Its interesting that you did everything you were supposed to do, but your bulbs put up leaves when you expected them to be dormant. Sounds crazy but based on my experience, I wonder if what you are seeing is a fall flush of leaves, not a "new" blooming season. Trying to force these bulbs to go dormant when its still so warm outside is really difficult. I've never had any luck with it and gave up years ago at forcing them out of season. When I talk about a fall flush of leaves this is what I mean. It is common for my Amaryllis planted outdoors in 9A to die back in June or July completely to the ground. In August or Sept, a new flush of leaves will appear. Those leaves stay on until late Dec-Jan, when we have nights just above freezing. This is when the bulbs finally go through their short "true" dormancy,. Then in late Feb, March they put up a flower stalk, bloom, then put up new leaves. Its Nov, and most of mine have lovely new green leaves on them. This reminds me of your situation, even though yours were out of the light and with no water. In the South, its difficult to get the plants cold enough to force dormancy before Jan. Even when yours were "dry" there was plenty of moisture stored in the bulb, which would allow the leaves to grow for a while without being watered. The leaves are elongated due to lack of sunlight. Put them out in good light and water, and see what happens. It would be really exciting to see them bloom, but don't be disappointed if they have to go through a Jan dormancy first. Good luck!

with Barbara...my amaryllis in containers both outdoors and indoors are in that stage ..with their Fall flush of leaves...I do not expect them to bloom this winter...it knows bloom time is in Spring to early Summer. I am just giving them all the sun it can get right now.

Amaryllis if left alone will bloom with their normal spring time flowers. To get them to grow and bloom in Dec the big growers put them in a cool place like a big refrigeration unit. This stops all growing and tricks the plants into thinking when the come out yea!! its spring. And away they go. I think it is easier to just buy new ones if you need for a table setting or ? at Christmas For me its just to much work.

wabatala said:..To get them to grow and bloom in Dec the big growers put them in a cool place like a big refrigeration unit. This stops all growing and tricks the plants into thinking when the come out yea!! its spring. And away they go...

Is this the way pretty much all the big growers do to their shipping bulbs? or just for the growers in the much mild weather area? Thanks

I have my 3 bulbs from last year newly potted and watered--Double Dream (my favorite), Flamenco Queen, and Misty. I have some growth on them but it's very slow.

Hey, Catmint. Mind showing some pic? Thanks

hi, Fiat. Here are Flamenco Queen and Double Dream from last year.




Here are the 3 so far this year. Misty never did much for me last winter, but it does have a small green shoot right now. Fingers crossed.

Last year's blooms were beautiful. Not sure how many bulbs you have in that pot? From the pic I see at least 3 of them having new growth (even the one at bottom gives a scape?) and 2 at center having nothing yet. So, promising and waiting to wake up?

The big one in the center actually grew a bulbet and that has growth on it. So it looks like there are 2 bulbs there but really from the same bulb.

There are 2 Misty bulbs in there. One has growth the other does not.

So just 4 bulbs in the pot, one with a baby, and one of the Misty bulbs with no growth.

Here's another photo from a different angle. To the left is the bulb that grow the offset, which has growth. There is also growth just beginning now on the mother bulb, when viewed from this angle.

In the right part of the photo is the 2nd Misty bulb which I see now has just the tiniest bit of growth on it.

For holiday blooms:

bsharf said: we are just fighting Mother Nature since dormancy depends on day length, temperature, and dryness.

If you do the math,
to bloom around Dec. 25th count back 8 weeks to the end of October--this is when the bulb needs to think that it is spring and come out of it's winter rest period aka dormancy.
and what that means is that it needed to have its winter rest period aka dormancy prior to that, so you have to count back another 8 weeks or so to the end of August--this is when the bulb needs to think that it is winter and go dormant.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere:
If you want holiday blooms the best way is to buy a bulb that has already been fooled for you.

If you want to fool last year's bulbs yourself, then you need to start simulating fall in July--decrease the daylength and temperature (and moisture) that your bulb gets, then create a dry winter in August, and spring in October.
To do this successfully, over and over again, such that the bulb creates enough energy for itself to bloom annually for the holidays, you actually have to create spring and summer--increasing temperature and daylength thru the fall and winter. Failure to artificially manipulate the entire growing season properly is what causes failure to rebloom for Christmas and frustration for those who try to fight mother nature.

(Personally, I'm not set up to flip/flop the seasons at my house so for the amaryllis I keep year to year, I'm good with the bloom schedule they find for themselves --spring--under the conditions that they get.)

great explanation, Dirt! A lot of my gardener friends seem to use the basement for simulated winter. I'm afraid I was lazy and the pot with last year's bulbs sat inside near the door for a long time. If they don't actually bloom this winter/spring, I'll try to be less lazy and get them down to the basement for the summer.

I got a lovely surprise today, every couple of days I check on my bulbs in storage, well today the first one I checked was 'Sweet Nymph' and she had a scape starting despite the fact that she was bone dry.

This is what I saw.


Then when I cleaned her up I saw that she had 2 scapes!

Wow, how wonderful Margaret. May I ask how and when did you store/rest your bulb?

Fiat, I stopped watering them at the end of August, then as each leaf yellowed I cut it off, then waited for everything to dry, didn't want them getting moldy, then put them into a storage cabinet in my mudroom.

Margaret: I am so impressed with your Sweet Nymph. Its inspiring to see that someone has actually been able to force their bulbs for a winter bloom.

That is so exciting Margaret!!! Twin scapes woohoo!

I think zone 3a maybe the key to enable forcing bulbs for winter bloom?

Thanks Barbara. I hope the others reward me with lovely blooms too. I may take another one or 2 out tomorrow now that I see that 'Sweet Nymph' is sending up 2 scapes.

I just took 2 more bulbs out of storage, 'Stardust' from Royal Colors, fall of 2013 and 'Red Lion', from the drugstore, fall of 2010, my first bulb and the start of my slight addiction to Amaryllis, no sign of scapes but hopefully that will change in a week or 2.