I was given this amaryllis on Thanksgiving. It was the first time I’d had a waxed bulb amaryllis. The idea is the wax preserves the moisture and the bulb has all the nutrients for flowering. You aren’t supposed to do anything to it besides provide filtered sunlight, just enjoy it.
This is how my friend gave it to me. But after several days of no change, I began to worry about enough moisture. It’s extremely dry in the house, around 10% humidity.
So I took out the shells and cloth and put in humidity stones. I punched, gently, several holes around the base, being careful to not puncture the bulb. Then I added a small amount of BulbTone on the stones and filled them with water, as seen in the first photo.
In a couple days, buds started to open and eventually there were 8 huge red flowers.
By Saturday, this is what the last bloom looked like. I had cut off the first stalk when all its flowers died. I probably should have left it to help nourish the bulb.
I hope to save the bulb and plant it. It would probably be weak and undersize at first, as all the nutrients went into the flowers and it had no roots.
So I went down to the garden area in the cellar and looked for a wide deep pot and a cache pot to fit it. I had a bag of seed starting mix to use as potting soil. I also scavenged shards and stones for drainage.
Last year my friend had given me an amaryllis that didn’t do so well at first. But look at it now! That’s the second time it flowered in 2024. I had transplanted it into a bigger, deeper pot, so that’s why I selected the pot I did for this new bulb.
The pot needed a lot of cleaning up, as it had salt deposits on it. Once that was done, I filled it with the drainage material and seed starting mix (McEnroe’s Organic) and started trying to remove the wax.
It turns out there were 2 red layers and a white layer of wax. Not much of the bulb had rotted but several layers were withered.
I peeled off the rotted skins and then planted it as deep as the wax had been. There were several little leaf sprouts on one side. I watered it really well; making sure the water filled the cache to 1” up the side of the pot. With it so dry in here, I have to be careful the soil doesn’t dry out until roots form.
It was already to go into a window. While the bulb was supposed to be in filtered light, the amaryllis that has done so well has a south facing window. So I put this one in the roundtop window as it faces south.
Now I wait, and make sure it doesn’t dry out…
Wow. I'm really attracted to the amaryllis flower by the window, it's very cute.
How do bulbs help plants to grow
A bulb is the base of the plant. It stores energy when the leaves are grown out, and then sends out flowers using the stored energy in the bulb.
So there are particular bulbs that are good for flowering?
Many many of them. Here there are lots to be planted in autumn for flowering in springtime.
Nice work with the bulb, 10% humidity is definitely too low for plants, strange it's so low, I got between 50-60%
It's the wood stoves. They suck the humidity right out.
Oh good to know!