Amaryllis is easy to grow and with the advice of Roland Motte, our gardener, you will be able to make it bloom again every year.
You bought a blooming amaryllis for Christmas? Do not throw it away once it has wilted, its bulb may bloom again next year! Follow the advice of Roland Motte, the gardener of France Bleu Lorraine and France Bleu Besançon, to preserve your amaryllis and give it a long life.
The benefits of amaryllis
The amaryllis is native to tropical America, it owes its name to the belladonna amaryllis which is, for its part, the true amaryllis, the one that we will find in garden centers or in florists, or under another name since it is called hippeastrum. Normally, these hippeastrums bloom in the spring, but they are found in flower in garden centers during Christmas time, they have been forced. However, forcing, that means that we have shifted the cultivation of the plant to make it believe that it was already spring, so that it can give us these superb blooms.
The advantage of this plant is obviously its flowering. The flowers can be up to twenty centimeters in diameter, there are all colors, there are even variegated. They can live at least four weeks. Amaryllis is a bulbous plant, which means that we will be able to conserve it from one year to the next by keeping this bulb. And the bigger the bulb, the more impressive the flowers will be. The flower stalk develops before the leaves, but we will keep the leaves well afterwards.
Caring for and preserving your amaryllis
When the flower stalk has faded, we will cut it at the base about three centimeters from the bulb. Make sure that all the flowers are well wilted, sometimes there are small buds which can still give flowers again. Then, once this floral stalk is cut, you will keep the leaves, continue the maintenance of the plant, continue to water, add a little fertilizer if you wish.
– Roland Motte
When the leaves are wilted, a few weeks later, a few months later, you will cut the leaves and you will bring in the bulb for its rest period. When you repot the bulb, you don’t bury it deeply, you let it protrude by about a third of its height. We will bring in the pot with this bulb at rest from the end of summer until December. We do not water during this period, we leave it in a dark place and then we will take it out again and it will start again and bloom again.
– Roland Motte
Amaryllis is very easy to grow. Do not hesitate to find original varieties, there are so many.
Find Roland Motte on France Bleu Lorraine and France Bleu Besançon and on his site www.rolandmotte.fr.