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I think it is related to variety. My BENFICA stem was twice as tall as the others. Let us see if it is again as tall.
ARIF

Thanks. Mine is also red like the Benfica. I'll measure it and also take a photo. Look for the posting in a few months (hopefully). I'll try more sun this time.

brigarif -

That's a wonderful photo. On the pots with multiple bulbs, do you plant several bulbs or are those offsets?

Gardener's amaryllis never can grow "too tall".
These numerous traumatized bulbs (from a damaged and seriously dried up root remainder) and unadequately treated bulbs (imprisoned into small pots and unsufficiently fed) never exhibit the full performance potential of this plant.

I do not know WHY but those people who really manage to awaken and bring this to light by raising magnifique plants in exhibition quality never publish their images into this forum and other forums as well.

The stems of tetraploid gardener's amaryllis hybrids can indeed grow up, nota bene INDOORS to a height of 90 cm (3 feet) and, for example H."Apppleblossom" is very likely to do so provided you have previoussly bothered yourself *ggg* to perform a carefull husbandry on the plant conitinuosly in the growth season before. Particular good results are obtained when you force them undisturbed in their pots (or just embed the clump of bulbs int a bigger pot).

On the other hand - unfiltered sunlight suppresses the elongation considerably but on the other hand again *ggg* it effectuates a superior flower quality as regards to firmness and color.

My personal Rekord from this cultivar was 80 cm indoors in 2004 - and that was indeed funny: The stem from the mother bulb did not care for the upper margin of the window and the flowers consequently bloomed in the darkness above...
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This year I forced my Appleblossom bulb cluster at 8-17C outdoors and I obtained very BIG blooms, the two largest being 24 and 23 cm in diameter (on considerably shorter stems)
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And even the mother bulb of my species Amaryllis, H.aulicum v.robustum
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emerged a formidable stem of 70 cm this summer.
Simply GREAT.

Hans-Werner

Hello Amaryll
Yes I grow them in clusters for display and effect.

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ARIF

Here is an other.

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ARIF

I believe another problem is that my bulbs have always been traumatized, as haweha described. I had some belief that there was a necessary cold/dormant period, but from what I read on this forum, I should start forcing it soon after I cut the leaves off in the fall. I used to bring it into the basement (with no water) for three months. Is this just a bad idea?

For most amaryllis forcing dormancy isn't necessary to get them to bloom; however, if you want to get them to bloom at a specific time of year that they don't normally bloom in, you'll need to force them. As long as you can supply them with enough light in the winter, they can be perfectly happy as house plants, and will probably bloom better and more often. If you can't give them lots of light in the winter (i.e., unobstructed east/south/west window), then they may end up being unhappy. Whether reduced light is better or worse than sitting around in the basement, I don't know; I haven't done any side-by-side experiments with the same cultivar to find out.

I finally repotted the bulb yesterday (I think for the first time in three years). There was actually very little soil, maybe 5 or 10% of the pot volume. It was basically all root and bulb. Now it's in a bigger pot, and I'll be sure to give it new soil every year.

Still, I did manage to get a bloom every year, so I guess these bulbs are quite tollerant of abuse. We'll see if good soil and better light will give me a shorter stem.

I had 2 identical amaryllis bulbs. One I planted in a large pot with a lot of soil and one planted in a small pot with less soil and less room for the roots to grow. The bulb with the smaller amount of soil bloomed on shorter stems which I greatly preferred. The other bulb grew stems almost 4 feet tall and took forever to bloom. From now on, I am going to pot my amaryllis in smaller pots.

I have an amaryllis that is 57 inches tall with 12 blooms is that normal? There are several and the one by my air conditioner unit is only about a foot. That one bloomed first.

I live in Texas and the grow in my yard.