If you want to grow alot of these you need to start them in open flats. Get some plastic trays from the five and dime. You are looking for something that would double as the bottom of a cat litter box. With about a 1/2 inch wood drill bit put about 12 holes in it. Six of them on the curve of the bottom to side. This is so if sitting flat it won't fill with water. I use a compost soil with a little sand and mix 50% with miracle grow soil or peters which is sold in our area. Fill about an inch from the top and water thoroughly. Add more soil if needed to keep an inch from the top. Lay out seeds flat with about the same space as the seeds are wide. Cover with 1/4 inch of soil mix. Mist top of soil until real wet. Set in semi bright light or on porch but not full sun. After they have had three or four leaves come out strong you can gradually introduce them to more sun. Don't worry about thinning out after they start sprouting. Leave in the tray and fertilize as required. Donts soak and don't let dry out. Leave them in tray for first year, then plant them out or in pots. You will end up with over 50+ a tray and are great for starting a whole bed with one tray. Hoped that helped you some it has worked for us for years. Warning; cats love to lay in these flats of young Amaryllis. Here is a link that might be useful: Town Square

Sounds like the trouble I had wetting the "growing sponges" that came with the Chia Herb Garden someone gave me. Took days in a lidded container of water, and even then they dried out daily. I found myself trying to balance drops water on top of them long enough for them to soak in. Once the plants were better rooted, it didn't seem to be as bad, and now that they're all potted up and surrounded by soil, I don't worry about the sponge part and just water the dirt. =P Jennifer and I must have the hydrophobic touch or something. - Lali

You're funny, Tally! :-) It's so true, though... we speak such a jumble of slang and improperly used words... I couldn't imagine having to learn English at my age! The internet has made the world a lot smaller, and we find that people in different areas, different countries, are the same as we are... we have the same hopes and dreams, the same hobbies, and the same things are important to us. Through GardenWeb, I've made some wonderful friends, and some live on the opposite side of the globe! It's nice that we can share our love of bulbs, our love of gardening, with others... and we can learn about the different ways we all culture our bulbs, and the different seasons and ways of gardening. And one of the best parts is that we're able to share this in picture form, so we can see what gardening is like around the world!

Thanks chervil2 for the first hand account. I am definitely excited to try this as I've been disappointed when I've tried to save the amaryllis in the past. So if anyone is interested the book I found is called: Summer Bulbs by Jaworski, Henry. ISBN: 0395892619 Description: Best-selling garden writer Henry Jaworski offers foolproof growing advice that assures success with more than 50 varieties of tender bulbs for summer blooming. His easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach is illustrated with gorgeous and practical full-color photographs. It is out of print but you can find it at bargain book web sites. It is a great little book with descriptions on how to plant summer, tender bulbs, tubers, corms, etc. and includes some info on amaryllis. Examples: tuberous begonias, gladiolus, etc.