Amaryllis with emerging flower scape.

[RosieC]

The last couple of years I made the mistake of putting the plastic pot on a dish rather than in a cache pot. It meant I couldn't put much water in before it ran everywhere so I didn't water enough.

This year I've gone back to a cache pot so I can water well when it needs it. I do like the orchids and soak it then drain it fully so it's not left standing in water. That worked well in past years, it's just the last couple of years I didn't have a cache pot big enough for it.

The bulblet is several years old now. I removed them the first couple of years as I had read somewhere that you shouldn't leave them on to save energy for the main bulb. However I gave up and other people have said it's fine to leave them. I think this year it's doing particularly well with those big leaves appearing. Maybe if I care for it well this year it might flower as well next year :

[NYCorchidman]

I see.

I have mine sitting in rather shallow saucer as well and I have to be careful so that water doesn't run all over the place, which does happen every now and then. I just don't move amaryllis pots because the leaves are all over and pots are quite heavy.

Anyways, unless your bulb reduced in size significantly, one good growth cycle should be good enough to regain the size and flower the following spring.

Regarding side bulbs, yeah, this is one of many things that some people wrongly believe.
If side bulbs hurt the mother bulb in any way, the bulbs will not make them. What's the point of it, you know?
Making side bulbs is one of the ways to multiply itself. Early removal of these side bulbs can only hurt the side bulbs themselves.
While leaving them attached to the mother bulb is only beneficial. You can only remove when they get too crowded.
One of my aunts used to grow amaryllis in the same planter for nearly 20 years. She started with one bulbs and over the course of 20 years, the large planter was loaded with many amaryllis.
It was spectacular when all came into bloom around May every year.

A little short droughts here and there do not seem to hurt them, but if you keep them on dry side too much, the bulbs basically shut themselves down going into survival mode.
Bulbs have enough food and water reserve to survive for quite some time, so when they do not get enough water to get going, they switch to sleeping mode until favorable conditions return.
This allows them to survive but there might be no flowering because for every 3-4 leaves is produced one scape. By shutting down its growth cycle, the bulb cannot mature the leaves and grow the scape inside it.

This may not always work though because they are supposed to be growing during the warm and wet season then fall asleep when the cool dry season finds them.
These are very tough regardless.

[RosieC]

I was looking back at old pictures of mine and in 2009 and 2010 I got two scapes on the one bulb. I had heard the thing of one scape per 3-4 leaves the previous year, and I remember it seemed to work out about right for mine. It used to grow 8-9 leaves each year on the main bulb when it was doing well. Only three last year seemed really small, but at least it's started a scape this year

[NYCorchidman]

Timing is important. If poor watering happens earlier in the growing cycle and it wasn't too bad, then correct watering will signal the plant to generate more leaves. If "drying" happens relatively late, then it is late. Flower scapes develop quite early on and develop fully while resting.

I couldn't find my old pictures, but one of my Showmaster bulbs had two scapes last spring. no leaves. then I forgot about it and just let it sit in a corner of the livingroom for a while until one day a third scape came out. still no leaves.
I probably didn't water it for almost two months. the bulb got quite small, I'd say reduced about two third of the original size. Since it gave me generous three scapes and flowers were so lovely, I thought I would keep the bulb although I was tempted to toss it as it looked quite sad. I was not expecting to see flowers this spring.
Well, it started to grow leaves in April last year. over the summer, diligent watering and occasional feeding and full sun helped it grow over 10 leaves and and baby bulb on the side.
The bulb grew even larger than when I bought it by the time it was November!

and now, it just finished two scapes and growing 4 leaves with two more emerging in the center.

The other Showmaster is now sending up two scapes at the same time with no leaves. Last year, this bulb had leaves and scapes at the same time.

They seem to have mind of their own. lol
I should take a picture tomorrow.

My Ambiance bulb, that has been neglected with no watering since it finished flowering with three scapes in early February, is finally sending up four leaves. I was going to toss, but forgot about it just like I did with the Showmaster bulb last year.

It is also quite pretty and I love it, so I will pot it up tomorrow.
Dang, that means I have to get rid of one cattleya from the window space. lol

[RosieC]

Well I have flowers at last Also it's started a second scape from the same bulb which I didn't expect. Can't have been as bad care last year as I remembered.

It has four buds on the open stem but two are tiny. I can't remember from previous years if these tiny ones will ever open.





---------- Post added at 08:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------

This shows the 3rd and 4th buds which I'm not sure will open.

[WhiteRabbit]

Wowza! That's gorgeous!
I'm impatiently waiting to see what mine will look like

[NYCorchidman]

congratulations, Rosie!
You must be thrilled to see the unexpected second scape emerging.
It is so pretty! Minerva, isn't it?

You will be surprised those little buds will grow and open.
My Aphrodite always produce four flowers per scape. This year, one of the two scapes made five!
That last fifth one was VERY tiny and I wondered if that one would ever make it to even open.
Well, here's the real surprise.
The scape got too heavy with its bloom and bent over. So I "harvested" it and enjoyed it as a cut flower in a vase. It had already finished the first two flowers and the fading third one and the fresh fourth one on along with the tiny small last bud attached.
In about one week, the water got all dirty and I was lazy and didn't even change the water. bad me.
The main body of the scape started to look yellowish and rotten.
All the flowers were gone but the last bud grew and grew and eventually opened up pure white with some pink streaks. The flower size was about half the size of the others, but that is still big considering how big these flowers are (over 9in across!).
It looked so bad with the rotten scape so I dumped it but the part ( don't know the name) that connects the flower itself to the scape was still green and firm while the rest of the scape was mushy and bad.

[RosieC]

Wow, that's great that the flower opened for you despite the scape having broken then rotted.

I've had them bend over in the past, especially if they have got a bit dry, and didn't think to try putting them in water.

I can actually see this morning that the largest of the smaller buds has grown since the flowers opened so it's looking good for more flowers on that scape

This is a NoID by the way because it might have had a name when I first got it but it was before the days when I even thought to record the names of such things.

[CandiMc]

Stunning photos!! Wow! And is that NY in the window of one of those?

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by CandiMc

Stunning photos!! Wow! And is that NY in the window of one of those?

Rosie is in UK.

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

Originally Posted by RosieC

Wow, that's great that the flower opened for you despite the scape having broken then rotted.

I've had them bend over in the past, especially if they have got a bit dry, and didn't think to try putting them in water.

I can actually see this morning that the largest of the smaller buds has grown since the flowers opened so it's looking good for more flowers on that scape

This is a NoID by the way because it might have had a name when I first got it but it was before the days when I even thought to record the names of such things.

Sounds great!

I would be very surprised if it is not Minerva.