Instructions …

I’ve had Amaryllis rebloom for many years. Wait till the flowers on the stalk have died. Cut back the stalk which is hollow but allow the other leaves to grow over the summer. You may get more than one stalk come up which carries the blooming flowers. In the late summer cut all the leaves down to the level of the bulb. Then either take the bulb out, rub off the compost, and store it in newspaper in a cardboard box in a dry cool place. Keep it sleeping for six to eight weeks or more if it suits you. Then put the bulb in fresh compost in the flower pot. Water. Leave it in a warm sunny spot and watch it grow again. If the bulb gets too big to take it out the pot, which will eventually happen, just remove as much soil as you can, and put the newspaper on top of the bulb and scrunch it down. I have about 20 Amaryllis of various colours and enjoy watching them grow over the winter and early spring. They then provide leaves over the summer which feed the bulb and I put them in my front porch in big cardboard boxes to sleep in the early autumn. This year they are getting a longer sleep so that I can enjoy them when I come back from holiday. It is always a joy to see them come back year after year. You don’t say goodbye to them, you say, lovely having you, see you next year.