Flower Gardens

» sl1955 - Leaves and no leaves

I have two amaryllis that have only leaves on them, now bulbs as of yet, and then I have about four plants that have only bulbs growing, one about to bloom, and no leaves. Do I need to do something special for these? I haven't fertilized them, do I need to do that?

-- posted by sl1955

» Cottage_Garden - Stems before leaves, or not

In response to Leaves and no leaves posted by sl1955:
Some of the bulbs will send up a bloom stem right away, some seem to grow some foliage along with the bloom stem. Sometimes they will send up leaves first. So what you are seeing is probably normal.

You may even see additional bloom stems develop in the coming weeks if your bulbs are really big and healthy ones. Or, if the bulb is small and weak, it may just grow foliage this time around and still be building strength to bloom maybe next year.

If you just potted them into fresh soil, check if the soil has fertilizer in it already. Many do, and it usually it lasts between one and three months. You don't want to overfertilize, so wait until that fertilizer period has gone by before you add more.

If the soil has no fertilizer in it, I would normally wait until the bulb has leaves before fertilizing.

For the new ones with leaves already, wait until your amaryllis has had a few weeks to become well rooted before fertilizing, or use a water soluble form at a really weak strength during the first month -- maybe half the weakest strength on the label. You don't want to "burn" tender new roots.

After the first month, use a complete water soluble fertilizer such as 10-10-10 plus minors, or a slow release fertilizer for container plants with about the same analysis. Follow the label directions for how much to use. Use the lower rate until late spring, and use the higher rate all summer once they are outside and growing faster.

You need to keep the leaves growing as vigorously as possible from now until next fall. The reason for this is that is how the bulb will rebuild its strength so it can bloom again next winter.

In addition to the fertilizing, it is important to give them as much bright direct light as possible to keep the foliage healthy and robust. Light is probably at least as important as the fertilizer, especially during the winter.

I think we tend to be attuned to fertilizing, sometimes we make it out to be more important than it is. If in doubt, it is usually better to underfertilize than overfertilize.

The less light the plant gets, the less it will grow and the less fertilizer it will need. In more light, faster growth, more fertilizer.

I hope this helps.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden