noting the diameter is the only reliable way to see progress, because leaf counts fluctuate and the bulbs look much the same from month to month.