Amaryllis Season is back!

[NYCorchidman]

Ambiance is finishing up the second flower show and working on the third stalk.
Last year, it sent up two stalks at the same time so I had one big show followed by the third stalk.
This year, the first one opened up, died, then the second one opened up. Now, the third one. extended show. I like it!!

My other two bulbs are now awake, so I've been watering them. It's amazing how fast these things grow.
The next one is Show Master with two stalks poking above the bulb along with some leaves.

The last one is Benfica, one stalk for now.
I had two last year.

Regarding the order of which one grows first (leaves or stalks), I think it is part genetic and part temperature.
When they are stored at temperature lower than 45F, the stalks will develop when it's time but not the leaves.
When kept warmer, the leaves will also grow together with leaves.

Some varieties grow stalks before leaves and some do both.

Again, there can always be exceptions as plants sometimes do crazy things.

So far, my Ambiance always grew stalks first before leaves came out. Show Master did whatever it wanted.

Benfica had both stalks and leaves last spring. This time, I see no leaves yet.

Note: I do stop watering completely in the late fall or early winter, so leaves will all wither away by December on my amaryllis.

[LoveOscar]

It's a grocery store Christmas bulb, so it's in a clear jar with stones and water, no name. I need to repot it, waiting for my stalks to wilt so I can cut them off and make it more manageable.

[LoveOscar]

This is what is left of that big Red after I pulled it out of the planter it came in, and cleaned off all of the soft rotting roots and outter bulb shell.



Not sure if it is savable, but since it keeps putting out more leaves, I'll try. It still smells of root rot at the bottom, but I have it wrapped in paper towel and sitting in an empty vase until I can figure out what to do with it. I don't want to repot it in soil immediately if it still smells like rot.

[NYCorchidman]

It is very much savable. It looks great to me.
It is good that you pulled it out of the glass. I know what it is as I see it at HD every winter. It looks nice in the clean glass with black pebbles, but the roots (and possibly the bulb itself) will rot in the water.

You cannot leave it like that as it will dry out and damage the few roots that are left. The bulb looks plump and hard, leaves are growing, and there are a few roots.

I would pot it up in soil immediately. The longer the wait, the worse for the plant at this stage.

I don't know what you mean by rot smell, but you might mean the distinct smell of amaryllis (and narcissus bulbs) as rot smell??

I cannot see the basal plate clearly in your photo as it is just black in your shot.
Do you feel the base mushy?? If not, it is normal.

Maybe you can take a picture of the basal plate and I can help you, but do it quickly as you don't want to wait to long. This plant must be planted ASAP.

[NYCorchidman]

These guys have been growing really fast.

I only wish these lasted longer in bloom.
Two stalks on Ambiance are gone, but the third stalk is growing fast. It is much smaller than the first two, but I don't complain. I will take any flowers it makes.

Show Master always send up huge stalks.
When it gets sun, it turns beautiful red. The leaves are growing together with the stalks.

Benfica is growing well and it has started the second stalk, although I'm not posting pictures of it.

I'm excited!!!!

Oops, sorry about the messy background.

[Ordphien]

The flower quality was superb last year.
It's pretty horrible looking this year.
I might chuck it and get a new one

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[LoveOscar]

No, it smelled like it was wet and rotting. A curl your nose and turn away kind of smell that actually stunk up the whole room when I removed it from the glass. I let it dry out some (not dry as in going dormant dry, just dry enough to water again), and dusted the base with cinnamon. I picked up some orchid bark mix yesterday, and I will use that mixed with some potting soil (from last year) to plant it in tonight. I will take pictures of the plate for you before I pot.

---------- Post added at 07:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:18 PM ----------

[NYCorchidman]

Well, to me, the basal plate looks fine.
I think the smell might have come from the roots that was rotting, but the way you describe it, I don't think rotting roots can make such smell.

I have dealt with thousands of bulbs of different kinds.

This is not an orchid. Letting it out like this and dry in between watering is not the way to go.

This is just like other plant. The roots need to be in constant contact with moist soil.
You only have few roots left and the plant is already pushing out leaves. If you plant it, it will grow more roots, but you don't want to delay too long.

[LoveOscar]

It wasn't just the roots, but the bulb itself. I don't have a before picture of the bulb to show how bad it was, but I actually ended up peeling off several layers of nasty mush from the bulb. I probably lost 1/8th an inch of bulb flesh all the way around. The basal plate smelled like the bulb did because the edges of rot were around the edges of the plate. I needed to get rid of that before doing anything else.

I am not treating this bulb like an orchid. I'm treating it like it is infected and smells disgusting and instead of throwing it away, I'm trying to save it.

It's planted in a pot now. I hope it lives, though I'm afraid of the rot continuing to spread through the bulb. We'll see.

[NYCorchidman]

Oh, ok, that makes more sense, then.

The bulb is still of decent size after the peeling.

It looks fine now. The basal plate looks normal and the bulbs is apparently fine. I would plant it up.

As long as you don't see any rot and as long as the bulb feels firm to touch, it is good.

The way you described, the rot was not from a disease but dead tissues that resulted from sitting in the wet glass container it was in.

The red marks on the bulb could be from scars or red blotch disease. It is hard to tell, but once you grow the leaves, you can tell easily.

Hope all the best.