Keep them at 20-25°C at a bright place or with artificial light (area related electric installation power of approx. 200 Watts / square meter, with fluorescent tubes, metal halogen high pressure lamps or sodium lamps (Son-T-Agro or Plantastar) and perfornm a good husbandry as I have detailed elsewhere and repeatedly in this forum.
After 6 months show one photo of the actual performance then for further planning.

A satisfying bulb material gain is simply impossible without regular feeding, and this is at its best performed by applying dilute fertilizer (I use 1 ml /L of liquid 6-3-6 permanently).
If apparently enough leaves have been built up and the bulbs have (re)gained considerably in size, one reposal period with perfectly 13°C or commonly 10-17°C can be planned, either with letting the pots dry out and cutting the leaves or in full leaf with very cautious watering. The latter is preferable if the plants are positioned at the windowsill and particularly if they are really DECORATIVE with rich leaf bushes.

After an appropriate consolidation an boosting period hippeastrum bulbs can be "HALTED" and be programmed for subsequent flower scape formation by keeping under colder temperatures - provided that this previous "homework" of building up a good bulb was adequately done.

So - hippeastrums are very practical plants - aren't they?!

Hans-Werner

scorpgirl24,

We've never got your pictures 6 months later!

Perhaps she had not been successful ;) In fact, for my part I have learnt that so many "projects" are dissolving themselves into nothing.
Insisting is useless on the wwww, Mr.Soultan!

But as one - admittedly little - reimbursement of your frustrated curiousity, I like to share a recent picture of an original sundown - 20.10.2007 in Duesseldorf, Germany.

{{gwi:372057}}

Sincerely
Hans-Werner

Ahhhh...Beautiful Dusseldorf...

Sir Hans: I need some advice with regards to my collection. I have grown my plants outside spring and summer. They have been fed well and grown beautifully. Now it's time to put them to rest. Our temps. here are averaging now with Highs at 60s and Lows at 40s (even lower at some nights). I have transferred the amaryllises (80plus pots) inside the unheated dark garage today for we have a forcasted frost tomorrow morning. Most of them are in full leaf and still putting out new growth. Should I let them dry out a bit, wait till the leaves collapse and then cut them? Or should I cut them all out now (OUCH!!!), treat wounds with powder fungicide and let them go to their winter rest? I would hate to do the latter but if it will be for their best I shall. What am I going to do with the bulblets and bulbils? They seem to not want to rest at the same time as the mother bulb.

I will be growing my seedlings(less than 1 year old) inside. Do I have to give them that 200watts/square meter lighting?

Hehe,

Thanks Hans. Not really frustrated curriosity. Just simple curiosity. If I became frustrated about every possibility missed on the net, I'd go crazy. :o)
Sometimes people just need encouragement and need to know that they are not forgotten.

Thank you for sharing that wonderful sunset, Sir Hans... very lovely, indeed!

SIR
Thank your for ennobling me.

Ok soultan. Well parried! Encouragement - that does indeed transmit some positive vibrations (YEAH)

Maria - if you cannot provide adequate light for your big-bulbed plants then the leaves should be removed as soon as possible; yes by cutting. But, if the substrate is still very moist (the pots do feel heavy) then you must wait. If so then you move your plants outside, protected from rain, daily, until the water is grossly consumed. THEN you can cut the leaves.
If you observe that some bulbs are JUST producing rich bundles of new leaves, then you should sort these out and find a nice windowsill place for them.

If you do not want to waste excessive time untilyou see your first blooms on your seedlings then you should indeed install artificial lighting - 200 watts per square meter.
The absolute minimum wiould be 100W/m2, but with fluorescents in excellent reflector housings. OR high pressure metal halide lamp driven by a lightrail to distribute the light more evenly.

Thank you so much for your advice Sir Hans. I shall do as you instructed.

This is how our mornings here look like. We rarely see sunrise anymore for we are covered with fog. But ones the sunlight comes, it gradually shoves away the fog and reveals the beautiful colors of fall...

My home away from home...
{{gwi:372059}}

I wasn't quite sure how to address you, and since Maria calls you "Sir Hans", I thought I'd do the same... after all, you are the "Resident Expert" here in the forum... :-)

Wow, Maria! Just gorgeous! I'd take a local scenic picture and post it, too, but all you'd see would be flat fields and woods... The surrounding states call us "flat-landers"! I'm not kidding!

Well... I must help the husband bake a batch of dog meal replacement bars... Happy Gardening!

Soultan, You really do encourage all of us on the forum, and you really don't forget anybody on this forum. Thanks!

Hi Hans Werner,
I'd like to introduce myself to the Great One, hehe.
My name is Di and I live in Melbourne Australia. I have been growing hippeastrums for a few years but have only started this year to grow them from seed. I have some seedlings from the lovely Maria(Gilmar) and also from my own garden(not sure what they are because the bees did the pollinating for me)One seed pod came off a red flower and the other off my Papillio.
I also have some seeds floating of various cybister crosses donated to me from the very kind Jaapmaan.
I have read so many of your posts, always full of info and have drooled over your photos.
So, very nice to meet you.

Hey Diz, have you talked to Jaapmaan lately? I don't see him posting and I know his wife has some real serious health issues. We have done some trading too and I am concerned about her health. Thanks.

Hi Cindeea,
Jaapman very knidly responded to my request for cybister seeds by email. We only spoke about seeds. I have not seen any posts from him but I'm sure he reads.

Hi Jaapmaan,
Thanks again for the seeds.

Geeezzz...We're expecting hard freeze later with 29F Lows. Thank goodness all the collection are inside the garage already. Tomorrow unfortunately will have to be "butcher" day for some of my amaryllises. Anybody want some amaryllis leaves for salad?

Maria,
Do you have to cut their leaves off? Why can't you just let them die off?

Dizzy...Sir Hans just recommended in his above post that if the resting area will have no light, it would be best to just cut the leaves off as long as the soil is dry already. On the other hand, bulbs that are just producing new leaves now (wakening up)will have to grow now inside the house.

It makes very good sense to me. And 'sanitary' wise, it would be best to cut and dispose of the leaves now and clean the bulbs. It could be a "yucky" situation with 80 plus pots of amaryllises with flopping and drying leaves which COULD still be carrying some insects or deseases.

So for my bulbs that are growing in the garden should I cut off leaves when they go yellow? I haven't in the past but would like to because they look really messy.

I always remove the yellowing leaves from the garden. They are not beneficial to the plant anymore. Besides, they look ugly in the middle of a huge forest of green leaves.

There are different views about cutting of old leaves. If I understand Sir Hans right, no light-cut...with light-don't cut.

I only remove the leaves when they turn yellow, flop over and die... I usually don't wait until they're crispy brown to remove... completely yellowed and flopped leaves get the scissors.

Besides the issue of dead vegetation being a good hiding place for bacteria, fungus and bugs, it's also prudent to help the plant remove its dead and dying parts so it doesn't have to expend that energy, and can put it to better use within its green parts!

When I prepare my bulbs for dormancy, I remove the leaves, no matter how green they are. It is safer in the fridge without leaves, not to mention that they take too much space. Just look at your newly purchased bulbs. The leaves of them were cut off still green. This is how you get that nice even cut on the neck.

Yes, I read about the growers doing that because of both storage space and hygene reasons; if left on, the green leaves would rot in the dark, and they take up a lot of space...

I would like to have a shelf system on which I could suspend my uprooted bulbs till their leaves wither, then can be cut and put in the fridge for dormancy. It is a dream right now. The garage is full of stuff, so my car is also parked on its side. I have to slide it in every time I want to park it. Of course, it means that I have to unscrew the wheels and put them aside too. I hate that when I push my car in the garage, the right side always gets these scratch marks from being in contact with the ground...