Amarilis – Learn to take care (Hippeastrum Hybridum)

Scientific name: Hippeastrum Hybridum
Popular names: Amarílis, Açucena, Fiore
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Category: Bulb, perennial flowers
Climate: Equatorial, oceanic, subtropical, tropical
Origin: Central America, North America, South America, Mexico
Height: From 0.3 to 0.9 meters
Brightness: Half shadow, full sun
Vital cycle: perennial

About Amarilis or Açucena

A Amaryllis It is also known how Sugar OR FLOWER It is a plant that produces an imposing flower that attracts all the looks.

To plant Amaryllisor Happeastrum, it is a native tropical flower of South Africa.

Açucena is one of the plants that adapts better within the apartment and its potting in pot has become very popular all over the world.

With adequate care, Amarilis gives large and very flashy flowers, with foliage that can also maintain during the winter.

It is a plant of about half a meter highly appreciated for ornamental purposes thanks to having very large flowers of various colors such as pink, orange, white, red and multicolored (plants that have been crossed among the colors mentioned).

It is a herbaceous and perennial plant that can be multiplied by the division of the bolbo and has only a flowering every year.

It grows better at median temperatures, but at lower temperatures it is prolonged.

Amarilis prefers the places with direct sun well

Adapted to the climates in which the rains are concentrated in winter, the species of gender amaryllis have numbness and rapid vegetative growth, with flowering that occurs in less than a month after the end of the intertemption.

After blooming the bolbo enters the dormant period, losing all the leaves and floral sphere.

The aerial part of the plant dies, but after the first rains are reborn the leaves and flowers.

Before starting the growth of the leaves, be careful when preparing the waters, since the soil so much the soil soaked can make the light bulb rot.

After the leaves we should make periodic irrigation, observing if the ground is already superficially dried. Don't wet flowers.

If the dry leaves seem to remove to extend the flowering period.

The division can be made through the bulbs of the «children» who appear during cultivation.

After flowering, the leaves will fall and will be able to keep the light bulb to plant next year.

Amarilis (or sugar) are rustic and easy to grow.

It is possible to make them thrive at any time of the year, just reprogram the dormant bulbs in the refrigerator vegetable drawer, in closed bags and replanting them only when you want.

They multiply by seeds, division of bulbs (cut) and more easily by separation of bulbs that naturally form around the mother plant.

How to plant açucena

The cultivation substrate must be rich in organic and well -drained matter.

For flower beds, place the well -related, swivel and leveling animal fertilizer and leveling before sowing.

For the vases, after the positioning of the gravel and the wet sand on the bottom, place the substrate of organic compound and humus worm.

Plant the bulbs, not buried too much, leaving the top of the earth. Then water and keep a slight humidity in the growth period.

After flowering you could lose the leaves or not, it will depend on the climate of the region. Decrease or, preferably, cease water in winter.

To propagate this plant we can simply separate the puppies that develop around the bulb.

The sowing of these small bulbs is performed in the same way that it has been explained.

Brightness: Full sun, it needs a lot of light, at least 4 hours.

WATERFALL: After plating water until the substrate is very humid and the head free of the earth, then only once a week, with moderate waters, keeping the substrate slightly humid, since the soaked substrate can cause the bulb to rot.

Don't wet flowers.

CLIMATE: It prefers a mild climate, it likes the temperature that ranges from 22-30 ° C.

HARVEST: Using a substrate that has a good ventilation: pine mixture (85%) with vermiculite (15%) or 1 part of the vegetable soil, 1 part of a common garden ground and 2 parts of sand coarse construction.

Place the bulb and leave the «neck» out of the surface, complete the volume with the substrate.

Pruning: Remove leaves and flowers that are already dry.

FERTILIZATION: When the leaves begin to cultivate the monthly fertilizer with NPK Formula 6-12-6, or 10-10-10, 5 tablespoons per square meter.

Use: Although found more often in the huge and edge vessels, they are wonderful.

PROPAGATION: By division of bulbs.

Care after flowering

Wait for the leaves to have completely dried to cut the auction leaving only 1 cm from the ground.

If you wish, carefully remove the light bulb from the pot and plant it in the garden or plant it in another pot with new land.

Irrigation should be once a week with 1 cup of water for 5 months and therefore suspend irrigation when the plant will enter the state of dormant.

It should flourish in spring.

Essential care

Amarilis grows better at slight temperatures, not supporting temperatures lower than 6 ° C.

The ideal temperature for its healthy development is on average of 18 ° C, while in bloom, when it also needs much light, although not direct.

It should change the plant in a darker and more dry place when their flowers fall.

Sprinkle the plant below, because if the flowers or leaves are wet, you can rot.

It should be watering two or three times a week in the hot months and once a week in colder times.

From flowering to loss of leaves, amarilis (or FLOWER) needs liquid fertilizers for flowering plants every two weeks.

Remember to include iron and magnesium for your development.