To produce healthy, flowering amaryllis, water plant sparingly until the leaves and flower begin to emerge from the bulb. After the flower bud has appeared, fertilize and increase water.
The showy horticultural forms are divided into three types: the early spring group, the bulbous group of spring and early summer, and the tall Oriental forms of late summer and fall.
In the fall, as the foliage matures, water should be gradually withheld and the pots lifted in cool weather before frost and placed in a cool cellar to “ripen” (allow the foliage to die off) until around the first of the year. Around Christmas or later, the bulbs should be checked for bloom buds showing, or possible injury, and all old foliage and loose dried scales cleaned off.
To water a bulb too much after the growth starts may cause it to rot. A newly potted, dormant amaryllis should be kept fairly dry until signs of life begin to show, except for an initial watering to settle the soil around the bottom of the bulb. It should be watered sparingly by syringing the bulb itself until you are sure there are roots growing.
Florists use this group extensively indoors for late winter and early spring blooms. Home gardeners can easily force these anemones into winter bloom. When the corms are received, soak them overnight in room-temperature water, then plant them one inch deep and two inches apart in a good sandy loam in a bulb pan.
Dutch hybrid amaryllis are widely available to gardeners. The Ludwig, Warmenhaven and van Meuveven strains are all excellent and come in many shades of red, pink and white. Buy the largest bulbs you can. They are worth the expense.
Full chrysanthemum: Anemone x. fulgens, the scarlet windflower, resembles a scarlet daisy having a black center. It can be forced like A. coronaria, the poppy-flowered anemone, has large flowers in red, white and indigo. Popular controlled varieties with single blooms include DeCaen, St. Brigid and Victoria Giant. Many double forms are also to be had in a variety of colors, although the scarlet ones are predominant. One cultivar known as Anemone coronaria cv. `Chrysanthemiflora’ is a seedling produced in 1848, looking much like a full chrysanthemum; Anemone x fulgens, the scarlet windflower, resembles a scarlet daisy having a black center. It can be forced like A. coronaria.
The Tall Oriental Forms: The tall anemones of late summer and fall are the Oriental forms Anemone hupehensis (Japanese anemone) and Anemone vitifolia, the grape-leaved mower from China and India, which is somewhat hardier than A. hupehensis. These plants are four feet tall with long, slender, flexible stems bearing white and rose purple to carmine flowers two to three inches across. These are excellent to use in a hardy border colony in a partially shaded place. They bloom from late summer to frost. There are beautiful cultivars of the group, particularly in the white color from the cultivar Alba; Whirlwind is a beautiful, semidouble white. September Charm is a good semidouble pink, and Alice is rose carmine.
Viewed 65 times by 21 viewers
