I beat the odds
My husband and friends are really, really tired of listening to me brag about this, but I am proud of the fact that—defying all the tenets of hippeastrum wisdom—I actually have two buds pushing up from my two oldest plants—I think six and five years, respectively.
The reason this is somewhat of a triumph is that I have never followed the prescribed advice for getting hippeastrums to bloom yearly. I do not put them into dormancy, but keep them going as houseplants throughout the year, with some time outside over the summer. I don’t think I fertilize them.
Nonetheless, all four of my hippeastrums have bloomed every year, except last year. It was then that I thought I would have to bow to the inevitable and put all of them into dormancy—but of course I never did. So I had minimal hopes of bloom this year.
The lack of a dormant period, is, I think, why you see the unusual situation of long leaves with an emerging bud; normally, the bud comes first, then the leaves.
So, two down, two more to come? One can hope. I think these two are both red, but maybe not.
Comments
The second flower started to rise while the first one was still on its way up. I thought we were heading for some weird floral diaster, but the second bud graciously waited for the first one to finish before growing in earnest.
I just put it outside to get some sun.
They always decay when I force dormancy. I'm going to keep this one going.
I used soluble bloom food when they were flowering. Never forced them to go dormant; they went on their own, as the summer light started to fade to autumn.
Unfortunately, where I am now, there is narcissus fly, and I lost every one of my hippeastrum and a giant pot of sea daffodil to bulb maggots. I haven't replaced them yet because I'm not sure how to protect them.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I swear I could see tulip sightings
Good luck with those last two.