Hi all,

I wanted to share my bloom forcing experiment, which ended in success, I tried my hand on the common Red and White Hippeastrum variety (pardon me for not knowing the name,any help will be appreciated).

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 were the discarded ones:

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I let bulbs to get dry in bright shade, afterwards i kept them in a clay-pot uncovered in my store-room.

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

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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:

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4) progress on 30-03-2010:

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5) They bloomed on 9th April 2010 evening:

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Some details:

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%

Hope this information may help anyone.

Cheers~

Izhar