I have never tried any of the things you have mentioned,but I think I can point out some differences and details which may be useful.
Florida is warm, or hot, most of the time,but low humidity is a rare thing. The humidity is extremely high.I don't personaly know about this method of putting the bulbs out to heat up and dry. In fact I hadn't heard of it from any other source.
I am very cautious in trying methods I read about on the net,trying very few unimportant bulbs.
Many refridgerators are quite humid,in the areas where it does not freeze. Humidity and very cool temperatures are not good for Hippeastrum.The bulbs must not touch each other,nor should they touch the walls of the refridgerator. This is because the walls of the refridgerator can be much colder than the surrounding air. Also,in frost free models, The heat strips are sometimes capable of burning contents touching the walls,because they heat up to prevent ice from forming between the inner and outter walls,and can be close to the inner walls.Refridgerators are commonly set to produce temperatures, in the non freezing areas,from just above freezing to about 42 Fah. If I remember correctly,the Dutch,who developed the forcing process used now,store their bulbs at 50 to 55 Fah for forcing. I have seen the full, accurate forcing process described,somewhere on the net.If I can find it again, I will provide a link to it.The plastic mesh bags Hippeastrum are often shipped in should provide isolation for the bulbs.
Del

Dear Sir,

Based on the knowledge from this very forum, I tried my hand on the common Red Hippeastrum variety (pardon me for not knowing the name, Sir Arif may know the variety, it will be easy to ID when I post the bloom pics).

Anyways following is the series of events:

1) On 20th Feb 2010, my Grandmother's brother gave me these,They multiply like rabbits in his flower bed and after some time he has to dig some of them up and discard, but the unfortunate thing is that despite their abundance they flower very less, he has a 20 feet bed full of them, but he told me that in April and May only 2-4 plants bloom:

Note: these are the discarded ones:

{{gwi:401567}}

{{gwi:401568}}

I let bulb to dry in shade, afterwards i kept them in a clay-pot in my store-room.

2) on 20 March when i was checking them as a routine... i observed sign of scape buds on them:

{{gwi:401569}}

{{gwi:401570}}

3) as this was my first experience with Hippeastrums, I was not sure then that were they flower scapes or just normal leaf buds, however i planted them in a pot.

following was their progress on 27 March 2010:

{{gwi:401571}}

4) on 30-03-2010:

{{gwi:401572}}

I am sorry for the blurred pics, as these are the best results from my cell-phone camera.. :)

Regards,

Izhar

Some Amaryllids will only bloom when their roots are crowded. This could be the case with these Hippeastrum. Perhaps,if they were not thinned they would bloom more often. Also some Hippeastrum will not bloom in deep shade.
As far as Your experiment goes,I can't understand enough information from what you wrote to duplicate it.
I would like to know what the temperature was.Was it dry weather, with low humidity?How long did you store them?
I would appreciate it if you would post pictures of the blooms. The bulbs look interesting.
Your cellphone pictures are good. They provide surprising detail
Del

Arif,

I am not familiar with your climate, but I do know that many of my hippeastrum collection is still in pots, despite the fact that I know many will survive most years here in the ground.

We have frosts/freezes in the winter. Before the very first hard freeze, I bring my Amaryllis inside for protection. They are still wet from heavy rains, but they are dormant when I eventually bring them inside.

Usually, about this time of the year, they start to send up scapes (even with low light). I just go with the flow. Either they do or they don't, but I am always delighted when they do.

I don't worry about trying to force them. I tend to just let them do as they naturally wish to do without any extra care. I HAVE to do that because there is no time for more care.

Keep us posted on what you learn. When and IF I can eventually retire, I may want to try some of your techniques.

Ann

I stored the bulbs on 20th Feb 2010,in a clay pot, uncovered in my store room with temperature range of 20C - 28C.

signs of scape formation were observed on 20th March 2010, they were potted-up in a 6" clay pot and water at one day interval.

Growing temperatures ranges were 32C - 38C Day and 18C - 25C Night, humidity 14% - 35%

Bloomed on 9th April 2010 evening:

{{gwi:381635}}

{{gwi:381634}}

{{gwi:401573}}

Regards,

Izhar

Ann,
Part of the correspondance with Bill may answer your question.
More then 320 days have bright clear sun. I am growing selected one under a blue plastic net. I use the net from April - October. Others get shade of trees and full sun for few hours. The soil is sandy loam to which compost and cow manure is added periodically. I formulate my own fertilizers. A mixture of Nitro phos = 1Kg +Calcium Ammonium Nitrate = 0.5Kg + Pot.Sulphate = 1Kg + Mag Sul = 100gm plus a little of Iron Sul, Cu Sul, Borex.Zinc Sul, etc. this gives me an NPK ratio 14-8-20. I feed 30 gm N / 100Sq feet. Now I get 2-3 scapes whereas I used to get only one.
We get Summer rains in July- August and winter rains in last weeks of December. I flood irrigate with tube well water as the surface dries. With holding water in winter has little effect. The best growth period is from March - May and August - November. They are in full bloom now and the temperature is Hi 33 Lo 24c. In this temperature the flower last only three days. Attached is a view of my Amaryllis bed under the Buta tree.
{{gwi:387616}}

________________________________________
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 16:27:35 -0700
From: amstgrp@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: note temp. corrections
To: brigarif@hotmail.com
What is your sun / shade like ? What is your soil like before you add nutrients ? What nutrients do you add ? Do they help or change the growing or blooming in any way? Tell me about you watering ?
Bill

________________________________________
From: Brig.Gen. M. Arif Khan
To: Amaryllis Study Group
Sent: Mon, March 29, 2010 5:11:44 AM
Subject: RE: note temp. corrections
I live in Lahore Pakistan. We have short winter, December to January. The lowest night temperature is just 1-3 C, low enough to keep my forced bulbs dormant and day time high around 18 C.
The spring is short lived March to April. TodayÂs low is 22C and High 32C.
It gets really hot 45-50C. in May & June.
October and November are a little pleasant.
Most of my Hippeastrums are in the ground, very few are in pots out side. I use large pots 12-14 inches. The one in ground do much better than those in the pots. Semi or dappled shade is preferred.
I get, up to three scapes depending upon the variety.
I do not cut flowers of my brood plants, keeping only two pods per scape.
To get early blooms I will have to build a large AIR CONDITIONED GREEN HOUSE and I am yet not that crazy. Every other method advocated has been tried and has failed.
The main reason of bulb death with me is, experiments and shallow planting.
Plant them up to neck and leave them there for the next five years.

is mine Hippeastrum johnsonii ??

I don't know for sure.I would have to see it growing and blooming.This link may help you. I found it by googling Hippeastrum Johnsonii.
Del
Apparently the owners of this forum are trying to prevent the forum members from discovering other forums. I was blocked and threatened by their software that I would be banned from this site if I circumvented the block.
I used to like this forum very much,because of its sharing nature.

Arif,

The views of your garden are fabulous!

Izhar,

Your bloom is very different from what I know as Johnsonii. You can do a search on this site. Kristi posted some really good pictures of her Johnsonii.

Ann

To me the bloom looked pretty similar to that of Hippeastrum johnsonii (earlier I had checked the beautiful postings by Kristi).. but i know there are minute details which are observable by experts only.

Regards,

Izhar