How to Store Amaryllis Bulbs

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen from vanveenbulbs.com and next we're going to talk about how store amaryllis bulbs. Now theres two different families of amaryllis. There's the South African amaryllis belladonna that blooms every fall that you can not dig up and force to bloom at Christmas time, it just wont do it. Those do much better in the ground or a container and they bloom every fall and so if you live a cold climate the best way to store them would be just like a dahlia ether leave them in a container dry, wrap it in newspaper, leave it in a paper box or just my trick is just put it in a bag, a paper bag with some soil too and then turn around and plant it in the spring again. Now theres the amaryllis that bloom at the Christmas time, now the Christmas amaryllis are from South America and they will bloom every Christmas time if you give them a dormant period and force them again or you can turn around and plant them outside every spring and they'll bloom every summer, so you can keep the dormant all winter and then plant them every spring and they'll bloom every summer. The Christmas type amaryllises are really easy to store. Now I find that they do best with soil so you just leave it like they would in nature whether leave it in a pot with soil, dry soil or leave it in a plastic bag, wrapped in newspaper and some soil or you can turn around and take them right out and we just store them right in crates whether its a paper box or plastic crate where it can get some air. The trick is they need air just like a potato or an onion would when your storing it over the winter. As long as they have the right combination of moisture and air they will store real well and I just check them if they look on the dry side add some moist soil, if they look on the wet side take them out of soil put them in a paper box and let them really dry out and its really that easy to store amaryllis."