Yes, it's acidic! Argh. My lawn (alone) is an acre--I am NOT looking forward to this.... Over the last four years, my husband was the main yard person. I just handled overseeding. I got tired of him killing the grass, so now I'm doing all the yard work, and he gets to dig stumps. :-P He *was fertilizing haphazardly about once a year. He'd mow, AT MOST, once every other week, but if it rained on the weekend, he'd skip that week. He managed to kill off big swaths of the backyard, and that's when I had enough. Now that I'm in control, I'm doing MAJOR rehabbing. He spread some Pre-emergent + Fertilizer in mid-March for me--and missed a huge section of lawn, which is now covered in crabgrass. So that was the last time he touched the yard. But most of the front yard wasn't part of what he missed, and we've never had much crabgrass there, anyway. (Actually, we have other annual weeds that had already reached seedheads by mid-March and the grass got its first mowing, so we really should have started March 1.) I fertilized again 4 weeks later with a weed & feed-type product. Normally, I'd wait at least 6 weeks, but there were stripes of missed areas everywhere, and the grass was still not as vigorous as I'd like to see given how long it had been growing. We had one brief dry spell, and I supplemented water in the front where there are so many tree roots because the grass was getting quite wilty. I really need to hit everything again with a weed-b-gone product (without fertilizer) this weekend. Then I'm going to wait until June 1st, which is the last time you can fertilize around here before summer, and use a final weed & feed-type application. Already, grass I didn't know I had is really spreading out. I think that poor mowing, fertilization, and watering practices were really making the grass struggle under there. So DH will be shifted to trimming dead branches and removing trees when the digging is done, and I'll stay on yard duty and get it done right. I think I have SOME perennial rye, but it's near the house, which gets more sun and stays pretty thick. I get good germination every year, and the grass makes it to winter fine but mostly disappears in spring. (Which was when DH took over...hmmmm....) When I overseeded in the past, I've used a deep shade mix from a big box store. I then applied Starter fertilizer. I keep everything very moist until first mow, then watered less frequently but still regularly. This year, I'm planning on using Outside Pride's Combat Extreme transition zone mix at 80% with poa supina at 20% in the shady areas and 50% Combat Extreme and 50% Supreme KBG. I want to stop overseeding EVERY YEAR. So I'm looking to add enough running grasses to self-repair small holes. I mulch everything right now.... My entire schedule looks like this: Mid-March: Pre-emergent + fert Early April: Realized husband missed neglected strip 10-30' wide and 250' long. Crabgrass already starting, so overseeded with cheapo seed and fertilized. Mid-April: Weed + Feed on main area End of April: Weed + Feed on neglected strip, Weed-b-gone main area Early May: Apply grub killer, because the grubs are terrible this year. After it's used up, I'm switching to Milky Spore. Mid-May: Lime the most acidic and unhappy sections. Weed-be-gone anything left standing. Early June: Last fertilizer--something like Scott's Summerguard. Mid-June: Try the baby soap trick. Early July: Check out for any need for weed-be-gone Early August: Check out any need for weed-be-gone Mid-August: Baby shampoo. Early Sept (earlier than before): Overseed. Apply starter fertilizer. Mid-October: Fertilize with something like Scott's Winterguard. I have to stop mulching around mid-October because of the leaves. From then through Thanksgiving, I mow and bag, then I compost the leaves to use in the gardens. Next year, I plan on only 4 fertilizations. I'll apply a stronger stand-along preemergent in late Feb, then fert in mid-March and mid-May, then early Sept and mid-to-late Oct. There is no way that I will ever apply organic compost instead of fertilizer to this size of yard. It's just not happening. EVER.

Hello Daylily and welcome. =) First and foremost, in the two years that your amaryllis has failed to bloom for you, Have you repotted the bulb? Have you provided fertilizer/food during growing season? How big is your bulb? How many leaves does your bulb make during it's time growing outside? (general rule of thumb: for every four leaves, you might get a SINGLE scape). If your bulb is growing in size (circumference) and growing many healthy leaves, you should be good to go. However, generally, most people re-pot their bulbs atleast every 1-2 years in fresh potting medium so that may be one of your problems if you've been neglecting to do so. Amaryllises are very heavy feeders so I would recommend feeding weakly, but weekly every week with a diluted fertilizer in every other watering during the spring and summer when they are at their growing peak. Good lighting is important as well. By any chance, do you have a picture of your bulb currently? The care that you put into your bulb from now on (Spring approaches us soon!), will reward you with as much care as you put into it. I'm sure other people on this forum will be able to better assist you as well. Good luck! =)

I just wet the paper towel, fold it to about 3mm thick and put the seeds inside, fold it over, put it in a small self seal plastic bag with no holes, put it on the bed of the heated propagator and they germinate in a few days, I dont crack or remove the shell of the pips at all they grow fine on there own, once germinating I move them over to small compost pots about 3oz in volume filled with compost made from 1 part peat, 1part grit/sand and 1 part garden soil, and then put them back in the propagator with a small plastic bottle over them as a mini greenhouse, just until they get growing I always put the pips in the refrigerator for a few days before germinating as it seems to speed the germination up.

Thank you so much for your reply! I really appreciate all of the information. I didn't even think to pollinate all of them - I just did 3 because the videos I watched had only pollinated one or two and I thought that would be enough. Unfortunately, my all of my paternal plant's blooms have fallen off (too many suckers, a lot of the blooms were on their way out when I had bought them, but the plant itself looks very healthy. It's growing rapidly - I can't believe it. It's a good time to repot though, since it's not like I have to sacrifice my pretty little flowers). By the way, about how long does it take for new flowers to bloom after repotting? Once both plants are ready, I'll try again. I'm so excited! That's a great idea as well! I had just tied strings around the ones I pollinated. I had seen a few people take off the petals of their pollinated ones, but I wasn't sure how much of a difference it'd make. And even if that is just a superstition, I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. It may be the mother plant's fault - but I also don't know if I pollinated too late? The flowers had been quite open by the time I pollinated, and the paternal plant's pollen was also a bit old (though, I read older pollen is actually considered better in some cases). Thank you for the suggestion, I'll give it a go! Would getting a humidifier do the same job, or would it not help as much since all of the humidity wouldn't be concentrated in one little space? (I think all the plants could use a little more humidity) Will do :) Wow, your seedlings look great! The leaves are very interesting - good luck with them!