Egypt4u

I first knew them as Hippeastrum, but now they seem to be referred to as Amaryllis. I didn't see any for sail last year, but this year I've been lucky.

I have started two bulbs this week. One White and one crimson with a white throat. I really wanted a pale pink, but I'd like another two as I only have three little salvaged begonias in the house at the moment. The house seems weird without windowsills full of flowers.

Has anyone else started yet? I was very interested in the progress of other contributors last year even though I didn't have one of my own

Funnily enough MD I brought mine back inside only the other day. It is the same one I had last year and after the leaves started to wilt and the weather had warmed up (some months later) I sunk the whole pot flush into my garden and left it there all year, eventually all the leaves died back. Around early September I lifted the whole pot and put it in a cool dark spot in my garage and allowed it to dry out completely. I have left it in the same pot (quite pot-bound) and just put it back on my windowsill and lightly watered it and within days it has started to sprout new leaves again, so heres hoping.

The leaves at the top of the bulbs had been cut straight across the neck and it was already planted in a pot with a nice white china bowl- three days after watering the dry compost that came in the pack thee was upward movement from the centre of the shorn leaves. I was surprised that the reaction was so quick.

They cost £5 complete in Tesco, which I think is pretty reasonable, they will certainly give me a lot of pleasure over the next few months.

Mine has really shot up in less than a week.

Amaryllis #1 was absolutely glorious in flower with two flowering stems - as the petals just started to fade I used a small paint brush to distribute the pollen and had a good result. Actually I thought the seed heads themselves were quite decorative. The seed pods started to open at the weekend and have now been removed from the plant to a place of safety, as they are light and likely to blow everywhere.

Amaryllis #2 which was started into growth at the same time as #1 has three beautiful dark green leaves - and still no sign of a flower.

Numbers 3 and 4 which were started a few weeks later - both flowered at the same time. One with just one stem of unimpressive pale pink flowers on a medium stem and huge leaves the other only about a foot high, deep crimson with very small almost closed trumpets and no trace of a leaf at all! I cross pollinated these last two but only the crimson one has set seed with two fat little pods.

I went to the first meeting of a new gardening club yesterday, 7 of us all told, including a professional gardener. Some brought bits of plants to show what they were growing, which was interesting as the academically qualified donor wrongly identified one sample as "Crab Apple" when it was obviously "Japonica". No one supported me when I suggested this might be an error so I made a mental note to keep my opinions to myself in future. Fat chance.

Anyway, next month I shall take some seeds with me and distribute them, who knows maybe in 4 years we will be looking at Amaryllis we have raised ourselves at a fraction of the cost of the mother plants.

Mine flowered OK a bit later than the normal Christmas time, although I was a bit disappointed in the actual flower as it was smaller than last year, a sign maybe that the bulb has not built up enough reserves from the previous year. It came true to type and still has lots of long green leaves, but the flower stem was shorter this time. I did plunge the whole pot into the garden last year once the ground had warmed up and left it to die off naturally, which it did, then lifted it and let it dry out in September before bringing it back indoors around November when it started to sprout within a week. This time I am going to ignore the advice and put the bulb straight into the ground for the summer months.

One of my amaryllis which was drying off and sitting in dry soil indoors has suddenly decided to send up a shoot.

I saw a big bed of them in flower in a garden on holiday - so now to source a cheap supply the naturalise in my holiday garden.

I dug mine into the soil this time to see if it would strengthen the bulb.

I bought 2 amaryllis way past the end of the season at our local lumber/plant store. They were pink and I put my red amaryllis from last year into the same pot as it was sending up green leaves again so I was hoping it might re-flower (it didn't). I got these pink ones for February if memory serves or maybe March but they were lovely.

It was my plan to plant them out in the garden to see if they would grow all summer and then re-produce a flower around Christmas but both of these flowered and then the great green strapping leaves immediately wilted yellow, fell over and died. Could have been that coz they didn't get planted relatively on schedule in the fall all their Ooomph just petered out or ??

They were lovely while they lasted though