Proper bulb care after blooming is essential for a healthy bulb and beautiful flowers the following bloom period. This includes plenty of good light and fertilizer, not to mention a possible re-potting if needed.

Think of your bulb as a battery that needs to recharge after blooming. Some shrinkage is normal... it takes a lot out of a bulb to produce such large, lovely flowers. Proper feeding and care should fatten up the bulb over summer.

After your bulb finishes blooming, place it in an east or south facing window and allow it to grow its leaves. (If you live in a southern zone with warm winters, you can grow these bulbs directly in your garden, or at least take it outdoors to recharge.)

You'll need to feed your bulb well with fertilizer. Miracle-Gro is fine. Follow the package directions for houseplants. Water carefully... Hippeastrum bulbs prefer to dry out a bit in between waterings, and can rot if kept too wet for too long at the root level.

Once the danger of frost is past in your area, take your bulb outdoors and let it enjoy some sunshine, taking care to water and feed when needed. You'll need to bring your bulb back indoors before the danger of frost in fall.

For Christmas blooms, you'll need to put your bulb to rest about 16 weeks before you want the actual flowers. 6-8 weeks of rest in a cool, dark basement... then 6-8 weeks of growth in warmth and light for blooms. There is a recent post on forcing and dormancy that explains the entire process, or you can do a search here in the forum on dormancy and forcing.

I hope this helps to some extent... there is a lot of great culture information here in the forum... do a search for the info you require and you'll find tons of posts directed at the subject you're seeking.

Thanks. I haven't given it any fertilizer yet. No wonder it's shrinking. It's such a beautiful plant, I'd hate to lose it. I'll definitely be reading up now that I've found this great site.

No problem... welcome to the forum! There are a lot of very experienced growers here, and everyone is most happy to help and answer questions!

I must warn you... once you learn a little about the culture of these bulbs, and you find out what beautiful varieties are available, you'll become hooked, just as all of us are! It can become quite an addiction!

I went from 2 bulbs to over 50 in one season! Ok, I'm a little extreme, maybe... but there are literally hundreds of different color and shape combinations of these flowers, and they're fairly easy to grow once you learn their requirements... you'll find yourself looking forward to fall when all the fresh bulbs are harvested and brought in from Holland and South Africa and South America!

Check out some of the past posts... you'll see lots of beautiful photos of this years' blooms! And you'll find lots of other questions and answers, information you can use in the cultivation of your bulb!

The search option will yield lots of posts on whatever subject you want to know about... there's some really good reading here! Again, welcome! I hope you stick with it... these bulbs are so gorgeous when flowering!