How to get an Encore from your Amaryllis

How to get an Encore from your Amaryllis

Coaxing another bloom is not as hard as you think

Unlike tulips and many other bulbs, Amaryllis do not have to have a cold storage or ground temperature to be able to re-bloom. They do like to have a short period of rest, though, at the end of summer to ready themselves for the next bloom cycle. Continue to fertilize and water your amaryllis this summer and let them have plenty of sunshine. For holiday blooms, discontinue watering or lay pots on their sides to encourage a dormancy in mid to late August. After all foliage has dried up and withered, cut it off and store your bulb in a cool, dry place. In October, re-pot in fresh potting soil and water sparingly. Increase watering as new growth emerges and keep bulb in a warm spot. By mid November, your amaryllis should be on its way to a beautiful bloom again.

If you use amaryllis in the landscape in southern zones 8-10, you can leave your bulbs in the garden year round without worry. Amaryllis will naturally start their rest period in December or January at which time you can clip off all yellowed and dead foliage. After a brief rest, your garden will be alive with blooms from March to April.

I’ve copied the above text from a newsletter I get from the Amaryllis & Caladium Bulb Company a few times a year.

www.amaryllis.com

Planting & Care of your Amaryllis

The photos are of my bulbs & are, obviously, not a part of the newsletter but I thought I would add them to give the blog a bit of visual interest.

Lettuce ‘Winter Gem’ sown today

 

Lettuce ‘Winter Gem’ sown today

Today I sowed the seeds of Lettuce ‘Winter Gem’ that I got a couple of weeks ago in a swap. I sowed them in a big pot in the greenhouse down on Gerry’s allotment.

Lettuce ‘Winter Gem’ just sown:

I’ve grown Lettuces out on the plot over the winter but not in the greenhouse. Though at the end of the winter 2013 I did sow some in a seedtray in the greenhouse …

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ with true leaves:

Here are a couple of photos for the Lettuces ‘Little Gem’ that I grew in the GH border during April & May 2013:

I also grew some from the same tray in the bed just in front of the GH door. I’ve put some photos in so you can see them as well:

The GH is unheated (even some glass is missing!) so I was interested to see just how much difference it would make to the them. With regards to the temperature there would be very little difference, maybe a trifle warmer in the GH on any days with a little sunshine but as we had a cold, wet spring this year temperature can be ruled out. But we did however have a lot of rain & cold winds. There the difference was notable.

The ones growing in the GH were protected from wind & rain & therefore the leaves were thinner & not quite such a dark green …

‘Little Gem’ in greenhouse border 13th May 2013:

… as the ones growing outside & having to face up to the inclement weather:

‘Little Gem’ near greenhouse 13th May 2013:

Lotties in winter

Lotties in winter

At long last I found time to do the promised blog of our allotments at the end of the year. Today is Boxing Day & it’s a very quiet day, in spite of the strong winds forecast! We began the day with a fair amount of sunshine though this only lasted a few hours before the clouds came over. No rain though. In the late afternoon we had a little sunshine once again before the night time pulled its veil over the evening sky.

Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:

This first photo is of the last of the Beetroots that I had been growing at the top of the plot. They’re in the bag because I forgot I wanted a photo with them just taken out of the ground.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with the way they have gone this year & will again sow them at intervals in coming years.

Broccoli Purple sprouting:

The Broccoli was given to me by a guy on the conjoining plot. I happened to read about their anti-cancerous properties just before going down to the plot. This guy was planting something, I didn’t know what, when I asked him if he knew about the anti-cancerous properties of Broccoli. He said he did & that he was planting his Broccoli at that very moment! He offered me the last half a dozen he had left over & so I planted them here. Mine have done better than his!

Godetias flowering:

The Godetias I sowed originally in the greenhouse to later take home & put on the balcony but which I put in the plot have been flowering for some time. I must say this has surprised me as I expected them to die at the first whiff of frost! They have survived at least 3 frosts – one of which was forecast to be 3 degrees C below freezing!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

These miniature Lettuce, Tom Thumb, are still going strong after several frosts.

Lentils & Calendulas at top of plot:

This is the top of the plot where I sowed Lentils & Pinto beans. I had potatoes growing here a few months earlier. After lifting them & raking out the soil level I sowed some rows of Legumes. The Pinto beans didn’t survive more than one very, very light frost but the Lentils are not fazed by a few degrees of frost! The Calendulas have been there all year! They came up with the spuds & I left them after lifting the spuds.

French Marigolds in flower:

I sowed these French Marigolds in a seedtray with the intention of pricking them out into bigger flowerpots hoping, with the protection of the greenhouse, to get some flowers from them during the winter. I was so occupied with the digging of the allotments that I never got around to doing it! So, here they are flowering, still in the seedtray!

Annual Chrysanthemums:

A guy from Spain sent me some seeds of these Annual Chrysanthemums last year. I grew them on the allotment & some seeds fell into the ground & survived the winter/spring/summer to come up amongst the Carrots I sowed there. As they still hadn’t flowered when I lifted the Carrots I decided to try & save the plants. I put them in the greenhouse, in the growbag where Tomato Mallorquin had been growing all summer. They are flowering at the time of writing this blog!

Garlic sprouting:

During November I put in a few Garlic cloves from a head of Garlic one of our sons brought over from Spain when he came to spent a couple of weeks holiday with us. He said they were probably the best Garlic you could buy in Spain! I told him at the time it was far too early to plant them but I would do it when the time was right. So here they are just poking through the ground right in front of the greenhouse.

Peanuts at an end:

Many of you following my allotment blogs during the year will remember my experiment with growing Peanuts on the allotment, well I can report that the experiment has been unsuccessful! Not surprising to anyone I suppose, but I did get at least ONE (1) peanut!!!

You must realize that I also started them very, very late. I’m determined to have another go next year & will start the seeds off much earlier, I may even give them some protection from the elements as well.

Pinto beans harvested:

Here are some of my Pinto beans as I was removing them from their seed pods in the greenhouse. I left them to dry for a couple of months before I removed them from their seed pods. Really I was too busy, & lazy!, to do it earlier! They had been picked more than a month before.

Pinto beans bagged:

Here is a bag with some of the beans once I took them home & put them in a bag. We have had a meal with some & there are still some waiting for me to remove the beans from their seed pods!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in Greenhouse:

This is the last photo of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I sowed them in January 2011 in the greenhouse. They were from the packet of seeds my wife brought me back from Spain in September 2010.

Tomatoes Mallorquin harvested in Greenhouse:

A few days later I decided it was no use keeping them on the plant any longer so I picked them & here they are laid out on the bench in the greenhouse.

Runner beans

These were the last of the runner beans for this year. I collected the last few seedpods to save for next year & I’ve now cleared the ground of them. We had a huge crop from them!

Fig trees with frost protection:

These “wigwams” are the winter protection for the two Fig trees we have. After two year of losing the fruit in the very late spring frosts I thought I would protect them this year & see if we can get something to eat from them. I shan’t take the fleeces off them until the middle of May next year. The two previous years we have had frost as late as the first week of May!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in greenhouse just harvested:

These are the very, very last of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I harvested them on 5th December. I then removed the plant from the growbag & threw it away.

Godetias at top of plot:

I showed you a photo of these Godetias at the top of the plot further up but this photo was taken several weeks, & several frosts later! Even on Christmas Eve they were still flowering!

French Marigolds & Cosmos on Christmas Eve:

The French Marigolds I showed you a few photos earlier were still flowering on Christmas Eve & there were a few Cosmos amongst them! They had been affected a little by the frosts lately but, as you can see, continued to flower!

Sweetpeas Royal Family just sown:

I finally sowed my Sweetpeas. I had tubes & compost all waiting in the greenhouse but I had no seeds till the 15th December! On the 20th I sowed about a 1/3rd of the seeds. The tubes are placed in a standard seedtray in which over 20 tubes fit.

Onion Alisa Craig sown on Christmas Eve:

When I spent an hour or so on the plots on Christmas Eve I sowed a few of my Onion Alisa Craig seeds in a seedtray. This is a little later than last year I think when I believe I sowed them a week or two earlier. I was quite pleased with the results of the sowing when I lifted the bulbs in July. I want to sow more this year as our stock ran out about a month ago!

Well that’s the last from the plots I share with Gerry for this year. I have to make up one last one with what I’ve been doing on my very own plot (12A) which I got from the Town Council on 1st September.

Wishing you all a happy end to the year 2011 & a fantastic New Year 2012.

Sunflowers: Big & small

Sunflowers: Big & small

What springs to mind when you think about Sunflowers? I bet it is a Champion Sunflower like this one – which won us First Prize in the Sunflower competition on the allotment field where Gerry & I have our allotments:

Here are some Sunflowers from our plot last year:

Here is a multi-headed one:

Some Minis:

Here are some that I grew on my balcony some years ago, all from 2004, some have 2005 on them, that’s wrong!

Here are some more to end this blog from our allotment last year

Here are a few pictures of the seedling Sunflowers I’ve sown this year

One week later:

1st Sunflower to open of 2011:

No doubt you will see an occasional Sunflower in my fortnightly blogs of the allotment! I shall be writing my 2nd blog of June on the plot during the coming week!

Hope you enjoy the sunshine in these flowers while we wait for the summer to get underway this year.