It is true. The gallardia is toast and needs to be tossed. Your soil appears to be compacted and gallardia needs freely draining soil. This means loose soil with tiny air pockets. If there is a Lowe's near you they sell bagged soil conditioner for less than $4. This is what most compacted soil needs as it contains small pieces of pine bark that keeps the soil from packing down again. It gets mixed into the top 6 inches of the soil after you have turned and loosened it with the garden fork or with a shovel. It is likely that tha water you gave it was more than it needed, but not lossening the soil was probably the biggest problem. A free soil test from your county agrigcultural agent would be a great place to start with any amendments that you may need. If I don't have a soil test and can't wait for one, I just use soil conditioner, a little lime, and bagged dry cow compost in small amounts dug thoroughly into the soil. You may not need lime if your soil is not acidic. I never fertilize new transplants. It is best to let them begin to grow slowly into their new soil. Most of us have made the same mistakes as you and learned from our mistakes. Thats why this forum is so helpful. Once you get the area dug and replanted, be sure to mulch, with shredded pine bark mulch if it is available. This mulch will break down and improve your soil also.

Hi Karyn, all I did was submit my idea for the forum to Gweb and I was nudged into doing that by CactusMcHarris aka Jeff!! I got fed up of trawling through the Plumeria/Cactus forums searching for info in the sparse Adenium posts and I wondered if folks would support it...the results speak for themselves!! I'm sure there are many more threads already on here than there would have been on the other forums now we have our own place to ask away. I would be happy to get even a boring bloom on one of my plants, lol. Gill from the UK.

Jackie, I leave my amaryllis outside all year-round. They get full summer sun in Phoenix and they LOVE IT! They get watered by my lawn sprinklers, but when its 110 degrees outside, there's no such thing as too much water. Java, Benadryl (aka diphenhydramine) is the active ingredient in most over the counter sleep aids. So the fact your groggy comes as no surprise. Depending on the quantity and location of your hives, may I suggest using TOPICAL Benedryl gel? Every drug store will have it, it comes in a small white bottle with teal print. You can apply it locally to each hive without the nasty drowsiness. The stuff is amazing for taking away the itch from mosquito bites too! I have a few questions related to the original topic here.... 1st, is it possible the attached pups are draining energy from mama bulb, and that's why she's not blooming? Too focused on the kids to worry about herself? 2nd, for me to grow tulips in Phoenix and get a second year of blooms from them, I dig them up, clean them up, dry them out and put them in a brown paper bag in the fridge for a few weeks. Is it possible to do the same treatment for an amaryllis to force dormancy, or is the fridge TOO cold? Mind you, if you use this method, you CAN NOT have fresh produce in your fridge.

Yes, they need time. Another reason the previous owners may have had them super tall is that they could have been crowded in. They tend to grow taller that way. I have one hosta, in its 6th year, that has progressively gotten taller and taller. This year it's 32" tall. But at year 2, it was MAYBE 8" tall. It needs time to develop big fat roots.... it needs to be in the same spot for a period of time... get it into the ground and keep it there. Give it lots of water, and a good amount of sunlight... not enough to scorch it, but a few hours a day. And patience!