Seed Production: Amaryllis are easily produced from seed and are easily pollinated by hand. Simply place your finger on the stamens where plenty of pollen will be deposited. Brush your finger over the wet, sticky end of the pistol, and viola! You've pollinated your plant. The ovary behind the flower will swell up as the seeds inside develop. The ovary will soon dry up and break open with dozens of round paper-thin black seeds. Sow the seeds in the same mix you grow your bulbs in keeping them moist while they germinate and grow through their first season. We sow our seeds in a flat and keep it in the greenhouse were it's warm and humid. We don't force our seeds into dormancy and let them grow through the first year until they go into dormancy all by themselves. When we see that a seedling has gone dormant (as evident by the dried leave), we dig up the bulb and store it in a dry cool location until spring. Every year the bulbs get bigger and in 5-7 years we'll have blooming size bulbs. We haven't hybridized many Amaryllis and when we did, we didn't get anything superior to what is currently available on the market today. It was fun, though and something we encourage everyone to do. It makes a GREAT project for school kids and adults alike. Seed production does takes energy away from the plant, so if you're having trouble re-blooming your Amaryllis, you might want to hold off on trying to grow them from seed. Besides seed production, Amaryllis reproduce via 'bulblets' or miniature bulbs on the side of the mature bulbs. For a bold display, leave these bublets attached to the mother bulb. They will eventually develop in to blooming size bulbs each producing a beautiful display of flowers. If you prefer, gently remove any bulblets and plant them individually. Bulbs can also be cut up into sections where each section has a part of the root and a part of the upper portion of the bulb. Each section can be grown on into a blooming size bulb. We've never tried this, but if you have a bulb you'd like to experiment with, let us know how it goes. Take pictures and we'd be happy to post them here and share your experience with others. |
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Propagation
Amaryllis Culture Guide
