Amaryllis belladonna blooming

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 14 Aug 2006 07:28:34 PDT
Dear All,

On this list we have often reported when the Amaryllis belladonna start to 
bloom in California. Perhaps it is a rite like the Lycoris blooming in 
other parts of the United States and the Crinum blooming for all of you who 
love Crinum. I've had a lot of bulbs bloom for me this summer and if I have 
time I'll write about some of them in another post, but the blooming of 
Amaryllis belladonna for those of us who haven't had rain since May and 
where the garden is a bit tired is a real thrill. We've speculated what 
makes them bloom before. I think the consensus was that they needed a lot 
of sunshine and occasional summer water to do well. At least the hybrids 
seem to need more water. This year I have Amaryllis belladonna blooming 
already in abundance and some plants I have had for years that have never 
bloomed are sending up spikes. Since many of my others don't bloom until 
much later I could have blooms for a long time. So why I ask is this 
happening. We did have late rain, but my garden has been very dry this 
summer. But we had an unusually warm summer with less fog so perhaps it was 
the extra heat or extra sun. Unfortunately since I'm attending the IBSA 
symposium I may miss some of this amazing display. How about the rest of 
you who grow this plant?

One of the ones that is going to bloom I must have had for maybe 12 to 15 
years without a bloom. It was originally in a container but never bloomed 
so I divided them and planted them out. This one eventually got shaded by a 
tree, but every year the leaves came back. It's still shaded by that tree, 
but this year it is going to bloom.

Mary Sue
We're back to drippy fog the last few days after all that sunshine.

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers 


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