Serendipity reigns supreme in my garden.  My lack of careful planning is definitely against all advice I receive—or give.  But what is that saying, “The best laid plans of mice and men go astray”, or something like that.  So rather than putting too much energy into great plans that always get messed up by something, I celebrate surprises.

Amarcrinum
My experience with amaryllis as a field grown cut flower is one of those wonderful serendipitous happenings.  It actually began when I ordered several different types of ornamental Alliums from Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.  My intention was to trial them as field grown cuts.  I carefully labeled the plots, of course, so I would know which was which when they bloomed.  Late that summer, a stalk of fragrant pink blooms opened in the plot marked Allium rosenbachianum.  That doesn’t look like an Allium I thought.  I cut it and took it with other flowers and vegetables to the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, where I am a vendor.  I asked other vendors and customers, but found no one who could give me a name.  Finally, I called Brent and Becky’s and was honored to talk to Becky, who quickly identified my mystery flower as an Amarcrinum.  She told me they are among her all-time favorites, not only fragrant and beautiful, but also long-lasting, in or out of a vase.  “I picked one flower as I came through the garden the other day,” she said.  “Just to smell.  As I came through the house, I dropped it on the table.  Two days later it was still there and looked fine.”  Amarcrinum is a cross between Amaryllis belladonna and Crinum lily.  It has been hardy for me, in the coldest part of zone 7; in colder zones in can be planted in containers.  The bulbs are expensive (25 for $153 in B&B’s 2006 catalogue), but they multiply over time.  From the original 10 bulbs, obtained (serendipitously) in 1997, I now have about 120.         They begin to bloom about the 1st of September and continue until frost.  I am the only vendor who has them at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, a market known for lots and lots of flowers.   Each stem will have a dozen or more flowers.  I sell the stems for $5 each, and tell customers to expect a 2-week vase life.  But I digress.  Back to the subject.

Amaryllis
Because of my interest in Amarcrinum, I wandered into a session on Amaryllis at the January 2005 Arkansas/Oklahoma Horticulture Industry Show.  I had received a few potted bulbs as gifts over the years.  They bloomed in the house, I enjoyed them, then struggled to follow the directions to keep them alive and healthy with hopes of blooms another year.  The speaker at the HIS session, University of Arkansas horticulturist Dr. Gerald Klingaman, noted that we are familiar with amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp.) as potted bulbs that bloom in mid-winter to brighten our holidays. 

But, he said, they are excellent cut flowers for several reasons:

• An amaryllis has a 2-week vase life even without floral preservatives.
• It can be held refrigerated without water.
• It commands a high price.

Dr. Klingaman brought a blooming bunch of ‘Apple Blossom’ amaryllis to the session.  They were fragrant and indeed attractive.  He said they would bloom in early summer if planted in the field in mid- to late-spring.  I was excited:  Another new flower that other farmers’ market vendors weren’t yet growing!  That summer, 3 of us at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market became ‘Apple Blossom’ amaryllis growers.

Amaryllis, or Hippeastrum, are easy to grow.  The plant is native to South America and can be grown outdoors in the South, although it is winter-hardy only to Zone 8 and must be lifted and stored in colder regions.  (Brent Heath, of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, says they will survive outdoors in zone 7 in sheltered locations, when planted deep and mulched well.  Becky says the neck of the bulb should be covered with about an inch of soil.)

The bulbs are expensive.  Prices seem to range from about $3 per bulb and up, depending on variety, quantity ordered, and source.  Once you get a start, however, you can try your hand at propagation.  They can be propagated in three ways.

Offsets are the natural way the bulbs multiply. Tissue culture is another method of propagation, but it requires expensive laboratory equipment and special conditions that most of us don’t have. Twin scaling involves slicing up a large bulb; new bulbs can grow from the slices.

If you want to try twin scaling, you can find a description and illustrations in the book Amaryllis by Starr Ockenga.  It is done in the spring when the bulbs are in the vegetative growth stage, but leaves have not emerged.  The bulb is sliced horizontally, with cuts _ to _ inch apart, to give up to 40 pieces from which new bulbs will form per bulb.  These are called twin scales.  Put the twin scales into vermiculite or other moist potting medium, and keep them at around 80°F.  You should be able to get 20 to 40 bulblets per bulb.  They will grow to blooming size in two years.  A small stem will produce two flowers; a large stem will produce four flowers; and an extra large stem, five to six flowers.

Once they have flowered, amaryllis can bloom again if given proper care.  Give the plants good fertility and water and allow the leaves to grow throughout the summer, or for at least five to six months.  When the leaves begin to yellow in the fall, cut them back to about 2 inches, lift the bulbs, and store them.  As with other spring- or summer-flowering bulbs, amaryllis bulbs need to go through a dormancy cycle before they will bloom again.  Conventional wisdom has told us the bulbs need 60 days of “drought” to cause bloom stalks to emerge.  Research has shown that drying down is not an absolute requirement.  Holding amaryllis bulbs at 55°F for eight weeks is another option. 

I set my bulbs in a sunny garden bed, with a space of about 2 inches between the bulbs in a row and about 8 inches between rows.  The bulbs I’ve seen growing in pots always are set with the top of the bulb showing.  I set them deeper, covering the entire bulb.   They received the same fertilizer and water as other plants in the garden.  I dug them after the first frost, put them in bulb crates, and into our unheated basement.  As usual, I was so busy in April that I didn’t bring them out of the basement until mid-May.  Many of the bulbs had already initiated bloom stalks; a week later 3 stalks were ready to cut.  (Next time, I will set the bulbs out in mid-April, or about when I should be planting gladiolus.) 

The other Fayetteville Farmers’ Market amaryllis growers, Mark Cain of Dripping Springs Gardens, and Mark Priest of Coyote Farms, left their bulbs planted in pots.  Mark Cain says he stores them pot and all through the winter in a cooler, which is kept at about 45 to 50 degrees.  He moves them to a hoophouse when stalks begin to emerge.  Both Marks had ‘Apple Blossom’ cuts at the Market in April and sold them at $5 per stem.  Customers loved them.  

Amaryllis grown in full sun won’t be as tall as those grown in a hoophouse.  You can expect the field-grown stems to be from 8 to 18 inches.  

The best stage to cut amaryllis blossoms depends on whether you are selling them immediately or storing them.  If you are selling at a farmers’ market, for example, they will sell better if a couple of blossoms are open.  Closed blossoms will open, however, and the size of the flowers will not be diminished.  If the buds are too immature when cut, the color will be washed out, unless they are exposed to light, such as in a greenhouse, as they open.  Vase life without any treatments is approximately two weeks.  According to research, ethylene blocking formulations added to vase water will increase vase life by seven days.  An ethylene blocker plus sugar will increase vase life by nine days. 

As anyone who gives or receives amaryllis as a winter-blooming gift knows, ‘Apple Blossom’ isn’t the only variety.  I would like to add some red ones, or white ones with green centers, or maybe-salmon colored ones, or Papilio with maroon-crimson stripes radiating from a green throat on a white background, or… Starr Okenga’s book has superb color photos of 100 or so varieties.  She also lists several bulb sources.

The only company I’ve found that sells bulbs in spring for summer bloom is Brent and Becky’s Bulbs. Their catalogue is on line at www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com (look for Hippeastrum in the summer-flowering bulbs catalogue), or call 877-661-2852. Gloeckner sells both Amaryllis and Amarcrinum bulbs.

Janet Bachmann, Riverbend Gardens, south of Fayetteville, Arkansas, has been a vendor at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market since 1975.  She cultivates about 2 acres of vegetables, flowers, fruits, and weeds.