How to care for amaryllis after it has finished blooming

Do you know what to do if you want your amaryllis to bloom again?

Amaryllis is one of the most popular gift plants. If you pay enough attention to it and take care of it properly, it will delight you with breathtakingly impressive flowers. This beauty from South Africa grows quickly, blooms for weeks, and after flowering you are left with its long green, narrow, lance-shaped leaves.

In the best case, it can still provide an aesthetic view for months after flowering, but it also needs your help for this. All you have to do is give the plant everything it needs at this time. With proper care, it will remain decorative until it gathers enough energy for the next bloom.

How to care for amaryllis after it has finished blooming?

Potted amaryllis plants become available in stores around the winter holidays. The attractive, nodding flowers at the end of thick, straight stalks bring beauty into homes when it’s freezing cold outside and even the sky is depressingly gray. The plant can remain showy even after its flowers have withered. After flowering, the plant’s care needs are low to medium, but the most important thing is that you have to ensure it – or more precisely for its bulb –  a rest period of a certain duration, so that it has the strength to produce flowers again in the next season.

Although the amaryllis blooms for a remarkably long time, at some point all miracles come to an end, i.e. its flowers wither and dry up after a while. However, don’t be sad about this for long, because you will still have its bright, green leaves, which collect the energy of the sun and prepare the plant for another flowering. Since this is still the plant’s active growth (vegetative) period, it is important to continue watering, feeding and providing it with enough sunlight.

After the plant has finished flowering, cut back the flower stalks 3-5 cm above the bulb. Place the pot of the plant on a bright, sunny windowsill, where the ambient temperature is between 18 and 21 °C. Water when the surface of the soil looks dry. After flowering, taking care of the amaryllis also includes treating it with a water-soluble plant nutrient solution every 2-3 weeks. With this, you can ensure that the leaves remain beautiful and healthy, and that they are able to carry out the essential photosynthesis, i.e. using the energy of sunlight to create organic material from inorganic material.

Spring care of amaryllis after flowering

After the winter is over and the warmer, sunnier weather has arrived, you can take the pot of the plant outdoors. Make sure you do this gradually, otherwise you will shock the plant. This means that you slowly get the plant used to the conditions outside. During a seven-day session, you can gradually leave the plant outdoors for longer and longer periods.

Continue watering and feeding the plant in the same way as indoors. Since the plant receives stronger sunlight outdoors and for a longer period of time, you will probably need to water it more often than indoors, so you better check the soil often. Stop feeding in July so that the plant can prepare for the rest period. At this point, it stops producing new leaves, and the bulb tries to store as much energy as possible from the existing leaves.

Why is dormancy important?

Most bulbous plants need a rest period before the next flowering. Dormancy occurs as a natural reaction to a lower temperature. For amaryllis, this means a temperature of 10 °C for 8-10 weeks; this triggers another bloom.

To induce dormancy, first decide when you want the plant to flower. In order for the plant to bloom in December, stop watering it already in September. As a result, the leaves of the plant gradually wither and dry up. At the same time, move the pot of the plant to a poorly lit place.

After the leaves have turned brown, cut them off, lift the bulb out of the potting soil, wash it, and cut back the roots a little. Then let the bulb rest on its side in a cool, dry, dark room. If you want guaranteed flowering, its minimum duration is 8 weeks.

All in all, it is not complicated to care for the amaryllis correctly between two blooms, which is essential to get the plant to bloom again.