A friend wrote to me yesterday, she "got sick" with hippies. Well, how I got sick, I suddenly liked it. She has a couple of "grandmothers," they lived, did not bother, did not indulge in attention, sometimes they bloomed. And then I considered on the Internet, what sort they are. And rushed!.. First of all, she climbed into the Internet for information "what to do to bloom constantly," and not just for information, but for video tutorials: it is beautiful and immediately clear what to do so that they bloom at any time! I've seen enough. And then I remembered me. We talked with her for two hours, and I realized: we need to do something, somehow save newcomers-hippomans from such "gurus" filming video tutorials. So, in order. 
Terminology:
- dormant period - the time when the bulb does not grow new leaves ;
- growing season - the time when something grows;
- bulb - pseudostem of the plant, consisting of several layers formed by the lower part of the leaves;
- the bottom of the bulb is the place at the bottom of the bulb from where the roots grow, in fact - the natural stem of the plant;
- the neck of the bulb is the narrowest point where the leaves come from ;
- peduncle - aka "arrow," anthers - the tips of stamens on which pollen;
- pestle - the central "stick" in the flower, without pollen;
- stigma of the pestle - the tip of the pestle, in the open form divided into three parts.
Stages of hippeastrum growth under normal conditions:
- Growing season;
- Entering the dormant period;
- Dormant period;
- Awakenings;
- Flowering;
- Growing season.
Debunking myths
Myth # 1. To make the hippeastrum bloom, you need to cut off the leaves and roots, wrap it in a newspaper and put it in a cold and dark place for a month.
For this advice, there is a great desire to crack on the head 
of the adviser.
Axiom No. 1. Only adults that have been well-fed over the previous TWO seasons of bulb bloom. The arrow grows from a flower kidney laid in the penultimate growing season. Adult bulb - from 5 cm in diameter, "grandmother's" and some species can bloom at 3 cm, but not necessarily. Anything smaller than 5cm is automatically considered a baby, even if last year it was a chic bulb with a fist the size of, and blossomed with three peduncles.
Axiom No. 2. Never, under any circumstances, should the leaves be cut. Point.
When the leaf dries on its own, most nutrients return to the bulb. Cut off the leaves - deprive the bulb of some of the nutrients that it needs for a good rest, and drive it into wild stress. About stress later. About the cold and darkness, too, later.
Axiom No. 3. You can cut roots. BUT! Only the most extreme thin roots. Long thick roots store food in the same way, grow for a long time, and in general the bulb is bad without them.
Myth # 2. 'It takes a little pot for the hippeastrum to bloom, so that only the finger goes between the bulb and the pot wall'
Axiom No. 4. A small pot falls under the weight of a cap of flowers, take care of your nerves.
Axiom No. 5. For flowering, a good bulb doesn't care about pot size. She thrives without a pot, in a glass with beads. In a small pot, the bulb flourishes due to the internal resource, in a large one - due to nutrients from the ground. Want a disposable plant? Beaded glass. Do you want to rejoice for many years? The pot should be at least twice as wide as the bulb and proportionally deep in width, no spots.
Myth # 3. Dutch bulbs bloom once and disappear.
Without axioms, lies and provocation. Where do our collections come from then? The main thing is normal care, and our Dutch women have been living for decades.
Stage 1. Growing season
So, axioms and general knowledge considered. Let's imagine that we have a certain onion, for example, it is already several years old, it is 6-7 cm in diameter, and a few months ago it bloomed beautifully with our neighbors to envy. Do we want more flowers? Of course we do! But it's December (January-May-July). So you have to wait: the onion is not yet ready to perform an encore and show beauty again.
To prepare a gorgeous performance, the artists are preparing, and even more so hippeastrums. After the performance, sorry, flowering, the onion needs, like a good actress, good nutrition, a calm atmosphere and the absence of annoying paparazzi . To arrange these conditions, we need to change clothes and send our actress to the resort. We remove the upper dry scales to check for wet rotting foci. We hope that everything is dry and beautiful, about the problems - later. We need a normal-sized VIP pot to fit existing roots and have a place to grow new. Ceramic or plastic, double or single, color or brown - the bulb does not care, that's absolutely. See on financial capabilities and aesthetic preferences.
You also need delicious, nutritious food and healthy drinks - soil, water and top dressing. The main requirement for the soil: it must be loose, nutritious, evenly wetted with water and also evenly drying. I mix the soil myself from the store "universal," garden chernozem, compost or humus and perlite. You might have a different recipe. In the end , borscht is no worse than ravioli with sour cream. If you doubt the quality, bacteria or pests, then you can decontaminate the soil with a bright pink solution of manganese or warm it up in the oven or microwave.
We do not plant bulbs deeply - at least 1/3 of the height of the bulb should be above the ground. I plant to the widest place of the bulb, it is more convenient for me. This is necessary in order to be able to observe the condition of the upper scales in order to prevent rot and diseases. Drainage to the bottom of the pot. In the warm season, the onion can be sent to a sanatorium: planted in open ground.
During the growing season, our onion needs regular watering, feeding and good lighting.
Regular watering is drying watering. Not "once a week," but by drying out. The calendar and reminder on the phone are not our helper.
Top dressing is fertilizer. There are dry (granular, powdered, in sticks) and liquid. Better liquid, or those that dissolve in water. Gain experience - you can add "long-playing" to the ground. Frequency - not according to the instructions. The first month, or even two after the transplant, we do not feed at all: we need to root the bulb and master the food that is in the pot. In spring and summer we feed after each watering, in autumn and winter - every other time. We do not pour fertilizer on dry soil, you can burn roots that are not ready to take top dressing. We feed at least an hour after watering, better the next day.
Which fertilizer to choose? It depends on what. For the growth of leaves, nitrogen is needed, for laying a flower bud - phosphorus, to prepare for the dormant period - potassium. And then there are useful "vitamins" like magnesium and potassium, manganese and selenium... There are a lot of fertilizers, understanding comes with experience. Doubt - take universal biohumus or mineral, or "for blooming." In general, it is ideal if you find "for onions" or "for onions and garlic" - it doesn't taste better! Although it happens, but more on that later. When you gain experience.
Lighting should be bright and long. Ideal - south or east window, with light shading in the hottest hours in summer. In open ground - under a light canopy of old tulle or agricultural fiber. No kitchen tables or refrigerators. Window - and point. Or prepare our actress LED or luminescent solarium, at least 12 hours a day. No excuses like "I have a very bright room" - do not pass.
Lighting intensity is measured in special units. I will not load anyone with theory, I will tell you popularly. For example, if you take the intensity of sunlight outside on a hot afternoon for 100 units, then on the south window behind the glass it will already be 80. A meter from the window (without a curtain) - 50, another meter - already 25 units. So it turns out that the human eye is light, since the light reflected from the walls and ceiling is also perceived, and the poor plant is as in that cellar, dark and scary.
Stage 2. Entering the resting period
In general, we arranged a resort for our actress, all spring and summer she ate and gained strength. As the beloved wife of the padishah, she recovered, rounded and brazenly pleased with herself. She is already too lazy to grow new leaves, she is sweating in the sun and is waiting for a cold snap to fall asleep. This happens around the beginning of September, sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier.
If our onion grows in a pot, then as soon as we realized that there are no new leaves, and the onion looks better than it was before the resort, we slowly begin to reduce watering. You can also reduce the lighting, but it itself is gradually decreasing - autumn. And our onion itself (!!!) begins to dry the leaves. If it grew in open ground, then it can be dug up, washed in clean water, removed dry scales, treated with drugs for pests and fungi, dried and put in a pot. It is possible without a pot, but the roots will dry out. Do we need it?
We return to the question of cold and dark. Coolness is good, darkness is bad. In nature, autumn comes with cold weather, which pushes our onion into hibernation. But she does not crawl anywhere into the darkness to sleep! Therefore - coolness and light. The leaves themselves will dry out, you just have to take them off and throw them away. If the bulb still grows leaves, you can transplant it, but do not send it in the cold and do not deprive watering. Let it grow until it stops and starts drying the leaves. There are such thoughtful.
If the onion does not grow new leaves, but does not dry out old ones - leave it as it is. Some people like to sleep dressed. If he wants, he will throw off the leaves.
It is possible to water at this time, but barely, if only the soil in the dust does not dry out. There is a rule here: it is better not to water at all than to pour a lot. The roots are preparing to sleep, they no longer draw in water. Wet soil is a breeding ground for all kinds of diseases.
Stage 3. Dormant period
Our bulb sleeps in coolness and dryness, without or with leaves - it doesn't matter. This process is long, at least a month, or even two or three. Visually, we cannot observe any changes, and there may be a desire to remove the dull picture of an almost empty pot with a protruding bulb from our eyes. Well, clean up - in a cool (not lower than + 10 degrees) and bright place where you go at least once a week.
Since, although we do not see anything, an important process occurs in the depth of the bulb: a flower bud dormant during vegetation, which originated a year before this event, develops into the germ of a peduncle, forms a cover with bud embryos, stretches and breaks up: to the gap between the scales is not the neck of the bulb. At the same time, the bulb itself may decide that it has slept and begin to grow leaves. As soon as the tip of the peduncle or leaf appears above the bulb, the dormancy period can be considered over.
Stage 4. Blossoming
As soon as we saw the tip of a peduncle or a leaf on the waking bulb, we transfer our actress to the stage for a performance, that is, to a warm, bright room for flowering. No matter how sorry it is for us, but the first watering can be done only when the height of the arrow or the second sheet (they usually go in pairs for the first time) reaches 10 cm. Otherwise, our capricious beauty may not give a damn about the performance, slow down the growth of the arrow and start growing leaves.
After the first watering, all subsequent ones - as usual, as the soil dries. At this time, it is important to protect the bulb from the cold in every possible way. Even a cold windowsill can negate all our efforts over the past year: the bulb will stop developing, the roots will rot, and it will be long and difficult to recover. You can put something under the pot: a piece of foam or a plaque, for example. If our bulb is warm, light and pleasant, the peduncle will grow quickly enough, tall and strong. From the moment of opening the doors of the covering on the arrow, feeding can be resumed.
If everything goes according to plan, we will soon see the long-awaited flowers. The bud will open, then the anthers will turn inside out and pollen will appear, then the flower will open in full force, take the form assigned to it in grade. The most recent is the stigma of the pestle. Each variety blooms in its own way. In some, flowers open at the same time, in others - in turn. Each flower lasts about a week, so that the flowering of one peduncle can last a whole month. In order to extend the life of the flower for several days, even before the anthers open, it is advisable to carefully cut them off or pinch them off. No pollen - no pollination. There is pollination - the flower wilts in a day. It is worthless for a pregnant young lady to show off! So protect your flowers from accidental pollination - and you will enjoy the flowers for a very long time!
After flowering, you need to cut or carefully break off the ovary with the rest of the wilted flower. After removing the last flower, an arrow will remain. Let it stick out. It will gradually shrink, the juices will return to the onion. A dry peduncle can be easily pulled out of the so far opened scales. Soon they will close, and the onion will take its original form.
The performance is over, the development cycle has closed. Then again - growing and building up green mass.
About stress. Last
If done right, your bulb won't know what stress and its effects are. But this is life, you have to be ready for anything.
Remember: for a healthy bulb-actress , no adventures are scary, she will endure any stress in heels and with makeup, without even paying attention to it. The slightest problem - the consequences can be any.
Stress can be caused by: hypothermia, overheating, bay, drying, transplantation, transfer, abrupt change of conditions, pests and cats dropping pots from windowsills. The bulb can react in different ways: dry the leaves, drop the roots, catch stagonosporosis (a red burn is such wet rot), stop growing, split (this is when the growth point dies and the bulb forms two new ones - to replace it), dry the arrow and even die, despite all our efforts to nurse. Therefore: no unnecessary actions with the onion and its parts. A healthy bulb will survive one stress factor easily. Two or more is fraught with grave consequences.
Healthy bulbs!