Time to start a new Blooms and Chat thread. Amaryllis season is just starting up for the 2015- 2016 season.

Barbara, thank you for starting a new thread.

I actually have a bloom on one of my amaryllis


I have no idea what CV it is, though, it's in a pot with others. Maybe it's a hybrid of a few of the others? I did try dabbing pollen last year and only collected seeds from one of them.

Pretty bloom!

Wow that's sure out of season. It has a interesting variegated bloom. I don't recognize this one at all. It might be some odd hybrid. Any idea what was originally in the pot and how long have the plants been in this pot?

Thank you, Margaret and Barbara

I have no idea how long the bulbs have been in the pot. I picked them up from Florida in February of 2013 and they were all in a single pot, but I remember there being a decent amount of green, so maybe 2-4 large, blooming-size bulbs at the minimum?

I have a picture of the 3-4 amaryllis that bloomed last year (around Dec. 2014/January 2015) somewhere. I'll pull it up and post it here when I find it. :)

Early this year (March/April) they were clearly overcrowded and I repotted probably 8-10 bulbs and left atleast 5-6 in the pot (with unknown quantities of tiny ones). If they roughly double each year....maybe that confirms I started with about 4-6 big bulbs?

bsharf said:Wow that's sure out of season.

The strange thing is that one of my other bulbs is about to bloom, too. It is just starting to crack open right now and that one still has the scape (?) from its bloom this summer (august?). That one appeared to be hippeastrum striatum: Amaryllis (Hippeastrum striatum)

...and it's coloring which makes me wonder if my NOID above is its baby.

If you have another one in the pot that you believe is H. striatum, then this plant may be a hybrid offspring of striatum. Yesterday, after I glanced at the photo, the shape of the bloom and the color of the throat reminded me so much of striatum. I hesitated to post that ID after I enlarged the photo and saw the variegation. Striatum produces lots of offsets Repotting can sometimes jump start bulbs into producing blooms later in the year.

Really nice bloom, DogsNDaylilies.

some old photo's. below is magic green


and chico(in springtime)

Isn't chico interesting? I bet a lot of people see it and don't even believe that it is a Hippeastrum.

Thanks, i also like it. Bought it at an epiphyllum/schlumbergera nursery, at the open door days. It was the only one they had, and took it right away. Also one of the offsets didn't have a basal plate, but something strange that sent out a root. Hasn't made a bulb yet, but it has a leaf already. Also the leafs are dark green and pretty narrow

Just finished a back breaking job. In my fenced in backyard, I had a wonderful Amaryllis bed (at least 150 bulbs) surrounding a cement birdbath. I've posted photos of the bed in bloom in past years. Hank, our old dog, never went into the bed and ignored the birdbath and Amaryllis. Hank died two weeks ago and a week ago, we brought home a rescue 7 month old Shepherd mix. By day 2, Griff had discovered the birdbath and Amaryllis. It was a constant battle to keep him from digging in the bed and drinking out of the birdbath. Yesterday I caught him running around with a bulb in his mouth. Amaryllis bulbs are toxic to dogs: so it was the bulbs or the dog! This morning I removed the birdbath and dug up every single bulb. Next spring I will put down sod over the whole bed. I have run out space to plant them in the ground outside the fence. Off to Walmart for 6 cheap 20" plastic pots and 12 bags of potting soil. The bulbs are now replanted in pots in a utility area by the garage. I probably lost next spring's blooms but its one less worry. Good thing Griff is a sweetheart because this was a lot of work and expense.

Barbara, I am sorry for your loss. That's wonderful that you got a rescue, there are so many dogs and cats with out homes out there. Too bad you had to give up your Amaryllis bed, I am sure they will do well in the pots but they won't have the room to spread like they did in the bed.

Barbara, I too am so sorry for your loss. But happy that you've chosen to go ahead and get a new companion. I'm sure that Griff is going to make whatever sacrifices you make on his behalf well worth the time, effort and expense. I'm going to go back through the threads to find the photos of that bed. I bet it was awesome in bloom.

Since you mentioned replanting your bulbs in large pots, I have a question for you or whomever. I just realized that I've acquired a few more bulbs than I originally thought. I had them scattered in pots around my yard, front and back. Now, I'm in the process of bringing them in before frost. Would it be a good idea to plant them in large pots and try to keep them growing through the winter under the lights in the garage, instead of letting them go dormant? Would that affect the bloom cycle? In other words, do the bulbs have to go dormant in order to rebloom? I'm in zone 8a and we do get frequent freezes. I do have some planted in the ground, but things got overgrown this year and I'm not sure if those bulbs are still there or not. I suspect I may have voles. That's the reason I haven't planted the ones that I'm referring to in the ground. I'm

Its worth a try. Even if you were to keep the plants in light and in moist (not wet) soil all winter, the temp drop itself will cause your bulbs to have at least a very short dormancy, even in the garage. If you plant your bulbs right now into a pot, they probably will go dormant just from the "stress" of being repotted this late, but it should get them through the winter and they should bloom at their normal time for your zone. Keep the soil in the pot from freezing solid. Depending on how cold your garage, you could cover the whole pot with a frost blanket if you know it will get really cold. That's what I am doing with these 6 big pots which I have just planted. I 'll throw a blanket over the whole thing if frost is predicted. I'm hoping that black pots will absorb heat during the day, and keep the soil a bit warmer at night. The disadvantage of large pots is the difficulty of moving them. I use a refrigerator mover. The advantage of large pots is keeping a more constant soil moisture just from having a larger soil volume. It does cut down on watering. In my own situation (zone 9A), potting my bulbs on Nov 15th, caused all the leaves to go yellow and die back in 5 days. I may not have any top growth at all until Feb. That's OK, as long as the bulbs don't rot this winter. That's dependent on how much rain we have, and how wet the soil stays.

Barb. I'm going to try repotting them into larger pots, as suggested. After they finished blooming, I kept my amaryllis under lights in the garage the last 2 winters. It was a desperate act--the leaves kept etoliating/growing long and lopsided, while in the house--not enough light where they were. Doing that slowed down the growth rate, I'm sure. But they were fine, otherwise. I know that it does not freeze in the garage. In fact, the plants were kept in 6 in. pots and the soil did not freeze. I may even try keeping a pot on my covered back stoop with a blanket handy, and a plant dolly underneath, so that I can wheel it to a more sheltered location, in the event of extended freezing weather.

bsharf said:Just finished a back breaking job. In my fenced in backyard, I had a wonderful Amaryllis bed (at least 150 bulbs) surrounding a cement birdbath. I've posted photos of the bed in bloom in past years. Hank, our old dog, never went into the bed and ignored the birdbath and Amaryllis. Hank died two weeks ago and a week ago, we brought home a rescue 7 month old Shepherd mix. By day 2, Griff had discovered the birdbath and Amaryllis. It was a constant battle to keep him from digging in the bed and drinking out of the birdbath. Yesterday I caught him running around with a bulb in his mouth. Amaryllis bulbs are toxic to dogs: so it was the bulbs or the dog! This morning I removed the birdbath and dug up every single bulb. Next spring I will put down sod over the whole bed. I have run out space to plant them in the ground outside the fence. Off to Walmart for 6 cheap 20" plastic pots and 12 bags of potting soil. The bulbs are now replanted in pots in a utility area by the garage. I probably lost next spring's blooms but its one less worry. Good thing Griff is a sweetheart because this was a lot of work and expense.

I just saw your post. I'm so sorry to hear about Hank, how sad. I am happy for your new arrival, though, and I hope everything turns out great with Griff. He sounds like a special boy. This might seem way too oversimplified, but have you tried spraying the amaryllis with bitter apple spray? Maybe you could condition him to avoid amaryllis that way?

This is the Amaryllis eating Griff. We have talked about using bitter apple spray around our propane tanks. Griff is now chewing on the old rubber mulch (ground up tires) around the tanks. This mulch was here when we bought the house. Griff is a persistent dog: Our old dog had a 5 second attention span, easy to distract. I couldn't take the risk of Griff continuing to dig out the bulbs, since they would eventually make him sick. So maybe the bitter apple will work with the rubber mulch, otherwise it will have to be removed or fenced off. A change of subject. My WFF bulbs arrived a week ago, still waiting impatiently for the bulbs from RC. I doubt if I'll have any bulbs in bloom by Xmas this year. Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends.

Well the Royal Colors order came today. 7 beautiful, healthy bulbs and 1 terrible disappointment: the cybister Quito. That one came with 7 cm high scapes (white of course from being in the dark) and the buds were trying to open. Now why would a packer put a bulb, that was so far past its prime, in a paper bag and send it across the Atlantic Ocean is beyond me. I'm going to lose the Quito blooms for this year, and given my inability to get my cybisters to re-bloom, I've just wasted a lot of money. This is not something that I expect from RC so I will email them. I wonder if anyone else on this forum has gotten Quito. OK, I'm done whining now

It's great that you got your bulbs Barbara, but it really sucks that they sent the past it's prime bulb. I hope they refund your money as it is probably too late to get another bulb. Whine away this is a good place to vent.