Xuan, Your Elvas is beautiful, just beautiful..I have trouble getting a good flower out of my two Elvas', and I just got another Elvas in a mislabel..hope as least one of them is as pretty as yours...
Donna

Thank you, Donna. I hope your Elvas will bloom true.

This bulb is from Royal Colors. I ordered it, had it send to a relative in the US, then hand-carried back here.

It has travelled nearly the whole circle of the globe to get to bloom here for me. I'm very happy about RC bulbs.

Xuan

I have NEVER had a mislabeled bulb from Royal Colors, not one!! I spent a lot of money with them too.

Xuan, your climate is perfect for these bulbs, I have never seen them look SO good before, tell me about your weather?

Thank you for your comment, Josh.

I have two places to garden; one is up on the mountain where we have alpine climate - 12-22oC year round and the other tropical - above 32oC year round.

When I keep the bulbs in my mountain garden, most of them go dormant around November and bloom on their own. On the other hand, the bulbs in my tropical garden never do and I have to "force" them to bloom by putting them in the fridge to sleep :)

Xuan

Wow, that is beautiful! I love the petal arrangement and color pattern.
Clare

Xuan,

What happens if you don't force them in the fridge? I keep my bulbs warm all year in growth and they are all starting to bloom now, almost 100% of them.

In northern Florida, bulbs grown in the ground bloom March-April-May.

Carol

Carol,

How cold does it get during your winters? Do the bulbs stay evergreen?

Too funny you should ask - we are at about 20 degrees BELOW normal today. I am wearing the wool sweater that I wear once a year and have a wool blanket on my lap that I use once a year. Today did not get above the 46 - highly unusual - and tonight's low is forecast for 22. That temp is for the airport where the "official" temps are recorded - the low at my house will probably be somewhere around 30-32. So, ok, on to "normals".

The average highs vary from mid-60s in winter to mid-90s in summer. The average lows vary from mid-40s to mid-70s. Jacksonville is located in the northeast corner of the state on the eastern coastline, just south of the Florida-Georgia border. We have very high humidity year-round but a nice seabreeze. My home is located exactly five miles from the ocean.

My bulbs do not stay evergreen. We get 0-10 nights where freezing temps are reached per year and also several frosts. The first freeze or frost knocks off the leaves. But some years, we get no freezes. The past two years, we had about 10 freezes which we considered to be "harsh" winters for Jacksonville. (I know a lot of you roll your eyes at that and I get it!) Like I said, some winters, we get no hard freezes at all. I was hoping for that this year after the past two rough winters and this year, a mild December, but it was not to be. Like I said, I am wrapped in wool today. It will be put away by Friday as the weekend forecast is for highs in the 70s again.

All my bulbs stay in the ground year round and in ten years, I have only lost one bulb ever. Yeah.... ever. That bulb was clearly gone and completely rotten but I could not determine why. I had nine others of the same variety and they were all fine. I have never lost any others - not even to squirrels or critters, even though I have read other posters who say that they will eat bulbs - and the majority of my bulbs come from seeds from my crosses. So they are almost 100% pink (except for the segregated area where I keep my "give-aways") and almost all unnamed.

I'm still unnerved that "Neon" is sterile. So I finally pony up $14 for a single new bulb and the darn thing is useless for my purposes. It will take awhile for me to get over that one! LOL!

Carol

This forum is interesting to see all of the different growing conditions. Carol, I'd invite you to central Missouri to experience winter, but we've only had one little dusting of snow so far--very unusually mild winter so far.

Josh, from your posting above, do you just keep giving your flowers sun and water and keep your Amaryllis growing all year round? You don't force dormancy? They still mostly bloom for you? When the time comes, I've got to figure out what to do with all the new Amaryllis that I purchased this year. I'd like to see them bloom again.

"...even though I have read other posters who say that they will eat bulbs..."

Hehehehe... I meant the squirrels, not the posters...

Josh... if I don't "force" my bulbs in the fridge, most of them will keep on growing and won't bloom. However, a few of them might bloom during April-May, when the rain comes to the region.

Xuan

Carol,

We have had a very unusually WARM winter with barely any freezing!!! It's nice to learn about your growing conditions :)

Summer,

I do not force a dormancy on my bulbs, at all and neither do several others on the forum. Donna and I both grow green all year and we have tons sending up scapes right now. I can speak for her but almost 100 percent of my bulbs are sending up scapes right now, I'm sure the other will follow suit soon. I give my plants lots of light, fertilizer and sun. If a plant does go dormant I will let it rest but that doesn't really happen often. Usually they may loose their leaves but will throw up new ones immediately.

Xuan,

Well your bulbs are very beautiful, you do such a wonderful job :)

Josh

Xuan impressive performance of Your Elvas! One of the small numbers of doubles i like!!!
Congratulations!

Frank,

It was one of the only doubles I like too ;)