When you’re unsure of what to gift someone, a plant is always a safe bet. Around the holidays, poinsettias are a festive favorite, but there might be a better holly jolly houseplant to place under the tree.
Amaryllis is a tropical plant with large red, white, and pink blooms that can be forced into blooming during the holiday season. It’s easy to grow, has a long bloom time, and can be easily treated as a perennial that will come back each winter with gorgeous flowers—what more could you want from a festive floral gift?
Here’s why amaryllis are better than poinsettias for holiday gifting, and why you should introduce these showy blooms into your own Christmas decor.
Meet the Expert
- Samantha Adler is a certified horticulturalist and owner of Houseplant Concierge.
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Both poinsettias and amaryllis fill a holiday home with brilliant shades of red, but amaryllis adds an unexpected tropical touch to holiday decor.
Amaryllis Have Great Gifting Presentation
Whether you choose to gift an amaryllis that is in full bloom or one that will surprise the receipient with color in just a few short weeks, this is a plant that has gorgeous gifting presentation.
“Amaryllis can also be gifted in a pot or just as a waxed bulb, which is a unique gift aesthetically,” says Samantha Adler, certified horticulturalist and owner of Houseplant Concierge.
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You’ll Get Show-Stopping Blooms With Amaryllis
Poinsettias are often thought of us having large red flowers, but those are actually leaves that surround a small yellow flower. Amaryllis has large blossoms with vibrant colors including show-stopping red, white, and pink. They’re a gorgeous complement to traditional holiday color palettes.
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Amaryllis Has a Longer Bloom Season
Poinsettias are usually discarded after a short season where their red leaves put on a show, but amaryllis have a bloom season that includes extravagant trumpet-shaped flowers that bloom in succession for up to seven weeks or longer. If the bulbs are forced to bloom around the holidays, you’ll have cheerful color well into January.
Amaryllis Comes Back Year-After-Year
While poinsettias are typically grown only for the holiday season, then discarded, amaryllis comes back year-after-year.
“Amaryllis can be cared for like other tender perennials and it will flower each year,” Adler says. “It continues to grow throughout the year and easily comes back the following year.”
To make sure they stay on your desired bloom schedule, amaryllis bulbs will need to be dug up and stored following the bloom season. But that’s not a difficult process, and the payoff is worth it—amaryllis blooms will continue to put on a show each and every year.
“Poinsettia is a shrub that turns color only as a result of very specific light conditions,” Adler says. “It takes a lot more work to get the poinsettia to turn color each additional year than to get your amaryllis to re-flower. With proper care, amaryllis can bloom for decades.”
You Can Take Amaryllis Outdoors During Spring and Summer
If you live in USDA hardiness zones 8 to 10, you can plant your amaryllis outdoors year-round, but, if you live in a cooler climate, they can be brought outdoors in spring and summer, then sheltered indoors during fall and winter.
“Amaryllis can be planted indoors or outdoors, as long as it is after the last frost and before the first frost of the season,” Adler says. “If your climate never gets frost, it can be indoors or outdoors all year round,” says Adler.
For amaryllis plants that spend time outdoors, make sure they’re in a spot with partial shade.
Other Popular Holiday Plants
Amaryllis and poinsettia aren’t your only holiday gifting options. There are several other plants that are popular to give around the holidays thanks to their wintertime blooms.
- Christmas Cactus: The brilliant pink blooms of the Christmas cactus make an appearance around, of course, Christmas. These long-living succulents are a popular gifting plant, and they’ll bring colorful joy to your home for years to come.
- Paperwhite Narcissus: Paperwhites don’t have a specific bloom season and can be forced to bloom at any time of the year. But, they’re a popular plant to gift at the holidays because they’ll bloom approximately six weeks later—just in time to add cheerful blooms to the depths of late winter.
- Cyclamen: These petite colorful houseplants go dormant in the summer, then reappear in the fall, just in time for a holiday bloom. The white and red blooms are particularly festive.
