Amaryllis Care: How to Grow and Rebloom the Bulb

Updated September 2026 · Garden Advice Guide

Pot an amaryllis bulb with its top third above the soil, in a container just an inch or two wider than the bulb, and give it bright light in a room at 65 to 75°F. Water sparingly until the flower stalk shows, then keep the soil lightly moist. You'll have flowers in about 6 to 8 weeks, which means potting in early to mid November for a Christmas bloom. That's the forcing half of amaryllis care. The reblooming half happens in the eight months after the flowers fade, and that's where most people lose the plant.

This page walks through both halves: the bulb-neck rule, the timeline counted back from Christmas, watering without rot, the after-bloom feeding that recharges the bulb, the dormancy period, and planting it out for good if you live where winters stay mild.

Want the frost dates behind the outdoor half of this schedule? Use our free planting calendar to get your own last and first frost dates from your ZIP code.

Updated September 2026

What You're Buying, and Why It Matters

The plant sold as amaryllis is botanically Hippeastrum, a South American bulb, but every garden center calls it amaryllis and so will we. The flower stalk that comes out of it is already fully formed inside the bulb when you buy it. Everything the bulb needed to make that stalk was stored last summer. Your job for the first bloom is simply to wake it up.

That's why bulb size matters more than anything else on the shelf. Bloom count is set by bulb size:

Pick a bulb that's firm and heavy for its size, with no soft spots, no mold at the base, and ideally a few fleshy roots still attached. A tiny green nose showing at the top is fine and means it's ready to go.

One thing to skip if you want the bulb to come back: the wax-dipped amaryllis. They're sold as no-water novelties, and they do bloom once on stored energy, but the wax seals off the roots and the bulb is spent afterward. Buy a plain bulb if you plan to keep it. The same keep-it-or-replace-it question applies to ranunculus, whose growing zone decides whether the corms stay in the ground or come up each fall.

How to Plant Amaryllis Bulb: The Bulb-Neck Rule

Amaryllis is planted shallow, which surprises people who've just put tulips in the ground six inches deep. Here's the method:

1. Choose the pot. Just 1 to 2 inches wider than the bulb on all sides, so a 6-inch pot for most bulbs and a 7 or 8-inch pot for a jumbo. Amaryllis blooms better slightly rootbound, and a big pot holds too much wet soil around the bulb. It must have a drain hole. A heavy clay pot helps, because a tall stalk in full flower will tip a light plastic one.
2. Fill with a fast-draining mix. Ordinary houseplant potting mix with a handful of perlite is right. Never garden soil in a pot (the reasons are in our container gardening guide).
3. Soak the roots, not the bulb. If the bulb has dried roots, stand it in an inch of lukewarm water for 2 to 3 hours before planting, keeping the bulb body dry.
4. Set the bulb so its top third sits above the soil line. This is the bulb-neck rule. The neck and shoulders stay in the air. Only the bottom two thirds, where the roots emerge, goes under. Firm the mix around it.
5. Water once, thoroughly, until it drains, then don't water again until you see green growth.
6. Put it somewhere warm and bright. A sunny window in a room at 65 to 75°F. Warmth at the base speeds things up, so the top of a refrigerator or a spot near (never on) a radiator works for the first couple of weeks.

Why the neck stays out: the bulb's neck is where rot starts. Soil packed around it holds water against the tissue, and a bulb that rots at the neck is finished. Keep it high and dry.

When to Plant Amaryllis for Christmas Bloom

How long does amaryllis take to bloom? For most loose bulbs sold in fall, 6 to 8 weeks from potting to the first open flower. Bulbs sold as "prepared" or pre-chilled are often faster, around 4 to 6 weeks. A few of the large-flowered Dutch types and most of the smaller-flowered species types run slower, up to 10 or 12 weeks. The box or tag usually says, and it's worth reading, because the timing changes when you should pot it.

A worked example, counted back from Christmas. You want open flowers on December 25. A standard bulb needs 6 to 8 weeks, so pot it between October 30 and November 13. Pot on November 6 and you're in the middle of the window, with a week's margin either way. If the room is cool, say 62°F, add another week and pot at the end of October. If the tag says 4 to 6 weeks, wait until mid to late November.

The honest truth is that it's hard to hit an exact date. Warmth speeds the bulb up and cool slows it down, and you can use that. If the stalk is racing ahead in early December, move the pot to a cooler room around 60°F and it will slow. If it's lagging, move it somewhere warmer. Once the first bud opens, cooler is better anyway; at 60 to 65°F the flowers last twice as long as they do at 75°F.

If you'd like a longer show, pot three bulbs two weeks apart, from late October to late November. You'll have something in flower from mid December through the end of January. Staggering forced paperwhites alongside them stretches the display further, since those need about four weeks and no chilling at all.

Amaryllis Watering: The Rot Problem

Amaryllis is killed by water far more often than by drought. The bulb is a storage organ, and it rots readily in wet soil, especially before the roots have grown.

The watering schedule changes with the stage:

• Potting to first green growth: water once at potting, then leave it alone. If the mix dries completely after 2 weeks, add a little. Nothing more.
• Green tip to stalk growth: water when the top inch of soil is dry, enough to moisten the pot without leaving the saucer full. Pour around the bulb, never over it, and never into the neck.
• Stalk up and in bud: keep the soil lightly moist. This is when the plant uses the most water, and letting it dry out now can stunt the stalk or blast the buds.
• After bloom, while the leaves grow: water when the top inch is dry, all summer.
• Dormancy: none at all. See below.

The watering guide has a container lift test that suits amaryllis well: lift the pot right after a thorough watering, lift it again two days later, and you'll learn the "needs water" weight in a week.

Once the stalk is up, turn the pot a quarter turn every couple of days. The stalk leans toward the light, and a foot-and-a-half stalk with four open trumpets on top has a lot of leverage. If it's leaning anyway, push a thin bamboo stake into the pot edge, away from the bulb, and tie loosely.

Amaryllis Care After Blooming: The Part That Decides Everything

This is the half people skip, and it's why so many bulbs never flower again. Next winter's flower stalk gets built inside the bulb during this summer's leaf growth. No leaves, no food, no flowers.

Here's what to do, in order:

1. Cut the spent flower stalk 1 to 2 inches above the bulb once the last flower fades. Cut only the stalk. Leave every leaf. The stalk may ooze a little sap, which is normal.
2. Move the pot to your brightest window. The leaves are now solar panels, and they need as much sun as you can give them. A south window is ideal.
3. Water when the top inch dries, and feed with a balanced houseplant fertilizer at half strength every 2 to 4 weeks. The leaves should be thick, dark green and standing up.
4. Move it outdoors once nights stay above 50°F and all danger of frost has passed. Check your last frost date and add a week. Give it morning sun with afternoon shade for the first two weeks, then full sun for the rest of the summer.
5. Keep watering and feeding all summer. A bulb that grows 5 or 6 strong leaves for at least 5 months has stored enough to flower again. A bulb that put out 2 thin leaves in a dim corner has not.
6. Bring it indoors before your first frost. Even a light frost damages the leaves and can set back the bulb.

You can also drop the whole pot into a garden bed for the summer, rim at soil level, which keeps the roots cooler and the watering more even. Lift the pot in late summer.

The Amaryllis Dormancy Period

Amaryllis doesn't strictly need a dormant period to rebloom; in the wild it grows year-round in some places. But a rest of 8 to 10 weeks in cool, dark, dry conditions is the reliable way to reset the bulb's clock so it flowers when you want it to, rather than at some random point in spring.

The schedule, again counted back from Christmas:

The bulb should be as firm as the day you bought it when it comes out of rest. If it's soft or shriveled, it wasn't fed enough over the summer, and it may leaf out but not flower this year. Give it a full growing season and try again.

Repot only every 2 to 3 years, in the dormant period or just after. A crowded pot with a mother bulb and a couple of offsets is a good sign, not a problem; the offsets bloom themselves once they reach about 3 inches across. Separate them at repotting time if you want more plants.

Amaryllis Leaves But No Flowers: Why It Didn't Rebloom

If you get a healthy crop of leaves and no stalk, one of these is the reason:

1. Not enough leaf growth last summer. The most common cause by far. A bulb kept in a dim room after bloom, or brought inside in July, didn't store enough. Fix: a full summer outdoors in sun with regular feeding.
2. No rest period. A bulb kept warm and watered all year sometimes blooms at odd times or skips a year. Fix: the 8 to 10 week dormancy above.
3. Rest was too warm. A bulb rested in a 70°F closet doesn't reset. It wants 50 to 55°F.
4. Bulb is too small. Offsets and bulbs under about 24 cm around often need another year of leaf growth. Fix: patience and feeding.
5. Planted too deep. A bulb buried to its neck tends to sulk and rot. Fix: replant with the top third showing.
6. Cut the leaves off after bloom. This happens a lot. The leaves are the whole point of the summer. Never cut green leaves.

A bulb that skips one year is not dead. Feed it through a good summer and it usually comes back the next winter with a full stalk.

Can You Plant Amaryllis Outside?

Yes, permanently, if your winters are mild enough. Amaryllis is hardy in the ground in USDA zones 8 through 10, with a thick mulch getting it through zone 8 and sometimes 7b in a sheltered spot against a wall. From zone 9 south it needs no protection at all, and in the Gulf Coast states, central and south Florida, south Texas, and mild parts of California it naturalizes into clumps that bloom every spring on their own. Check where you stand with our growing zones lookup, and remember its rating is about winter survival, not about bloom timing.

In the ground, amaryllis blooms in spring, typically March to May depending on the zone, rather than at Christmas. You give up the indoor forcing schedule and gain a permanent plant that multiplies.

How to plant it out:

• When: spring, after your last frost date, or in fall in zones 9 and 10.
• Where: full sun to light afternoon shade, in well-drained soil. Standing water in winter rots the bulbs faster than cold does. A raised bed or a slope is ideal.
• How deep: same rule as the pot. Neck and shoulders above the soil, with 12 to 15 inches between bulbs so the clumps have room to grow.
• Care: water in dry spells while the leaves are up, feed in spring, and leave the foliage until it yellows on its own. Mulch 3 to 4 inches deep in fall in zones 7b and 8, and pull the mulch back from the bulb neck in spring.

If you're in zone 7 or colder, the outdoor life is a summer vacation for the pot, as in the after-bloom schedule above, with the bulb back inside before the first frost. Our deer-resistant bulbs guide is worth a look too, because amaryllis is one of the bulbs deer and rodents leave alone, which is one reason it naturalizes so well in the South.

Is Amaryllis Toxic to Cats and Dogs?

Yes, and this one is not a myth. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center lists amaryllis as toxic to cats, dogs and horses. The bulb holds the highest concentration of the toxin, and the listed effects include vomiting, drooling, abdominal pain, lethargy and tremors. A dog that digs up and chews a bulb needs a call to your vet or to animal poison control.

Keep the pot where a chewer can't reach it, keep spare bulbs in a closed container in the garage, and if a pet gets into one, treat it as an emergency rather than watching and waiting. If you want a holiday plant that's safe around a pet that chews, the Christmas cactus is listed as non-toxic.

The Rest of the Holiday Plant Cluster

Amaryllis is one of three plants that fill the stores in December and end up in the trash in January for no good reason. The other two have completely different needs, so each has its own page:

• How to care for poinsettias: the one that needs 14 hours of total darkness every night for 8 to 10 weeks to color up again, and the honest answer on its toxicity.
• Christmas cactus plant care: the one that blooms on cool nights rather than a strict calendar, and the safe choice around pets.

And if you've caught the bulb bug, our page on when to plant tulip bulbs covers the outdoor bulbs going in this same fall.

FAQ

How often do you water an amaryllis?

Barely at all until green growth shows, then whenever the top inch of soil is dry, which is roughly weekly while the stalk grows. Keep it lightly moist once it's in bud, water weekly through the summer leaf season, and not at all during the 8 to 10 week dormancy. Always pour around the bulb, never into the neck.

How long does amaryllis take to bloom after planting?

Most bulbs take 6 to 8 weeks from potting to the first open flower in a room at 65 to 75°F. Prepared or pre-chilled bulbs run 4 to 6 weeks, and some slower varieties take 10 to 12. Cooler rooms add a week or two. Pot in early to mid November for a Christmas bloom.

Should I cut the leaves off my amaryllis after it blooms?

No. Cut only the spent flower stalk, 1 to 2 inches above the bulb, and keep every leaf. The leaves feed the bulb all summer and build next year's flower stalk inside it. Remove them only when they've yellowed on their own during the fall dormancy.

Does amaryllis need to go dormant to rebloom?

Not strictly, but an 8 to 10 week rest at 50 to 55°F in the dark, with no water, is the reliable way to get it flowering at Christmas rather than at a random time in spring. Start withholding water in mid September for a bulb you want to restart in early to mid November.

Can amaryllis stay outside all year?

In USDA zones 8 through 10, yes. Plant it with the neck above the soil in well-drained ground, mulch it in zone 8, and it will bloom each spring and multiply. In zone 7 and colder it's a potted plant that summers outdoors and comes in before the first frost.

Why is my amaryllis growing leaves but no flowers?

Usually because it didn't grow enough leaves in the sun last summer, so the bulb never stored the energy for a stalk. Other causes: the leaves were cut off after bloom, the rest period was skipped or too warm, the bulb is too small, or it was planted too deep. A good summer outdoors with regular feeding fixes most of it by next year.

Is amaryllis safe around cats and dogs?

No. The ASPCA lists amaryllis as toxic to cats, dogs and horses, with the bulb being the most dangerous part. Keep the pot out of reach and store spare bulbs in a closed container. The Christmas cactus is the non-toxic holiday plant if you have a chewer at home.