Amaryllis Help - Naturalizing outdoors I Hope!

Back in early October I purchased these Red Peacock Amaryllis and planted them outside in a raised planter. I amended the soil with compost and bulb fertilizer at the recommended rate. I know these bulbs were prepared for the holidays and indoor blooming as you can see I am getting stalks and Its probably way too cold at this time for flowering with nighttime temps in the high 30's and low 40's. The flower heads seem to be drying up which may be due to the season and outdoor planting. Should I be worried or are the bulbs trying to naturalize. They are growing slowly just concerned! I am watering every other day as the soil seems to be drying up fairly quickly even with the current temps. Has anyone had any success with growing amaryllis outdoors. The Amaryllis pictures - the stalks are 1 foot long and smaller. Advice please

This message was edited Dec 18, 2007 11:42 AM

I'm in z9a in houston tx area and all my amaryllises are inground. Like you, I have some wanting to bloom now and the cold snaps are drying up the buds. I just let them be. Except for the new ones which I plant in the fall and want to bloom in Dec, mine bloom in april. Some of the newly planted ones have bloomed in Dec and again in April. But once they're inground for over a year, they seem to synchronize into April blooming.

I would do nothing if I were you. Oh, another thing, I do not provide supplemental water at this time of year. Would be concerned with bulb rot. I only provide extra water in the summer months.

You are going to have a lovely display of Red Peacocks.

I wish I could be more positive here...

You would have been well-advised to plant in pots and let them grow through the winter, and then plant out in spring.

The temps there were warm enough earlier to stimulate both foliage and scape development, and I'm assuming some root growth. Then, just when it is in its "spring" and is set for a new full growing season, it starts going through fall and lowering temps. Not good.

I don't know if waiting till, say, right now, when it's colder to have planted them, with expectations that they would remain dormant entirely till spring. I think they would tend to bloom anyway, if they had brief periods of warmth during that time, but you might see the flowers abort or suffer the cold if they ever got that far.

The site looks pretty good with the block wall carrying and holding heat around the bulbs.

But now, you have a serious problem. You are forced to continue watering since you have growth but temperatures slowing things down and possibly creating conditions that will foster root rot. At least one of the "Peacock" line is prone to root and basal plate rot (Blossom Peacock) but hopefully, Red Peacock isn't as sensitive as BP.

But---all amaryllis are in danger of root damage when soil temp is low in moist soil, so you're in a predicament! Moist soil when temps go below around 45F, invites problems. And if your temps fluctuate much with warmish days and then back cold, you might water them to keep them from drying up in the warmth, only to have the soil get too cold before that moisture disperses. Since you say they're drying out quickly, you might have less issue with too moist soil for very long at any one time.

What to do? Too dry now may mean root damage and stalling of growth, but better to lose the blooms and save the bulbs. (I think your low humidity there as well as the low temps are causing the problems with the buds, and that can't be helped at this point.) Too dry and they may be forced back into dormancy after spending some of their stored reserves and in a weakened state. But they would better survive in totally dry soil due to being insulated by the dry soil (Moisture transmits temps better than the air in the dry soil does.) An emergency situation all around, a dilemna.

What would I do? Since they are already growing, if I had indoor space to have them in light and warmth, I'd lift and pot *immediately*, grow them on through the winter, and plant out in spring. (They are going through their "spring" really, and wnat warmer temps and a continued season.) Planting next spring would give them a full season to grow a big set of roots, which are already beginning to grow. Then, your bulbs would be getting acclimatized to the ending season in fall and go dormant (losing foliage) or rest (keeping foliage intact to some degree) and holding the blooms off till spring, and would start to grow their foliage then. Your usual winter temps there are great for bulbs inground.

If you leave them where they are, depending on how warm and protected your bed is, you might be able to preserve the foliage on the bulbs and they'd be better off being in "suspended animation", though I can't say what will happen to the new root growth. So you might be able to keep them over, weakened somewhat, but living, and with the warmth in spring, might well overcome their setback. Hopefully, they will be warm enough to have what one might think of as a very long spring, and just poke along for awhile.

Its all up to you. I don't know how strong a constitution Red Peacock has (Blossom Peacock is known to be prone to root and basal plate rot) so its ability to deal might be less than some other hardier hybrids, or perhaps, it may show itself quite good at it.
R.

Thank you Vossner for your input. Raydio, I am going to take your advice and pull them up and plant in pots and bring indoors. The soil temp right now is 59 degrees as of 10 minutes agoo but of course that is after being in the sun all day. I also got some feedback from a local gardener that they will not survive the Phoenix summer heat in 100% sunshine. I really got some bad advice from the place I bought the bulbs. I truly appreciate your response and I will be digging them up tomorrow and planting in pots. One question, if I have any significant root growth, what should I do with the roots when I pot them? Should I attempt to transplant them with what roots they have or cut the roots back when transplanted. Thanks again for your response.

Don

Dear Don,
I'll just butt my nose in here and say keep any roots which are white and healthy, lose any which are brown soft or wrinkly. Repot in dry potting mix and don't water for a week. That will give any cuts or damage from transplanting time to heal over. Right now they want to grow and the food and moisture reserves in the bulb are high - a week without water will be meaningless to them. My Hippeastrums are in full post floral growth now and they STILL only get watered once a week and we have temperatures routinely around 90F/32C at this time of the year. Once you start to water the pots indoors a good soaking followed by allowing the potting mix to dry almost completely each time will work the best - these guys are very like succulent plants in that they don't like soggy conditions - especially in cooler temperatures. You may lose some of your flowers this season by moving them again, but that is better than losing the entire plant. Properly treated, these guys can be very long lived - some of my bulbs are well over ten years old and many of my fathers plants must be well over twenty years old. It is a shame you got such bad advice initially - I hate it when you go to a professional service, like a garden centre, and they don;t know what they are talking about.

With regard to the 100% sun thing, I am not so sure they couldn't take it. My plants get about 60% full sun as they are sitting in pots on shelving at the side of my house and I suspect they could cope with a lot more than that. My father also used to put the culls from his breeding program in the ground in his garden and I've seen plenty of the commoner ones in garden beds around Adelaide and I suspect our climate is not much more moderate than yours - we average about 15in/38cm rain (mostly in the winter) per year and routinely see days over 104F/40C in summer with very low humidity, high UV and no cloud cover to speak of. I'd try getting them out in the sun right at the end of their dormancy phase and mulching them well over the bulbs to the top of the neck. If you can keep the bulbs and their surrounding soil cool enough the leaves will acclimate to your conditions as they grow.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, Bye for now, Kaelkitty.

Hi Kaekitty - you know this forum and DG is a wonderful thing. Today is my second day aboard and I want to thank you and everyone that chimed in for their help. Keep'em coming, we can never get enough advice.

PS. We get summertime temps here of 115 and many days over 100 degrees. I think with the right mulch and enough of it you may be onto something.......

Sincerely,

Don

Don~

What KK said about cleaning them up a bit. Indoors, I'd give them all the sun possible, this time of year.

Do use a good free-draining potting mix.

One problem, I think, with full summer sun there might be the low humidity that goes along with it. In the ground here, most hybrids can handle it, as long as they don't do too dry, and love the humidity we have. Your rate of transpiration (loss of moisture from the leaves) will be much greater there and dry damage more likely--burning edges, yellowing out and leaf loss due to too much stress when they go too dry in summer.

I do hope they will adapt to your dry air. I don't know how exposed your bed is, but you might try to use additional fencing to add protection from crosswinds sweeping across them. A water feature might also help creat a micro-climate with a bit of extra humidity. See what others in your area do to try to increase humidity in small areas and how effective it is, if the area is open to strong winds.

You might want to have them in afternoon shade in the high heat to lessen the stress on them, especially of you aren't able to irrigate regularly enough so that they don't dry out too much. The more sun they receive, the more important it is that they don't lack for moisture. As KK said, mulching the soil to shade it will also be a big help--in both keeping the soil cool and in keeping the soil from drying too quickly.

Good Luck! I sure look forward to seeing a bed full of Red Peacock!

R.

OK, a trip Home Depot for small pots and soil $46.00 later I just finished digging up 18 Red Peacock Amaryllis. Each bulb was out of the ground for less than 1 minute before it was transplanted into a pot. 16 of the 18 still had numerous roots and two only had a few roots. The shell of each bulb was wet and the outer skins just fell off. The basil plates were still hard and bulbs themselves were surprisingly firm. I also found baby Amaryllis' on 5 bulbs, one of which you can see in this photo. I currently have them sitting on my back patio in the sun and I have not added any water to the soil. I sure hope I can save these as they are very nice bulbs around 34cm.

How long do you think I should leave them unwatered before I water them? And should I take them outside for some sun evry day or can I just leave them in indirect light...

Thanks everyone for your help and I guess that what's this forun is all about. I hope I can return your graciousness one day...

Sincerely

Don - I am adding 2 pictures of the bulbs after transplanting...

Picture number 2. Sorry its a little blurry as I was trying to get a close-up.

A week without water should be fine. I am glad that most of them still had good roots. Do you have some light bulky mulch - bark chips or dry leaves for example? It might be a good idea to avoid getting too much sun on the white part of the bulbs until they green up a bit, as they may burn where they have been under the ground otherwise. Once the visible parts are all a nice green they will be more sun resistant and you can remove the temporary covering. Other than that, regular watering and GRADUAL introduction to more sun over the winter months should see you in good shape.

Whenever the plants are actively growing follow the water/let it dry out. water again cycle. and feed regularly - these guys use up a LOT of energy in flowering as massively as they do so you need to keep the nutrient level up. Once they show signs of dormancy - no new growth, and existing leaves yellowing and drying up, stop feeding and cut back on the water so the bulbs can rest for the next onslaught.

Keep us posted! KK.

They look good, Don.

Careful not to overwater or keep too wet at this point.

Good luck!

R.
ed. to make it say what I meant. :-Z


This message was edited Dec 19, 2007 11:14 PM

KK, vossner and Raydio,


Thank you very much and may you and yours have a very Merry Xmas and a happy New year.

Thanks and the same to you and your'n!

R.

I've been planting amaryllis outdoors for several years now, here in Dallas, TX. I began with a red one from, I think, Jackson Perkins--I definitely don't remember the name. I plant the bulbs outside after they have blossomed indoors, and both the red ones and Appleblossom have done very well, except when I've divided them and planted some where they get competition from shrub roots. Some get a little afternoon shade; some are in full sun; both locations seem to do equally well. While I do water them (and our heavy clay soil tends to retain water) I don't take any other special care. Dallas rarely has temperatures below freezing (but they can occur!) and it certainly can get above a hundred, sometimes for days in a row. My advice: be brave; these are actually tough plants!
jessie