Hello Liz -- welcome to the forum. To bring them to bloom for the holidays, a 6-8 week period of chilled dormancy is required. For blooms for the holidays, you should start this forced dormancy during the first-second week of August (now). I've attached a link on putting bulbs to rest for your leisurely viewing. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: putting bulbs to rest

Thanks Pax. That is a good discussion. I'll go ahead and pull them now.

Liz, be careful with the beverage refridgerators! When I started collecting bulbs, I bought a wine cooler, figuring that it would keep even temperature and ideal resting environtment for my bulbs.
The wine cooler "extracted" moisture from the bulbs, which moisture collected on the side and back walls of the machine, dripping down, and slowly but surely creating a solid ice block on the bottom, freezing several of my bulbs down.
Ever since, I just use regular refridgerators that have the freezer part completely separated from the refridgerator part. I have not had any problems since.

Soultan, thanks for the warning. That must have been a bummer. My "drinks refrigerator" is really the cheapest undercounter size we could find. I haven't chilled the amaryllis so far. Most of the foliage has died back anyway. Would they benefit from a chill? So far, the only plant I've chilled is my tarragon, which is getting about a month.

I pulled all of my bulbs just last week-- I chopped off the leaves and cleaned their roots and any not-so-healthy tissue. A week later, without chilling, roughly half have the tip of a scape AND leaves peaking out. I have no room/place in my new home (apartment) to chill the bulbs. Instead, I've put them in a cooler...along with freezer packs wrapped in an old shirt to chill the bulbs. It makes them chilly (how cold I don't know) and they're in complete darkness so hopefully it'll work. I'm paying very close attention to the tissue for signs of fungus or mold.

Ryan (who even now sits among a ton of unpacked boxes)

Ryan, I don't envy you the unpacking chore. I've been there.

I'm curious though. What is the purpose of chilling the bulbs? These are my first amaryllis, and I know very little.

Liz--

Packing and the subsequent unpacking rank right up there with dental work or stubbing your toe!

Regarding the chilling of bulbs, for many, it is just a natural process. In native habitats, the changing of temps and light tell the bulb when it can and should grow and bloom. For some bulbs the need is extreme, such as some tulips and daffs that need that extended cold to wake up the bulb.

Our amaryllis bulbs aren't quite as dependent of the chill but even in their native habitat, there is a change in seasonal temps that trigger the new growth.

Mine are chillin' nicely in their little cooler.

I never understood the idea of "chilling" tropical bulbs, as drastically as using a refridgerator. I just plan to leave my bulbs outside in the garage, which is dark and cool and that should do it, right? I keep orchids so I am familiar with the temperature change - does the drastic chill hasten the process?

liz h,
There is no benefit in chilling your amaryllis bulbs.
In fact, chilling (freezing them down) will kill them. Never let your refridgerator go below 10-13C or upper forties, lower fifties in F. I keep my fridge on 47F constantly. Don't put your bulbs in the fridge with leaves on. Cut them off, hint them with fungicide, let them dry the cut up for a few days, then you can place them in the fridge, carefully, so the bulbs would not touch the walls or the bottom directly. They are ready to be planted in 6-8 weeks.
I would not call this process chilling, since they do chill tulips and hyacints for instance, which process literally mean that they freeze down the potted up bulbs, after they had a little time to establish themselves in the planting medium, so when they are taken out and defrosted, they start growing and flowering any time of the year. Tulips require freezing down to be forced. Amaryllis can benefit from the aforementioned cooling down in order to achieve forcing of flowers at times biologically out of order.
If you have a dry, mold free place during winter that stays pretty steadily around 10C/50F without the danger of frost, you don't need fridge to achieve the same result.
Good luck. Protect your bulbs from freeze, and never cool a wet bulb!

You know, I didn't "chill" mine this year. I really thought about putting them in the flower cooler, but never got the motivation. Children will do that to you. I just put them in produce baskets and stuck them in closed cabinets in the shed. Some are sending up scapes, so I guess I'm okay :-) Some are just leafing it, so maybe it depends from bulb to bulb.

The average dormant period required for hybrid Hippeastrum bulbs is approximately 6-8 weeks, with another 6-8 weeks needed once brought back into a warm, bright environment to bloom. If the bulb has been cared for optimally prior to a dormancy, it will have plenty of energy to set buds and re-bloom. Keeping the bulbs in a cool environment during their rest helps buds to set, I believe.