Amaryllis Flower – Pretty Blossoms Suitable for Indoor Growth
The beautiful amaryllis is an exotic flowering plant, with attractive blooms in shades of red, white, pink, orange, with some shaded, stripped or multicolored varieties. These plants are perfect for growing indoors, especially during winters and holiday seasons.
Amaryllis Flower – Attractive Seasonal Blooms
Most people often confuse Amaryllis Belladonna with the amaryllis flower that is actually a Hippeastrum that belongs to the genus Amaryllidacea. Popularly known as Amaryllis, the flowering plant is grown from bulbs, often forcibly during winter months, especially during Christmas and is a great holiday gift for friends and families. There are five types of flowers, viz single petaled, double, miniature, trumpet and cybister. The trumpet shaped amaryllis flower is probably the prettiest of the lot, with flared, tube shaped blooms, while the cybisters have papery thin petals and spidery. Single, double and miniatures are the ones that are most commonly sold in supermarkets and nurseries during Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day. You must keep the potted plant in a well aerated, sunny part of your home. When planting bulbs too you must keep them in the range of direct sunlight with an ideal temperature of 68 to 70 F. Water it sparingly and keep increasing it as the leaves and buds appear. If you’re looking to have flowers in winter, set up the planting schedule around October and within 8-10 weeks the flowers will bloom fully.
Amaryllis Plant – Caregiving Basics
Generally an amaryllis plant goes dormant by itself and re-blooms anytime in winter. But if you want the flowers specifically for Christmas or Easter decoration, you’ll have to buy the bulbs and prepare the plant during fall so it can blossom in time. Amaryllis is an easy plant to grow, but it still needs proper light, water and nutrition. The plant is grown from its bulb that you can purchase at nearly all nurseries. If gardening basics are not your cup of tea, then purchase an already potted amaryllis plant and place it in an area suitable for the healthy growth of the plant. Remember that the plant needs lots of bright light, but not sunlight. An artificial light source like a halogen or lamp will work in such case. Make sure the plant can sustain throughout the growth phase and an enriched well-drained soil will do the trick. The plant has a thin stalk with a top heavy flower head, so use a bamboo shoot or a thin wooden stick as a stake to support it. Know that the amaryllis grows in a flowering phase during winter and a foliage phase during the summer. So once the flower has died after winter, replant it outside and let it grow. Repeat the cycle by reading instructions closely.
Amaryllis Bulb – Holiday Blossoms
Bare and preplanted amaryllis bulbs can be bought during fall from grocery stores, supermarkets, nurseries and can even be bought from online stores. The trick is to force these bulbs into blooming during holiday season, i.e, during mid-winter, instead of when it normally does. For this, you need to give the amaryllis bulb about six to eight weeks from the time of planting to bloom. Choose a sufficiently large pot filled with good potting soil that is suitable to amaryllis and follow the instructions well. Once the stalks start growing, water a little more and feed the plant a good liquid fertilizer. You can cut off the flower stalk till the bulb, get it outside, water well and let it grow its foliage. Stop feeding the plant during August, bringing it back in and following the process till the new flower blooms. Amaryllis is a great addition for homes, gardens and even professional offices, as long as you know how to take care of this beautiful flowering plant.