How To force an amaryllis flower to bloom

How To force an amaryllis bulb to bloom, or flower, is basically an artificial altering of the growing cycle of the plant. An amaryllis is a perennial plant, and have been said to live 50 years or more. In order to force the amaryllis to flower you must understand this cycle. As in all things under mother nature’s control, the bulbs care not what date we put on the flowering cycle of the plant. By this I mean, December 25, is winter in north America, but summer in Australia. What does matter, is knowing, controlling, and altering the conditions during the plants life cycle to force the amaryllis to flower/bloom on a desired date. For our purpose we will start with store bought bulb as generally available at most garden centers. We will begin here as the amaryllis may take as many 5 years to produce a flower if started from a juvenile separated bulb, and longer from seed.
So you come home with your prized amaryllis, likely prepacked in a box with every thing you need, just add water. These are usually for sale approximately 4 to 5 weeks before the intended flowering date and have been prepared by a professional grower for such. These bulbs are likely at least 5 to 10 years old and have been pre fertilized to guarante nearly 100% flowering success rate, for that first year anyway. The Amaryllis belladonna would be native to the southern hemisphere, and as such, naturally want to flower in the U.S. from late December to early April. This combined with the simple fact of being commercially grown to bloom on or around the holidays for which they are sold, make forcing the amaryllis bloom at any other time a slow process, by which only patience will prevail. This is the main reason people discard the flower every season and buy new.
For our purpose , we will start the first part of the amaryllis life cycle from the above starting point, the boxed bulb. You will plant the bulb according to the potting directions, water and wait. When the bulb begins to sprout, it will first be leaves, and then the flowering stalkes. At this time your newly potted amaryllis should be moved to a room temperature location in partial sun. Flowering should take place 4-6 weeks from the first watering. We will call this Part 1 of the amaryllis life cycle, where the bulb is using it’s stored nutrients from the prior growing season to produce leaves and flower blooms. During flowering, the plant should be moved to a less sunny, and slightly cooler location to increase the longevity of the flowers. The flower stems should be cut about 1-2” above the bulb when the flowers whither. We will call the next part 2, the growing stage, where the plant is actively growing and replenishing the amaryllis bulb for next years flowers. Your plant can then be moved to a partial sun area, and watered just regularly enough to keep the soil from turning in to an adobe brick. If you’ve done this right, and added some weak flowering plant fertilizer, the bulb should get noticeably larger and look like a green onion with the skin papers splitting.
At about 5-6 months before the intended blooming is desired, the amaryllis need to begin it’s resting period. We will call this part 3, and is the part of the cycle that the amaryllis is absorbing all the stored energy in the leaves into an area in the bulb that will be the proceeding flower. During this time, fertilization should halted, the plant moved to a less sunny location and watering stopped. This part of the forcing of the the plant was the hardest for me, because it is contrary to most gardeners instinct, it felt like I was killing it. For forced flowering of an amaryllis bloom, this is not the case, even though, likely much growing season left for the vegetables in the garden. We will call this the resting period, and may well last 2-3 months before the amaryllis shows any yellowing / wilting of the leaves. Your plant may or may not loose its leaves, or totally wither in its first few years of forced flowering, mostly dependent on the timing of when fertilization is stopped. That, and one must realize the commercially sold plants have been “juiced” buy the grower to increase the health and success rate of store bought plants. It may take several years for the amaryllis plant to become more natural in it’s life cycle.
The last part. 4th cycle is the dormant stage, 12-16 weeks, before the intended date of blooming, where the amaryllis bulb must be dry and cool, before the beginning of the next flowering cycle. In my experience, between 6-8 weeks before the flowering date, the bulb can be lightly watered to just wet the soil. When the new leaves begin to emerge, the potted amaryllis can fully watered to moisten the soil fully, although, I have had them begin to sprout with out watering, thus signaling it’s readiness to begin anew. The new blooming cycle may take several years to establish, as it is usually only a 20 day long flowering period.
It is the procedure out lined above, patient, and skillful adherence to the natural life cycle that force the flowering of the Amaryllis. You cannot change this, only mother nature, and evolution can . After all, dead or unhealthy plants don't flower. You can only manipulate the timing of these events, albeit slowly, to cause the amaryllis bulb to bloom on or about a desired date. This is forcing a bloom, and not for the impatient gardener.
Enjoy the video time laps video How to Forced flowering, Amaryllis belladonna hybrid amaryllis bulb (Hippeastrum) = =