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Anyone growing Amazon lily (Eucharis grandiflora)? I received a few bulbs early this year. I would love to know what I need to do for it to bloom later this year.

Carol in Jacksonville

Comments (15)

  • hester_2009
    10 years ago

    Carol,
    I have a huge Amazon lily in a pot. The key for blooming is to keep it pot bound and in the shade. I don't think I've ever fed mine yet it blooms at least once in the early spring.

    The blooms are wonderful and it's an easy care plant.
    Hester

  • garyfla_gw
    10 years ago

    Hi
    One of my favorite bulbs . evergreen ,flowers more than once a year. attractive foliage and forms beds . They do require shade and almost constant moisture i recently moved a bed from the shadehouse to a location under a Cassia tree flowered right on cue and already note expansion i did throw a couple of bags of topsoil and loosened the sand lol i also grow some in pots where I get fewer flowers .One negative Wife says they smell like antisceptic while i describe it as "clean" lol
    Don't know cold tolerance as I'm in 10 gary

  • coffeemom
    10 years ago

    I agree with Gary's wife, the flowers smell like laundry powder but they are the closest thing to daffodils we can grow. Pot bound and shade works for me. I have been fertilizing all the pot plants more and got it to bloom twice this year.

  • cocoabeachlorax
    10 years ago

    Coffeemom, your post gave me a good chuckle, "I have been fertilizing all the POT plants more...". Sometimes I'm just a giggling teenager. ;)

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the info, Hester, Gary and Coffeemom (and Gary's wife)! I have four bulbs and when I potted, each one was about the size of a lime. I don't know how long they take to get get pot bound. I have the pot in almost full shade. It gets just a small amount of early morning sun but I am keeping an eye on it in case it looks sunburned. I water it about every other day. I love the dark green glossy leaves and they came up really quickly. I know I will have to take the plant inside for the winter - not cold tolerant at all. But I do hope I get a bloom!

    Carol

  • coffeemom
    10 years ago

    In Broward they are usually the first bulbs to bloom in Jan/Feb.

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Gary, it sounds like you are growing these in the ground in beds? Mine are in a pot but survived nights to 31-32 degrees without any problem. (On the hard freeze nights, I brought them inside.)

    I have my first blooms! I haven't noticed the laundry-detergent smell yet, but maybe when they are fully open.

    Gary, do yours multiply in the ground? Like little bulblets off of the mothers, similar to amaryllis?

    Thanks,
    Carol

  • garyfla_gw
    10 years ago

    Hi
    When I first got them they were growing in the ground but in the heated shadehouse. Moved them into a shady bed last april. Not sure about the cold as 39 has been the low and SH was kept at 50. I did dig the bed out and added some topsoil and mulched with pine bark fimes . they do multiply much like amaryllis Interestingly imade a bed on the north side and they have just limped along for some reason. Think not enough moisture . So i moved them into the south bed where they immediately perked up lol I got a half dozen stalks with very good quality flowers beginning in late Jan and are still going .
    My wife thinks they smell like Listerine mouthwash lol
    gary

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    Original Author
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    My amazon lilies have been kind-of blah for years. Kind of so-so growth, and much pouting with yellow leaves at the tiniest bit of too-much water. Not full and not lush. A weak bloom or two each spring. Nothing to get excited about ...until this year. Suddenly it's full and lush (and no yellow leaves)!

    I moved one pot to a new spot this year with a bit more early-day sun and raised off the ground. It is on top of a palm tree stump I received a few months ago. What a difference that move made! It has so much new, lush growth that I decided I had better move the second pot right next to it! You can see in the photos... the one on the right is what I typically have... the one on the left is MR. WOW!!! Isn't that crazy?!

    The two glazed pots above are identical and each one has four Amazon lily bulbs. One container was planted in March 2013 and the other was planted in March 2014.

    We have not had a hard freeze for the past two winters. WHAT A TOTAL GAME-CHANGER! This is the BEST - by far - that my yard has ever looked.
    This year, us northern "outlier" Floridians didn't have to wait until
    late May for our plants to have come back from the roots. With two mild winters in a row, my plants started far ahead of where they usually do each spring. Has made gardening SO much fun! Now I feel like ya'll in Orlando and Tampa! What a GREAT year in the garden it has been so far!

    EDIT: It did not bloom (yet) this year, but that's OK. I'm thrilled with it's new appearance!


    Carol in Jacksonville

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    Original Author
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Silvia, I like the crowded look. :) The more mature my garden gets (and the less winter freezes we've had), the more crowded it gets.

    Your Amazon lilies' leaves look really full and lush, too! Love it! Are they more of a limey green, or is that just the photo? Were your blooms anything to write home about (i.e., awesome)? And did they have a scent?

    I'm not familiar with sugar apple, but it seems I've read about them several times recently on this forum. I'll have to learn more. It must be something good.

    Carol

  • whgille
    6 years ago

    Thank you Carol, I noticed the same thing that your leaves are a deep green and mine kind of lighter. It might be the camera too, I never play with the colors or anything but if I remember correctly when I had it in the pot and in full shade it was darker. Now it is in full sun together with the other plants and about the blooms, I just saw them while cleaning the garden and no, I did not smell them. But if they had strong scent I would for sure notice it and so would my beagle, she loves guavas and when ripe I have to be careful so she does not get sick eating them.

    About the sugar apples, I am the only one that likes them in the house, they told me they had too many seeds.? From the same family sugar apples, atemoyas and cherimoyas, I prefer the last ones but need a more temperate climate. They are expensive when available, an oriental man who has a business near by, sells them to his country people for $5 a piece, he said he has a lot of sugar apples in his yard because they are prized by them.

    Silvia

    Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL) thanked whgille
  • ily68
    6 years ago

    All of them look so beautiful, this is one the plants that is on my to buy list. They are just so expensive, even on Ebay. Fairchild's has them in their gardens, and they're just too beautiful when flowering. That's where I saw them for the first time. The Sugar Apple I hear is good, but I don't eat it. We have a small tree, but most of the anolis eat the fruit before we get them. My brother and mother, love them, but they love more the Soursop, that one is really expensive. It's sold by the pound. I just bought a small one, that was 1 and 1/2 pounds, for $12. My mother wanted to eat one, and I got it for her.

  • whgille
    6 years ago

    Carol, what happened to your picture?

    Ily, my Amazon lily bulbs were a gift from a gardener so I would not know the price, I just look at them today and saw that they multiplied in my absence!

    My favorite ice cream flavor was always soursop.:)

    Silvia

  • ily68
    6 years ago

    I must get some for my mother, she loves the soursop. I'm watching both the Amazon Lily and the Walking Iris on Ebay. Eventually, I will get them, but not right now. Today I went and got 2 I really wanted, Dombeya Burgessiae (Seminole) & Sky Blue Cluster Vine (Jacquemontia Pentantha). That will have to do for now.