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Blooming Again!

February 25th, 2014

My mom has had the same amaryllis bulbs for years, they bloom year after year. Four years ago I purchase a few bulbs hoping I’d be able to do the same.
Amaryllis bulbs
Luckily, they have bloomed every year since, I guess I got my mom’s green thumb when it comes to amaryllises. These however are not at all like my mother’s amaryllises. Hers are always in shades of pink, coral, white and red with big showy blossoms. She loves a colorful bloom and rolled her eyes when I gave her bulbs for a few green ones. Here’s a shot of her dining nook one year.
moms amaryllises 3
I don’t like those normal colors and always opt for something a little out of the ordinary. Mine are all various shades of green. This particular one is the ‘Evergreen’. It’s funny because my mom hates green flowers, though I gave her a bulb for each variety.
Amaryllis 1
Amaryllis 2
I have a few more that are in the bud stage, they’ll be green too. One is ‘Green Dragon’ and I forget what the other one is.

Do you have any flowering bulbs blooming indoors?

10 Comments to “Blooming Again!”
  1. Marina C on February 25, 2014 at 7:18 am

    This is the first year I had some success with re-blooming amaryllis, 4 out of 7.
    Could you please some time tell us what you do?
    I nurture mine on the screened porch all summer, feed them with Peter’s plant food, then stop watering in September and put them in a dark place. I cut the leaves when yellow.
    I water them once in early November and wait till I see any thing pop up before I water again.
    I notice that my bulbs look less plump and shrink from when I get them from John Scheeper’s, and they do see to go on forever for me.
    How many year have you or you mother kept the bulbs going?
    Evergreen did come back, with one modest stem only…

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    • Susy on February 25, 2014 at 8:05 am

      I don’t really do anything special. I feed them liquid kelp after they bloom every other week. Then after a couple months I quit watering them and let them dry out. Then I start watering again in December and they start blooming again. I think the key is the dry stage that mimics the dry season that they’re used to in their native homes.

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  2. Ilene on February 25, 2014 at 7:37 am

    Oh, those are pretty! I’ve never forced anything till this year, a friend sent some narcissus bulbs and instructions. One is blooming.

    BTW, I thought that pergola on the post before this one was The Bomb. Before you know it people will be begging for tours of your homestead!

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  3. Kathi cook on February 25, 2014 at 7:45 am

    Currently my 2 meyer lemon trees are blooming and setting fruit and a few orchids are in bloom as well as my cyclamen. My amaryllis is already gone by for the year, but I have a Clivia chilling in the basement. I put it down there a little late in the season, so we will see when I bring it up in about 6 weeks if it wants to bloom. I love anything blooming indoors this time of year. I can’t even get myself to get rid of my pointsettas.

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  4. Meg on February 25, 2014 at 7:59 am

    Yes! It’s a great way to chase the winter blahs away. I have red and apple blossom amaryllis I’ve had for more than 10 years. Plus orange and yellow clivia. And I try to force a few spring bulbs. So cheerful!

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  5. Nebraska Dave on February 25, 2014 at 9:34 am

    Susy, I’m not much for inside plants and if I did have some they would be fake plants. My only inside plants are under the grow lights and won’t be blooming any time soon. I don’t recall anyone in my family (parents or grand parents) ever having inside plants. My heritage comes from row crop farmers and the mentality was that plants grow outside in the fields. I’m trying to break that in my thought patterns but it’s ingrained pretty deep. I’ll keep working on it and who knows maybe some day I’ll have a blooming plant inside the house.

    Have a great blooming again day.

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  6. Lorna on February 25, 2014 at 10:12 am

    Amazing! My mother-in-law has two amaryllis she would like to keep and re-bloom. I offered to help her, but am not sure how to do this–she has them in the little pots they came in; what size pot should we pot them up in, and what type of soil should we use? Also, do they need to go through cold/dormancy and/or a dark period before they re-bloom, or just let them dry out? I had read they needed to be kept cold in the fall before bringing them in for November, but it doesn’t sound like you do this. . .

    Thanks for your advice!

    Reply to Lorna's comment

  7. Marcia on February 25, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    Amaryllis will bloom for me the first year then just leaves after that, if they don’t rot. My neglected Pointsettia was recently repotted and is now blooming. I’ll have nice red flowers for Easter insted of Christmas. I’m great with a garden but house plants interest me way less. I think because you can’t eat them.

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  8. Twitter bird:) on February 25, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    Hello!

    Hope all is good done there. Our orange tree is not budding…. We got it from a friend.

    Reply to Twitter bird:)'s comment

  9. Sara on February 25, 2014 at 4:19 pm

    I have a few amaryllis–they took a year off last year but this spring I have two out of three budding (one is a new bulb split off a larger one, so that was a longshot). I have really cut way back on the indoor houseplants, instead just focusing on seed starting in the spring. And I stick my amaryllis in a flower bed for the summer so I don’t have to remember to water them as often.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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