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Woman's amaryllis has grown into a giant
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Leah Dell Chandler has been caring for this amaryllis for 35 years.
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Published: May 16, 2009
I thought I had seen my share of amaryllis bulbs. I start dozens for Christmas sales every year, and some I had considered to be pretty husky plants.
But I hadn't seen anything. Leah Dell Chandler invited me over to see her amaryllis -- one that she has had under her care for 35 years. As amaryllis go, this is something out of a 1950s Japanese science-fiction movie. Chandler and her husband, Bill, moved here from New Jersey in 1983 when her son was accepted in early admission to Wake Forest University. She worked as a church secretary at Epiphany Lutheran Church until she retired in 2005.
She received the plant as an Easter gift when she lived in New Jersey. She can't remember who gave it to her. She has moved it to a larger pot twice. The current container is about 18 inches across and stuffed with flower bulbs. It has been in this pot for 10 years.
It held 10 bloom spikes this year, each bearing four orange-red flowers that measure about 6 inches across. Some blooms were spent, while others were just beginning to erupt from their papery sheaths. Chandler measured the height of the flowering stems at 45 inches, just a few inches shy of 4 feet.
She does it her way
She doesn't follow the usual recommendations and rules of amaryllis culture. She keeps the pot outside on the patio until freezing weather nears.
Then she carts the monster into the basement with the help of her husband and a hand truck.
After it comes inside, it doesn't get any more light, fertilizer or water. It gradually goes dormant, the foliage dying all the way back to the bulbs.
Around the beginning of March, the bulbs form new growing tips and begin to send up buds right away. This new growth is pale and yellow from little to no exposure to light. She carts it back out on the patio and drenches the pot with Miracle Gro Rose and Flower fertilizer. She leaves the pot outside, sitting in its saucer to absorb the water and fertilizer, for about three days. By this time the shoots are deepening in color to their normal green state. Then the pot is carted into the house, where it sits near double doors in a southern exposure that is protected with blinds.
She continues to water and fertilize weekly, now using Shultz African Violet Plus fertilizer. Each watering takes about a quart. In about two months, the first blossoms open, and the flowers will continue to come for three weeks. She removes spent flowers at the top of the stem. Other than that, there is no other care.
After the weather settles and the blossoms finish, it is taken outside to summer on the patio, with the same fertilizer program continuing. She removes the flower stems once she gets it outside to avoid the "goo," a slimy, mucilaginous liquid that seeps from the severed stems. Once the weather cools, the plant is brought inside and forced into dormancy.
As I said, some of this information is contrary to what is usually recommended. Bulbs brought out of dormancy are usually gradually introduced to light to avoid sunburn, and fertilizer does not usually enter the picture until the bulbs are up and going. Some growers do not begin to fertilize until after flowering. Water is usually introduced gradually to avoid the onset of rots from soil that is too wet and bulbs that have not yet developed new roots to absorb it.
It is usually recommended that the plant be introduced to conditions that encourage it to go into dormancy gradually as well, slowly reducing light and water, and eliminating fertilizer.
If you grow amaryllis at home, I still recommend following these procedures. I suspect that Chandler's bulbs are so densely packed in their pot that rots are not an issue.
Smaller pots and bulbs may not be as tolerant of this treatment.
Chandler developed this method out of necessity. "It's not like you could put it in the sink and water it -- it's just too big" she said.
Chandler also keeps an eye on the weather when she puts the pot out for its first taste of light and water of the season. "Of course, I'm careful. I wouldn't want it in freezing temperatures, and I keep it against the house and under the porch overhang for protection"
As for Chandler's method of all-or-nothing dormancy -- well, it is just hard to argue with an amaryllis that is almost 4 feet tall and bearing dozens of flowers. She said that her children have told her that she does not have a green thumb -- she has a green arm. So it would seem.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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