LSU AgCenter's Weekly Message

Amaryllises Can Provide Lovely Flowers Now and in the Landscape

My mother gave me an amaryllis bulb for Christmas this past year. The plant is flowering beautifully next to my west-facing window. It has several blooms right now, and it looks like there will be more before this year’s show is over.

At the same time, a couple of amaryllis plants that Mom gave me in previous years are in the ground in my perennials bed. They had green leaves until the current stretch of hard freezes began. I just planted one in the ground last spring, so it hasn’t bloomed in the landscape yet. I planted the other one in 2024, and it flowered in early April last year, before the Easter lilies and giant plume ginger. I plan to add my new amaryllis to the bed this spring, after the last hard freeze.

What we most often call amaryllises are plants in the Hippeastrum genus. There is an Amaryllis genus, but those species aren’t commonly grown here. Hippeastrum plants are descendants of ones in South and Central America, while true Amaryllis species are from South Africa. All of these are in the amaryllis family.

After amaryllis plants growing indoors have finished flowering, cut off the flower stalk, but allow the leaves to die back naturally. To grow them in the landscape, plant bulbs in a site with full sun to partial shade and good drainage. If you don’t have an in-ground spot that fits these criteria, you can plant them in containers.

Don’t plant amaryllis bulbs too deeply. Place them so that the narrow part at the top of the bulb is above the soil. In parts of Louisiana that get cold enough to be in USDA Hardiness Zone 8, about 3 inches of mulch can be spread over the bulbs during the winter to protect them.

You can fertilize amaryllis plants after they finish flowering.

Since amaryllis bulbs like the ones I have are sold largely for flowering indoors, I suspect that there is a good deal of variation in terms of how well they survive in the landscape and how much they spread. If you’re looking for something that survives reliably and spreads vigorously outdoors, you might consider the one that’s often called St. Joseph’s lily or hardy amaryllis (Hippeastrum x johnsonii). It has red flowers with white stripes and has been around since the late 1700s. It’s one of the most cold hardy Hippeastrum hybrids, surviving temperatures as low or lower than those found in USDA Hardiness Zone 7.

Let me know if you have questions.

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Dr. Mary Helen Ferguson is an Extension Agent with the LSU AgCenter, with horticulture responsibilities in Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. Contact Mary Helen at mhferguson@agcenter.lsu.edu, 985-277-1850 (Hammond), or 985-839-7855 (Franklinton).