Growing inside, I had the best luck with a southern exposure... but an east window will do. As luck would have it, I don't have a nice southern window here... it's shaded by huge Sycamore trees. My large Minerva seems to love the east facing window, however, and blooms very nicely there. Not to upstage Rebecca, but... Instead of keeping the soil moist, I would suggest allowing it to dry out fairly well in between waterings. It's that constant moisture around the root ball that causes the eventual rotting of the roots and bulb. Roots that are constantly wet will die, and those dead roots can rot. Rot can spread quite quickly from the roots to the actual bulb. And because there is no garden-like balance of good and bad bacteria, fungi, and microscopic organisms, the balance can quickly lean toward the bad, and rotten bulbs are the result. Container gardening is worlds away from growing in a garden... huge differences! Let's not forget that the bulb, itself, is a reservoir for moisture, so it will not begin to wilt and die if the soil is not kept consistently moist. Plants take in water in vapor form, and soil that feels almost dry to our sense of touch may still actually have a good amount of moisture in it, in vapor form. In my experience, it's better to treat Hippeastrum bulbs closer to how you would treat a succulent... allowing the medium to dry out fairly well before thoroughly watering again. Of course, if you're using a very fast and free-draining, gritty type of aerated medium, watering more frequently would not be detrimental. I'd go with a different fertilizer regimen, myself. There's no need for a fertilizer with larger amounts of P than N. If my reading is correct, I believe it is not necessary. What is necessary, though, is making sure your plants have a decent supply of micro-nutrients, and making sure the fertilizers you choose are instantly accessible to the roots for uptake. There is a wealth of educational information over at the Container Gardening Forum... they constantly discuss mediums, fertilizer programs, and most important, the WHY and HOW of all that happens within the confines of a pot. Excellent reading! When you get to the point where you have your photographs uploaded and stored online, let us know... from there, it's fairly easy to post them.

Last year, my bulbs were in lawless conditions. I bought a children pool and put them in it in their pots. It was easier to water them this way. I just poured the water in and they all got some. But then some rains came and completely drenched the bulbs. They were neck up to the water and they stayed that way for a long time by the time I noticed it and let the water away. So I ended up with most of the bulbs shrunk to tiny bulblets that I didn't think would even survive. Then I had to move to the new house, so I unpotted them, cut the leaves and put them in the new wine cooler I bought for this purpose to make sure that the bulbs do not freeze down. A month later I noticed that the wine cooler froze down and even killed about 10 bulbs. I returned it to the store and just bought a huge standing fridge that had the freezer part separately. I kept my bulbs in that fridge. Then I planted them up from Summer, hoping that they would still come back to me. And to my amazement: More than 50 percent FLOWERED! They shrunk, they were sitting in water, they froze down, they were in dormancy for a half a year or LONGER, and they BLOOMED! I am still floored by some of them. Now, they are out in the flower bed, fattening up. I hope they enjoy the situation. So you see, once they want to bloom, they just bloom, even if they kill themselves.

Last year many of the blooms were on short stalks IÂm assuming because I stopped fertilizing them. So this past year I committed myself to fertilize them more regularly. I'm not an expert, but here's what I did. I used Miracle Grow and just one application of Dynamite. (I question whether the Dynamite did anything for them at all because I still see those round pellets on the ground). I'm very happy with the results from the Miracle Grow. Only a few are on short stalks now. I just took these pictures and they are as happy as can be growing in an area where they get full sun in San Diego. ---J

Potassium is ABSENT in your fertilizer, but it is an essential nutrient. A liquid fertilizer with a RELATION of macronutrients being N:P:K as approx. 2:1:2, for example one brand with 6-3-6 or 7-3-6, + micronutrients included, would be the method of choice. Dispensed ad 1-1.5 mL[fertilizer] PER L [of lukewarm water] equals a range of final concentrations of 0.3-0.5 g/L of nutrient salts = optimal to maximum). Even the "hardest" water contains Potassium BUT, as compared to the demands of green plants to be considered as schuscht pardon JUST "trace amounts" OH, I forgot! Thorough rinsing is always a good method! =Bleeding out eXXesses of soluble minerals. Do not water into the "heart" of the knight star lily plant though, and avoid as much as possible, to moisten the bulb surface. THIS suggestion applies ONLY if you ever experienced red spots and streaks on the leaves and on the green/white parts of the bulb. So, all-of-a-sudden, I become aware that, at least momentarily, I re-trieved my previous enthousiasm in providing information on the particular crop. Heureka! *giggling* and *Amaryllophile REGARDS* and *"Happy GARDENing"*