Hi, I'm Jessica Smith and I work for Blands Nursery in West Jordan, Utah. And in today series, we're talking all about bulbs. Right now we're going to discuss an amaryllis bulb. An amaryllis bulb normally brought in right around the holidays for a holiday gift is your normal time that you are going to find them available. We're still a little bit early for them so we haven't received our yet for me to actually show you what a bulb is so I'm going to use a paper-white bulb. Just to kind of give you an idea of where you're going to plant it and that. Okay. Now with an amaryllis bulb, they're usually right around this big a round but I'm just kind of going to give you a visual here of what it's going to be like. Make sure that you got a pot that has a drainage hole in it. Amaryllis bulbs can not take a lot of water. They rot very, very easily. So make sure that you got a drainage hole at the bottom of whatever container that you're using. You're going to want at least six to eight weeks of forcing this bulb for your bloom. So if you're going to have it for a certain engagement or giving it as a gift, allow yourself that time. Sometimes amaryllis bulbs already come already potted for you and ready to go. But if you find it on your own and want to plant in a pot of your own, this is actually how you're going to do it. Now with any amaryllis bulb, they actually like to be pot bound. So you're going to want to have a, you're going to want to have a smaller pot for the bulb where there's only about one to two inches on the outer edge of it. They like a very tight area. Now the amaryllis bulb, you do not plant the entire bulb. You going to want to only leave about a third of it showing. And again remember, an amaryllis bulb is quite large. Here, we're just giving you a visual here. You want to support your amaryllis bulb. This is a really good time to put your stick in for the support. That way, you're not going to damage your roots by sticking in one later. Okay. What you'll want to do also with an amaryllis bulb, when watering it in, the tops can not have water poured on top of them. Always water from the base up. If you have a container that doesn't have a saucer on it, what you'll want to do, you can use like a pan pan or whatever for the watering process. And what this will do is watering in the saucer, it will actually take up the watering at this point form the base. Always water from the base, never from the top. Do not add a fertilizer to your soil. That can also rot your bulbs. Now the amaryllis bulb needs to go and have a cold, needs to be taken to a cold location for about a week or so. At this point, not a cold. You don't want to freeze it, you don't want to put it in the refrigerator but in cold dark location. So like down in your garage or out down in the basement to where it's not quite as bright. And here in a little while, you're going to notice a little green coming up on it. This is the time that you're going to begin to water on a regular basis. Before this time, you don't want to water a lot. Keep this soil quite dry. After it begins to produce the leafs and that, that's when you're going to water a little more regularly when the soil dries to about an inch or so. Just stick your finger down in the soil and check it. Again, water from the base up. You don't want to rot that bulb. Very common mistake down with an amaryllis. After the flowers die off, what you'll want to do is actually cut that flower stock off but leave the leafs. At this point, you can treat just like you would with any other house plant and it's just going to produce some leaves. It's really going to produce a lot of leafs after you cut off that flower bulb. But what that does, by cutting off that flower bulb, puts all the energy back down in to the bulb. Now when you're ready and you want it to bloom again, you're going to start the process basically all over but you need to let your bulb go dormant. So at this time you're going to stop with the watering and let it just basically die down. Like you would your tulips and that. Then take it to kind of a cool, again, dark location, let the foliage die back on it. Just leave it be. Don't water it or anything. This is going to put all the energy back down in to the bulb. So that, again, in another six to eight weeks after forcing it again, you're going to have your flowers. Okay. Now what you are going to do is you're going to let the water sit here and come up and soil up through the soil itself. When it's wet up through here, what you'll want to do is actually you want to remove the water. And this is what any plant, any house plant that you're actually dealing with. It can actually encourage moldy soils which unfortunately will bring on fungus gnats which can be real pesky in your house. So you'd want to just take it out of the saucer and dumb this water out until the next time that you're going to just, when it needs the water.
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