Easy-to-grow amaryllis
Q: I received an amaryllis kit as a hostess gift earlier this week. I have to admit I’ve never grown an amaryllis before; the instructions on the packaging seem pretty straightforward, but I want to know if you have any tips for me to be really successful. — G.A., Albuquerque
A: How fun! Growing an amaryllis bulb is really easy and, since you received a kit, you should have everything you need except for one critical thing: you will need a saucer to set the potted plant on so it doesn’t mar your furniture or dribble everywhere. But that’s easy, too.
In your kit, you should find a pot, a disc of compressed peat moss (the soil) and a bulb. First thing I’d suggest, place the disc in a bowl and pour warm water over the disc to cover. It’ll probably float in the bowl in the beginning, so add just enough water to wet the peat. As the water is absorbed, break up the disc until it resembles potting soil. It takes a while for the peat to become moist enough so you can break it up, but that’s your goal — a bowl of dampened soil.
Next, place a little more than a third of the soil in the pot and tamp it down lightly. Then inspect your amaryllis bulb. If you find any broken or squishy roots at the base of the bulb, snip them off. I usually leave a long inch of roots on the bulb bottom, snipping away all of the ratty extras. Set your bulb on the lightly tamped soil and gently semi-screw the bulb down so it gets seated in the soil. The bulb should sit, unaided, in the pot.
Next, spoon the rest of the soil so it surrounds the bulb and tamp it down snuggly as it’s added. It’s best if you leave the top third of the bulb exposed above soil level as you get the soil tamped down surrounding the bulb. Voilà! You’re done! Well, mostly.
Set the newly potted treasure on a saucer giving it an inch or more in diameter coverage and fill the saucer with barely warm water to get the soil moist. Add water to the saucer three, maybe four, times in succession until the new planting no longer absorbs your water offering. Since I’m not the neatest potter, I like to place my freshly potted amaryllis in a stoppered sink and gently water from above so the soil gets washed off the exposed top third of the bulb and gets completely cemented surrounding the bulb, and I’m confident the whole planting it completely dampened. But if you’re a neatnik, you won’t have to wash off the planting.
Then, think about placement. You goal is some place brightly lit and fairly warm. In just a few days, as long as you keep the soil just damp, you should notice green points starting to appear. That’ll be the beginning of the bloom stalk emerging. As the amaryllis grows, it lengthens and will support buds that eventually open to glorious flowers to cheer your surroundings. But that’s the biggest secret: don’t allow the planting to dry out. The blossom will be the first thing to suffer if the planting dries out.
You can find kits at most retailers this time of year offering several different bulb varieties to color your world.