My potted amaryllis has grown a bulblet on its side this year after having
flowered for the first time in a few years. Should I just leave it be that
way or should I detach the baby bulb (which now has 4 leaves)? Considering
its size the parent bulb could stay in the same pot since there's approx. 1
3/4" of soil around it but I don't know whether having the baby bulb on it
changes whether or not I need to repot it.
Barbara - in Berkeley
I have lots of these and I leave them be. I also always repot a new amaryllis in a good-sized pot, and water so that some of the water hits the bulb. That way you get any number of bulblets!
I have heard that an amaryllis will flower when it is three years old, but don't believe it!!! Five or six is more like it. None of my bulblets is large enough, nor those I got from Bargylla.
Carol
Carol
I can flower bulblets in three years from division without too much
difficulty but you do have to keep feeding them throughout their growing
season to get them big enough - in fact keeping them fed growing around the
year is best for this. Commercial growers get them to flowering size in
three years from seed so the development of new varieties is pretty rapid.
Though I'm told that all the new double varieties were developed by
irradiating existing varieties. You can multiply bulbs very fast by
crisscrossing through the base plate at the start of the growing season
with a sharp knife, letting the cuts dry out well and then planting in a
very sandy mixture and not letting it get too wet. Every little bit of the
base plate will develop a new bulb. But don't try this on your one and only
precious bulb in case something goes wrong! I think it probably takes you
five years to get to flowering because your house is so cool in winter and
the growing season is therefore shorter. My conservatory keeps them growing
all the while even without heat.
kathryn
Actually, it wasn't until last winter that I started to give them anything but the good soil I first planted them in, and I have been very lax since the flowering stopped. Thanks for reminding me. I am sure that that is why, but they are also not nearly as big as the big ones! Bargylas are here two years now and rather tiny.
As for the cold, I CAN keep them all in the livingroom from November on, since I no longer will "hibernate" them as I did before. And it is about 27C when the stove is on! That oughtta do it, don't you think?
It is VERY hot upstairs in summer, believe me! The roof is not insulated at all.
I am not sure what the base plate is: the place around the roots?
Carol
