Your friend got you a lovely amaryllis bulb this holiday season and you have enjoyed the blooms. What’s next for this amaryllis bulb? The aftercare of your amaryllis all depends on the type of amaryllis as well as your motivation for blooms the next year.
Amaryllis bulbs will typically put on 1-3 sets of flowers. You will know that your amaryllis isn’t going to flower again this season when it starts to produce long green strap-like leaves. At this stage in the growth of your amaryllis, you will need to decide if you want to keep it for next year’s blooms or discard the bulb and start over next year with a new bulb.
How to Get My Amaryllis to Re-Bloom?
For a traditional amaryllis bulb that was planted as a kit or bulb, there are more blooms and life to be had. During the first growing season after the bulb has set up a few sets of buds, flowered and then produced leaves it is time to prepare it for next year.
When the leaves have fully formed and you are preparing it for dormancy you will want to cut off the leaves and store the bulb in a dry, and dark location. Remove the amaryllis bulb from the pot and soil it was planted in and store it in a paper bag or container for dormancy. Protect from extreme heat and cold during the dormant period. Most likely depending on when you planted you will begin the storage of your amaryllis late winter to early spring. The bulb needs to sleep so it can save energy for next year’s growth and blooms.
In September to early October is when you will want to start waking up your amaryllis bulb. Take the amaryllis out of the storage container you have it in. Plant the amaryllis bulb like you did last winter with soil, water and sun to help it grow. Gradually exposing it to light can be helpful to give it balanced growth. Your amaryllis should be ready to bloom in time for the holiday season!
What to Do With My Waxed Amaryllis Bulb?
Waxed Amaryllis are one of the hottest gardening trends of the last couple of years. They are easy to grow and require no care at all. If your thumb is anything but green you will still be able to have success with waxed amaryllis.
Due to the nature of how they are prepared in wax and grown without water, soil or roots, waxed amaryllis are only good for one season. I do not suggest trying to re-plant your waxed amaryllis for the next season’s blooms as the energy in the bulb will be depleted. In addition to the lack of energy in the waxed amaryllis, you would need to remove the wax if you wanted the bulb to re-bloom which may be a difficult and unfruitful task. Therefore, the aftercare for waxed amaryllis is just as easy as the care for it, which is no care required.
Amaryllis Care
Amaryllis bulbs are easy to grow for and can provide blooms for many seasons. Storing amaryllis bulbs in dormancy as suggested for next year is what is necessary to get the bulbs to bloom again. However, since bulbs are plants and plants don’t always obey the rules this may not work on all of your amaryllis bulbs. With the wide variety of choices and affordable prices on amaryllis bulbs you may want to consider buying new amaryllis bulbs each season as a fun way to have the biggest and boldest amaryllis blooms guaranteed.
For more amaryllis care tips read here.
