After Bloom Care for Plants

Once the lovely flowers of an Easter Lily have died, most people don’t know what to do with the plant. Keeping an Easter Lily as a houseplant is not an option. It needs to be planted outside as soon as the weather is warm enough. If you have to keep it indoors until the temperatures rise, place your Easter Lily in a sunny window and water it when the soil is slightly dry.

When you’re ready to move your Easter Lily outside, remove the Easter Lily from its pot, gently loosen the roots, and find a bright sunny spot in your garden to plant it. An Easter Lily is a bulb plant. Plant the bulb a few inches deeper than it was planted in the pot and cover it with soil. Water your Easter Lily Plant well and feed it with an all-purpose plant food. Continue watering and feeding your Easter Lily along with all of your other outdoor plants. Don’t be alarmed when the remaining green leaves and stems of you Easter Lily wither and die. Around July or August, your Easter Lily will send out new growth. A newly planted Easter Lily doesn’t usually bloom the first year; but the following summer it should produce some beautiful lilies.

If the winters are mild where you live, you can leave the bulbs alone while they are dormant. If your winters get quite cold, be sure to cover your Easter Lily bulbs with about 4” of mulch or dig them up and store them indoors in a cool dark area until spring.

After paying all that money for an Amaryllis plant or Amaryllis bulbs this year, who wouldn’t want them to bloom again next year. Follow these simple instructions and that is just what will happen.

Amaryllis Plant Flowers

1. Cut the old flowers from the stem when they fade.

2. When the stem starts to sag, cut it back to the top of the bulb.

3. Continue to water and fertilize all summer or at least 5-6 months.

4. Allow the leaves to fully develop and grow. The leaves nourish the bulb and help it produce large flowers next year.

5. When the leaves begin to yellow, usually in the early fall, cut the plant back to about 2” from the top of the bulb

6. Now is the time to remove the bulb from the soil.

7. Clean the bulb and place it in a cool dark place (40-50 degrees) for a minimum  of six weeks. The refrigerator will work only if it does not contain apples. Apples will sterilize the bulbs and they’ll never produce another flower.

8. After six weeks replant the bulbs. Plant the bulbs about eight weeks before you want them to bloom for the holidays.

Late Winter/ Early Spring

Poinsettias have long-lasting blooms so their colorful bracts (flowers) remain showy for several months. During this time, side shoots develop below the bracts. To have a well-shaped plant the following year, cut off any old blooms that are still on the plant in February or March. Cut branches back so that they are about 4″- 5″ tall. Leave a few leaves on each of the old stems; new growth comes from buds located in the leaf axils along these stems.  Keep your poinsettia in a sunny area where the temperature is between 60° – 70°F (15.6° – 21.1°C) and fertilize monthly until December. Use a balanced plant food diluted to 1/2 the recommended strength.

Late Spring/ Summer

Between June and July prune all the stems so they are about  4″ tall,  leaving 1-3 leaves on each stem. Pruning helps the plant become full and bushy and encourages more flowers at Christmas. Around August, pinch off the growing tips on the stems one more time.

Fall/ Early Winter

In order for the poinsettia bracts to turn color again, the plant must be kept in complete darkness for 12-15 hours from the end of September until color shows in the bracts in early to mid-December. The temperature should remain between 60°- 70° F  (15.6°- 21.1°C). Night temperatures above 70°F (21.1°C) may delay or prevent the plant from turning color. Hopefully you’ll have a beautiful plant in time for Christmas.

Pruning a Christmas Cactus helps it become a full bushy plant and produce more blooms during the holiday season. The best time to prune a Christmas Cactus is about a month after it has finished blooming. This brief rest encourages the Christmas Cactus to produce new growth and branch out. You should never prune a Christmas Cactus after the month of May.

Pruning a Christmas Cactus is really easy. Just twist or cut one or several of the segments off of the ends of each of the stems. If you want to start new plants, use a three segment section and plant at least two or three of these sections in a small pot. These little plants make great Christmas presents or you can donate them to a local Nursing Home.