Hello Tokyomafia, nice to see you back!
I have a similar question in my mind. My Blossom Peacock currently has a scape coming up very slowly. Temp. here in VA is in the 60-70s high and 40-50s low. My other Amaryllises will be put to sleep soon except for the evergreens. I'm planning to let Blossom peacock bloom inside the house and then put it to sleep. Would this mean that it won't bloom this winter time even if I give it enough time for it's cold reposal?

A healthy bulb can bloom as many as three times a year with no problem.

There are 5 or more buds in the bulb at any one time in various states of development.

Depending on the species or hybrid and any specific needs it may have, growth, bloom and rest come in cycles. Some bulbs seem to rest after blooming while other produce new leaves then rest. Generally 3-4 months between bloom periods is normal.

But, not all hybrids will bloom three times a year. Some seem to bloom only once (many of the modern large-flowered hybrids) and some easily bloom three times under good cultivation (striatum).

You can usually expect bloom soon after a 12-week rest.

The rest doesn't have to be a fully leafless dormancy, induced or natural.

Robert.

My large Dutch hybrids have never in over 20 years bloomed more than once a year. I hope this observation is helpful.

Plant_Guy

Here is a link that might be useful: My Amaryllis Page

Hi Plant guy...same here except for Dancing Queen (Dutch) which gave me a second bloom last summer. This is the third bloom of Blossom Peacock (Japanese) for me this year. That is one more reason why I am getting interested in Japanese Hybrids. I will definitely try to get some different varieties of them and see if this is one of their traits or if I just got very lucky. I'll start another thread about these.

thanks for the input everyone. i would say about 50% of my full sun plants rebloomed in late summer. it does seem to vary among species. lots of re-blooms by red lions. two of my dancing queeens rebloomed. on 1 of 15 h.puneciums rebloomed but the rest are multiplying like crazy. no re-blooms from minerva or rilonas. one odd one was a rebloom of a pure white since i kept it in partial shade under a tree.

I have a second bloom coming on a small H. striatum. This after all the other ones bloomed in July.

Love that striatum!

Usually at least one of mine suprises me with a late summer bloom. This year it is Jewel which I noticed with a scape while putting the rest to bed. My memory is that the ones that bloom off-season seem to only give me one scape in the winter.

if an amaryllis is in bloom in the fall, it must remail alive, if you cut the stalk off and leaves the bulb will not be able to produce food for new buds. best time to do dormancy is fall when october comes. Never put a bulb to sleep right after blooming because it needs to regain enough food for its next set of flowers.

I was reading on Veronica Read's book the other night and she mentioned about letting the amaryllis grow for another 3 months if it gave you a fall bloom. I hope I understood that right.

A little more about re-blooming.

Earlier I said a bulb can bloom as many as three times a year. That is a general statement and how many times a bulb will bloom will depend on the genetic heritage it has.

plant guy reports that none of his large-flowered Dutch hybrids has ever bloomed more than once a year. That is usually the case with most modern hybrids.

One reason is that they will send up 1, 2 or 3 scapes at a time depending on the size of the bulb. In sending up 3 scapes, for instance, the bulb needs a year to prepare the next scape for blooming. If a medium sized bulb sends up only one scape, in 3-4 months (but sometimes less--it's not a hard and fast rule) a second scape may be ready to go. You may have seen this happen--just as the first scape has finally dried up, a second emerges. Sometimes it's 2 at once then a 3rd later, kind of in an extended blooming period, not so much like well-separated ones. Some years they may do one thing and the next they do another.

If it doesn't happen, it's not necessarily anything you did or didn't do--you really can blame it on the bulb! They may lack that particular disposition due to genetic heritage.

I wasn't specific enough when I said a Hippeastrum *can* re-bloom, it seems and it sounds like I meant *any* of them can. That's not what I meant you to get from that. Not all of them can re-bloom and should not be expected to. It *can* happen, a second or third blooming--but it depends on the specific bulb. Grow them all as best you can anyway!

Cultural handling can vary from year to year and any combination of factors can play into this, as far as known re-bloomers goes. If I had a striatum that *didn't* give me at least one re-blooming after 3-5 months--something is wrong. Striatum is one species that regularly blooms 3 times a year under good conditions. Only one blooming a year--you could do better.....If you get a second blooming, you're doing better, but cultural conditions could still be improved.....3 cycles of bloom--that's the way to do it!

Commercial breeders are interested in bulbs that *don't* offset prolifically and will send up multiple scapes all at once, *one time* a year. That is to benefit the cut flower trade as well as the home grower--one big show or one good "crop" of flowers is what it is all about. So many people are happy with a holiday Hippi blooming once--its scary how many people just toss them after that. That's all they want.

As far as breeding good multipliers goes--this is counterproductive and the last thing commercial growers are interested in. The offsets pull on the mother bulb and slow it's increase. They are not needed in large commercial ventures: they section or chip the bulbs for rapid increase and do not rely on offset production.

So anyway, some modern cultivars *will* re bloom. In my small collection, this year I had a second flush from Rilona, Dancing Queen, Piquant and as I said, H. striatum. Right now I have a third flush on one of my striatums.

This is my first season with the three named hybrids, so I don't know how reliably they will re-bloom for me, but I'll be expecting that it is quite possible based on what happened this year. Is it possible that the re-blooming was due to their being newly planted bulbs? Could be...I just couldn't say. Next year will be interesting.......

Robert.