My amaryllis was in bloom when I brought it in from the garden, where it had spent the summer. The four beautiful flowers have since died. How do I manage the bulb now, and will it flower again in December?
I doubt it will flower again at Christmas – and if it does, nip it in the bud, so to speak, because it will exhaust itself. I imagine that after you put the bulb out, it got wet in late spring (when we had lots of rain), grew healthy leaves over the summer and in midsummer decided to go dormant, which has to happen before it flowers. It was cool and dry for much of midsummer. In its natural habitat, amaryllis (aka hippeastrum) needs a cool, dry winter between 4-13C – which sort of describes July and early August. Then our late warm summer will have confused it into thinking it had gone through winter.
Treat it as you would if it had flowered in later winter, by letting the leaves die back and reducing watering until it goes dormant. The dormant period needs to last about two months, during which the plant should receive no water; it also helps if it’s dark. When new leaves appear, start a steady programme of feeding: flowers are the result of large, healthy leaves.
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