I was given a bulb at Christmas, which I successfully grew to flower.
Now the leaves are growing, BUT it looks as if I am going to be away
from home for about 3 weeks, so I need to do something to protect the
plant for next year.

I am tempted to leave it outside, where it will get natural rain, but I
am unsure of the minimum temperature it need to continue growing. Also
the pot that came with it does not have drainage holes, so potetially it
could end up under water! (or bone dry of course!).

What do people recommend please?

On 23/03/2023 15:19, Polly@golly wrote:
> I was given a bulb at Christmas, which I successfully grew to flower.
> Now the leaves are growing, BUT it looks as if I am going to be away
> from home for about 3 weeks, so I need to do something to protect the
> plant for next year.
>
> I am tempted to leave it outside, where it will get natural rain, but I
> am unsure of the minimum temperature it need to continue growing. Also
> the pot that came with it does not have drainage holes, so potetially it
> could end up under water! (or bone dry of course!).
>
> What do people recommend please?

Do not put it outside. A freak bad frost will not do it any good, nor
will drowning it with loads of rain in a non-draining pot.

It will be able to deal with a period of drought without problem. Water
it well before you leave, tipping it on its side for an hour or two
beforehand to allow it to drain if you think you might have added too
much water. Then just leave it in partial shade indoors while you are
away, though even in a south or west-facing window the sun is unlikely
to do any damage to it in April.

--

Jeff

On Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:19:15 +0000, "Polly@golly"
<pwllgloyw@gmail.com> wrote:

>I was given a bulb at Christmas, which I successfully grew to flower.
>Now the leaves are growing, BUT it looks as if I am going to be away
>from home for about 3 weeks, so I need to do something to protect the
>plant for next year.
>
>I am tempted to leave it outside, where it will get natural rain, but I
>am unsure of the minimum temperature it need to continue growing. Also
>the pot that came with it does not have drainage holes, so potetially it
>could end up under water! (or bone dry of course!).
>
>What do people recommend please?

If it were mine, I'd line the bath with damp to soggy newspapers,
water the pot a bit and as Jeff says, lay it on its side for an hour
or so the make sure the soil isn't saturated, and then stand the pot
in the bath on the newspapers. The damp newspapers will keep the air
humid and reduce the chance of your lily drying out while you're away.
That's the best treatment for most house plants if their owners are
away for a length of time.

When you get back, it would be worth your while repotting it into a
slightly larger pot with drainage holes in the bottom. But these South
African bulbs (hippeastrum, clivia etc) like to be tight in their
pots to encourage flowering, so don't overdo the increase in pot size.
Water it regularly, say once a week, and occasionally with a
high-potash feed such as a tomato feed. Tomorite is good. Stand it in
a pot saucer with a good layer of small pebbles in to stop the bulb
standing in water when it drains. Alternatively, use a smaller pot
saucer upturned in the larger one and stand the pot on that.

In the autumn, stop watering, let the leaves yellow back and then
remove them, and put the pot plus bulb into a cool dry frost-free
place for the winter and forget about it for four months to allow it
to go dormant as it would in the wild. I put mine in the back of the
garage, on the floor. Next spring, bring it out and start watering
again, and the bulb will spring back into life and produce another
flower, or several if you're lucky.

A couple of years ago I found a hippeastrum bulb on the pavement,
thrown out by someone who no longer wanted it but ignored by the bin
men. The bulb was the size of a medium onion. Giving it the treatment
I've just described, it is now considerably bigger than a grapefruit
and produces several huge flowers in the late spring to early summer.
It must be the variety Apple Blossom, white with a pink blush like
this - https://tinyurl.com/2l5so7kp or
https://directbulbs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/products-Hippeastrum-Appleblossom_1647a.jpg.

--
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall, very mild, sheltered
from the West, but open to the North and East.

On 23/03/2023 17:17, Chris Hogg wrote:

> A couple of years ago I found a hippeastrum bulb on the pavement,
> thrown out by someone who no longer wanted it but ignored by the bin
> men. The bulb was the size of a medium onion. Giving it the treatment
> I've just described, it is now considerably bigger than a grapefruit
> and produces several huge flowers in the late spring to early summer.
> It must be the variety Apple Blossom, white with a pink blush like
> this - https://tinyurl.com/2l5so7kp or
> https://directbulbs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/products-Hippeastrum-Appleblossom_1647a.jpg.

About 8 years ago we were given a bunch of flowers which included a
pale-cream amaryllis. Coincidentally, my /Hippeastrum papilio/ was in
flower, so I thought I had nothing to lose transferring pollen from the
amaryllis to the hippeastrum. It set seed and one of the seeds
germinated. Seven years on the bulb is about the size of a tennis ball,
and might flower in two or three years if I'm lucky!

--

Jeff

On 23/03/2023 15:19, Polly@golly wrote:
> I was given a bulb at Christmas, which I successfully grew to flower.
> Now the leaves are growing, BUT it looks as if I am going to be away
> from home for about 3 weeks, so I need to do something to protect the
> plant for next year.
>
> I am tempted to leave it outside, where it will get natural rain, but I
> am unsure of the minimum temperature it need to continue growing. Also
> the pot that came with it does not have drainage holes, so potetially it
> could end up under water! (or bone dry of course!).
>
> What do people recommend please?

Thank you very much Jeff and Chris for the helpful replies. I will water
it well, drain out excess and hope when I go away.

I find it strange that I was given very little soil/compost to plant it
in. I realise that the bulbs like to stick out half way above the soil,
but with what I had, that meant the top of the bul was just below the
top of the pot ant the soil only half way up the pot!