Mine never need to get cold or cool to bloom... All I have to do is feed them during growing season and leave them put, in the greenhouse or a room in which gets dark naturally with daylight and they all bloom.. In fact, I try not to expose most of mine to cold since I want the true bright colors I bought them for..If left to get cold, like below the 60's, all of mine will not bloom to true color.. Mike

One possibility is to selectively prune back about a third of the stems/branches, about 6-18", in the mid-spring, as you see new growth. This should cause delayed flowering on those stems, and extend the season for you. If you REALLY wanted, you could do the same on another third a few weeks later, but that may be overkill. And this will work only if the spirea flowers on new growth. If it flowers on old growth, it won't work.

Hippeastrums can live indefinitely. Breeding them to decline would create the difficulty of making it harder for sellers to mass-produce them commercially; mass-production requires rapid growth, so they have to be able to generate rapid growth. They propagate them by slicing the bulbs vertically into wedges which re-grow into clones; if you want those to be full size in 1-2 years, you need a bulb that is strong and easy. The reason why spring bulbs normally die off is that they market the ones that they can farm in very ideal circumstances, but hardly anyone lives in such ideal circumstances, so they decline. Think about the climate in the Netherlands... it's very far north, so the day is quite long in the summer after bloom time is done, meaning lots of energy for the bulb. Yet due to the coastal location it doesn't get as cold in winter nor as hot in the summer. But hippeastrums are one of the easiest houseplants I can think of, once you identify the proper conditions, and furthermore, since those are conditions produced indoors in a house, they can be replicated anywhere and in any climate. They way bulb sellers can get rapid turnover to keep selling hippeastrums is the following reasons: 1) Hippeastrums are often sold in pots with no drainage holes. That will kill them quickly. Maybe that's an intentional market strategy; I don't know, but they thrive with well-drained soil and cannot be submerged, and can also survive considerable drought. 2) People who don't know much about plants think hippeastrums are dead when they go dormant and toss them. 3) Hippeastrums are marketed as disposable plants so people just assume they're difficult and toss them. They may be prejudiced by more difficult Christmas-season plants like pointsettias; hippeastrums are MUCH easier. 4) Hippeastrums like a lot of light. Most people intuitively think that putting them where they keep other houseplants - on a coffee table, on a kitchen counter, on a fireplace mantle, etc... is plenty of light, but most herbaceous houseplants are adapted to grow under thick, dark canopies in rainforests in the wild. It's very low light compared to the average environment for a plant anywhere else, including under a temperate forest. Hippeastrums like what would be equivalent to "part shade" outside, which is going to be in the sunniest possible place inside your home: directly in the windowsill of your brightest window, most likely a South-facing one. Also, they can't be a few feet from the windowsill, or on a table next to the window... they need to be on the windowsill itself; the light is dramatically brighter there though most people do not perceive that. 5) Most people want their hipepastrums to bloom for Christmas but at home under normal light cycles they'll bloom February-May. 6) Hippeastrums are often sold in pots that are a little smaller than what they should be planted in. So, that aside, here's what you do to get them to not only thrive, but multiply. Pot them in high-organic soil with a lot of vermiculite or perlite, and make sure it drains well. I say a 60/40 mixture of potting soil to perlite will be ideal; it seems like a lot of perlite but it's what they like. Their roots are succulent so like a lot of air and like also to get dry periodically. Plant them high so that the bottom 1/3 of the bulb is all that's covered in dirt. Most of it will be exposed. Put them in a south-facing window or one that gets light most of the day. Direct sun is fine if it's through glass; the direct sun will likely occur in winter when it's less intense, while in summer the sun will be coming from overhead where it won't strike the leaves all day. You can keep hippeastrums in such a windowsill year-round if there are no trees that block out the light. If you choose to put them outside for summer, afternoon shade is best. Full shade is probably OK. Hippeastrums like diluted fertilizer every couple weeks starting after bloom time, and extending for the next 6 months or so. The more material a bulb is shedding in the form of dead flower stocks or leaves, the more fertilizer it needs to replace it, so I fertilize a lot right after they blooms go. The soil will get old and should be changed about every 5 years, though this has less of an impact on hippeastrums than other things. Let the soil get dry between waterings; normally over summer you get kind of bored with them (since they aren't blooming) and want to focus more on other plants, so the amount you of attention you intuitively pay them ends up being just what they like. They thrive on periodic neglect. Too much poking/prodding/turning/propping is bad for them. They prefer to not be moved a lot so that their leaves can develop the exact positioning to get the most of the light. Not only have I gotten hippeastrums to re-bloom reliably year after year, but they also reproduce by setting off bulblets that grow leaves while they are still on the plant, and take about 2 years to detach and become full-sized plants that bloom. In one variety (I don't know what it is), I got one bulb about 15 years ago and now I have about 7 of them, which I have divided between 2 pots so there are big shows every March. Mind you, 15 years ago I was about 11 years old, so if a kid can do it, it's very easy. In a more difficult variety, Apple Blossom, around the same time. There are 3 of them now... they are more picky, but they still grow. Red Hippeastrums are a little easier than other ones, I have no idea why. I've also taken seeds from hippeastrums and gotten them large enough to bloom on their 3rd year. That's in normal home conditions in a South-facing windowsill, where there were not a lot of plants/trees in front of the window blocking the light. Just be confident, and give them lots of light and neglect them otherwise.

I have a related question. I bought a Christmas Cactus that's in full bloom around Christmas for my mom. she over watered it and all flowers fell right away, but the plant is okay. I asked my mom to keep it in a bright place but away from direct sun light and keep it dry. We are in chicago and it's still very cold. I wonder when can we expect it to bloom again. Will it bloom twice a year, and how long does the bloom usually last? Am I doing the right thing to promote the next round of blooming?