Pam Moore writes
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:06:33 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:


"Mike in Spain" wrote:
Best thing to do with them is to keep them growing, saw it on a
gardening prog and tried it, worked very well, just keep them pot
bound, water and feed, and you will be rewarded with more blooms,
often more than one flower spike. Best I had was a flower spike with 6
blooms, and mine were kept groeing for several years with NO stopping.
---
Yes, I remember seeing a Gardener's World prog. a few years back where a
lady in Wales, I think, grew hundreds of them in her house and around her
garden. She had Amaryllis enthusiasts from around the world visiting her
hoping to discover the secret of her success. I have never been able to get
any of mine to flower after the first year and envy greatly those of you who
do.

My experience is as yours, Mike. You are not alone.
BobFlowerdew once said on GQT that it's not worth the effort.
I think the thing is to keep the leaves growing for a while after
flowering, and feeding, to build up the bulb for next year.
I've given up trying. I don't like throwing out a bulb, but they are
too much trouble unless you have a large conservatory or greenhouse.
I remember that lady on GW. She had a room full of them!

I used to grow them about 30 years ago, using Mike-in-Spain's technique
of keeping them in growth as long as they wanted to be, and keeping them
pot-bound. Flowering increased year on year, especially once the off
shoots started flowering too. I stopped growing them with upheavals in
RL.

More recently I've started growing them again with less success, so
maybe Rupert's comment is true in that the commercial growing has now
become more intensive and it's more difficult to keep the bulb going.
But I read on here a couple of years back that they like their shoulders
to be baked in the summer, so I've made sure the tops of the bulbs are
clear of the soil, and that they're in a sunny spot in summer, and that
seems to have initiated flowering again.

One warning - they are very susceptible to slug damage.

--
Kay