Amaryllis Thread Part 3

Came from part 2 here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1148100/

Here's my 'lady in waiting' my Zombie that thrilled me so last year (its first) and a gift from our own critterologist with our planting of Joyanna's Crocus Lawn.
With family events last fall I did not follow best practices with Zombie. She lived outside last summer and stayed in ground well into fall I guess. She is a double flower on a short (for amaryllis) stem. I pulled her and wrapped her in paper for winter. I opened her up sometime in Jan? Feb? and soaked her roots for a day in a 'tea', then potted her.

This message was edited Mar 17, 2011 7:24 AM

And waited, and waited and waited. She was firm to the touch and I did not want to add much water for fear of just rotting a dormant bulb. Recently she felt a little soft. I was about to pull her and see what's up down under but these nice white roots are growing out the bottom so I left her in and added 'tea'. Maybe a day or two in this nice sunshine and the new moisture will be all she was waiting for.

I am sure you know the saying:
"All good things come to those who wait"......

Questions--
--Why did you wrap her up in paper after you dug her up?
--What was that supposed to do?
--Were the green leaves still on the bulb when you wrapped her?
--Did the leaves get to go through the drying/yellowing stage?
--Did you like the results from having the bulb planted outside in a bed?
--Did you plant all your A. bulbs in a bed last summer?

Not implying that any of this was all detrimental or not--just wondering....

As I wrote in the bottom of the previous Post--I may just remove the babies that have been
growing from the mother bulbs and experiment with planting them in a bed by my roses.

That's what happens when a post gets moved up---out of sight--out of mind--
I may never get the answer to my questions....

Sally--Please check the Soil and Composting Thread.
I am seeking information (for a customer at work) where, in this area,
can one get "Rock Dust"--also called "Glacial Gravel"--or Basalt.
This would be a mineral loaded addition to a raised bed --or any bed.

In my search at work--what came up on the Computer? A 2008 article by Darius on Rock Dust..
I e-mailed it to thew customer. Now to find a place she can get it.
This little old, white-haired lady was sharp as a tack. She knew what she was talking about...

Trying to help her......

I'll make it easier for you. I'll look up the Post and edit/attach it it to here.

Gita

Sally--

Here is the link. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1095346/

Tapla (Al) really, really gwts into how to construct the perfect soil mix.
Very knowledgeable! Of course--there are lads of Q. and A.,

I jumped in at the very bottom of this Thread. It is still going on.
Someone from TX gave a link of where "Turface" is available...

A local source would be much better... Shipping 40lb. begs from TX
would be very expensive!

Gita

Bit more detail on my amaryllis care that I did on this case

I think I did managed to fertilize this bulb last summer since it was very special to me. No offshoots, was planted in a part sun location (various times of day sun/shade)

Wrapped it in paper
I was very limited in attention at the time of pulling the Amaryllis. I threw it in with several other things I also did that day, a day of rescue wherein I also pulled and wrapped two baby Banana offshoots (look rotten now!) and a clump of Peruvian daffodils (relative to amaryllis) and some Cannas. I just wanted get them all packed up and hopefully good for winter.

Leaves
I can never bear to cut off healthy looking leaves. Emotional yes but there you have it. THe leaves yellowed and dried once it was out of the ground.
Planting other A bulbs in ground
I have planted others in ground. They CAN live thru winter here. I plant with bulb under soil surface to help it not freeze, then mulched them with a mound of dry leaves. in a somewhat shady spot, with minimal attention to fertilizer, I have only had one rebloom, and the smaller offshoots stay about the same size.

I got to the point where I saw little fun in nurturing a bunch of big grass(baby amaryllis) but that was just me. If they are not going to get FOOD they are not going to GROW.

Rock dust is off topic so I will respond at the other thread if I know anything

guess what. a tiny leaf tip showed today. something is finally happening.

The Zombie awakes...............Run Sally! LOL

LOL

I now have one offshoot or bulblet peeking at me beside the mother bulb. This just appeared about the middle of last week. It is up about an inch or a little more. When I plant the mother bulb to open soil I will take the bublet off the side and mark it so I don't hoe it out for a weed.

Doc, I have a bulb-let too. It was pretty small when I got the bulb this winter, debated removing it. I left it on and it was under the soil. After the bulb sent out 2 bloom stalks, and the flowers were spent, I removed the stalks. One morning when I was sitting at my desk computer, I noticed that there was soil on the table top. Thinking I had a small critter digging in the pot, on close inspection the bulb-let had grown to the side of the pot, and was pushing out a leaf. Will be interesting to see what is happening under the soil when I plant it outside.

Chris, now all I can picture is a critter digging in your dirt, LOL!

I can ony imagine that my bublet is growing squashed flat. The growing pot for mother is not much larger than the mother bulb.

Sounds like it is squeezing up there and will come out skinny. But fatten up once it hits your organic wonderland!