To insure this much anticipated flower show, there are two simple steps you should take immediately.

• Stop watering your plant.
• Store the pot on its side in a dark, dry basement, closet or cabinet.

The bulb likes a storing temperature between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave the strappy green leaves intact. They’ll dry and wither naturally. This rest period should continue uninterrupted for 8 to 12 weeks. Check your amaryllis occasionally—an invading mouse could find it tempting. While checking, notice if the bulb’s neck is turning green, a signal to wake up the bulb.

Carefully remove the dry foliage from the bulb. Lift the bulb from the pot and tenderly shake off the dry soil so as not to damage the yarn-like roots--the amaryllis’ lifelines. Soak those roots, not the bulb, for about 20 minutes in a shallow pan of tepid water. Choose a pot of the appropriate size, one that leaves 2 inches between bulb and pot rim and allows bottom drainage.

Use a standard potting soil mix or one of those specially formulated for blooming bulbs. Fill the pot around the bulb with this fresh soil, leaving the top half of the bulb exposed. Fill only to one inch of the pot rim for easier watering. Use tepid water to moisten the soil thoroughly. Locate the newly potted amaryllis in a warm sunny window. If the temperature falls below 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night, move to a warmer spot for the night. Four to six weeks later comes that spectacular show of blooms, providing you treated the bulb properly during the spring and summer when the bloom buds were being formed within the bulb.

But, if your holidays will be incomplete without a blooming amaryllis, check out your garden center of florist for "cold treated" bulbs which are grown to bloom on schedule for the holidays. If this is your choice, pick large bulbs with plenty of live roots to add to your collection. Choose a variety with color and form new to you. And there are so many--the choice is almost overwhelming—blazing Red Lion, yellow-throated Mirandy, white Appleblosom flushed with cherry pink, double Picotee with white petals rimmed with red, and stripped ones and banded ones and on and on.