AMARYLLIS: PLANT IT NOW AND IT WILL FLOWER RIGHT AT CHRISTMAS

There is one thing about amaryllis that changes the way you look at it: the bulb already has the flower inside it. You do not have to make it bloom, that part is settled. The only thing you decide is when.

Which is why the first week of November is the date. From planting to opening takes six to eight weeks. Do the arithmetic and you land on Christmas.

One clarification that explains a lot of failures

What is sold as amaryllis is almost always Hippeastrum, from South America. The true Amaryllis belladonna is South African, flowers in late summer and is grown quite differently.

It matters because the advice circulates mixed up: follow Amaryllis belladonna care on a Hippeastrum and the bulb rots. Everything below is for Hippeastrum, which is what you are actually holding.

How to plant it

A snug pot, not a big one. Two or three centimetres of space around the bulb and no more. Amaryllis likes to be tight, and in a roomy pot the compost stays wet for too many days.

The top third of the bulb stays out. This is the detail people get wrong most often. The bulb is not buried: the neck and shoulders must sit above the soil. Buried completely, it rots from the top.

Free-draining compost. Multipurpose with a handful of grit or perlite. And a drainage hole, always.

Water once, then wait. Water well at planting, and after that almost nothing until the shoot appears. The bulb has reserves to spare; what it has no defence against is too much water. The moment you see the green tip, start watering properly.

The six weeks that follow

Warmth. Twenty to twenty-two degrees is ideal. A cold house slows it down; next to a radiator you get a long, weak stem.

Plenty of light, and turn it. Amaryllis leans towards the window shamelessly. Give it a quarter turn every couple of days and the stem comes up straight.

If the stem flops, it is not only light: the flower is genuinely heavy. A thin cane and a piece of raffia solve it without showing.

To make the flowers last, move it somewhere cooler once it has opened. In a room at 16 to 18 degrees the display lasts considerably longer than in a warm living room.

What hardly anyone does, and it is the part that counts

Amaryllis is not a throwaway. Looked after, it flowers every year, and gets stronger each time.

Cut the flower stem, not the leaves. Once the stem has dried, cut it a couple of centimetres above the bulb. The leaves stay: they are what builds next year's flower. Cutting them off is cutting off its food.

Spring and summer: let it grow. Outside once the frosts have gone, morning sun, normal watering and a feed every fortnight. The foliage is what fattens the bulb.

Late August: a dry rest. Stop watering. The leaves yellow and dry off, and that is exactly right. Put the pot somewhere cool and dark, 10 to 13 degrees, for eight to ten weeks with no water. This rest is what triggers the flower, and it is precisely the step everyone skips.

November: start again. Replace the top couple of centimetres of compost, water once, bring it into the light. Another Christmas in flower.

The four usual mistakes

Watering before it shoots. The bulb is not drinking yet and wet compost rots it.

Burying it completely. A third above the soil, always.

Too large a pot. More compost means more water held.

Cutting the leaves when flowering ends. It is the surest way to get no flower next year.

Plant it this week and leave it alone until the shoot appears, and you will have it open at Christmas. It is one of the few things in gardening that arrives on the day.

And if you are getting Christmas ready, the other thing decided now is the tree: which fir to choose and how to care for it.