BULBS

Most of what I say pertains to any kind of bulb. However, I found some interesting information about tulips on the web.

“Tulips are classified as a perennial flower. This means that a tulip should be expected to return and bloom year after year. But we all know that this is not always the case. If tulips are perennials, then why don't they behave as perennials?

The answer is really quite simple. Tulips are native to Eastern Turkey and the foothills of the Himalayas. They will perennialize best in conditions that match the cold winters and hot, dry summers of their native region. In addition, species and botanical tulips perennialize best. Hybridizing sometimes diminishes a tulip's ability to perennialize, other times it enhances this ability.

Growers have been able to succeed in places like Holland and the Skagit Valley by digging their tulips every year and giving them temperature treatments in the summer months that manipulate the tulips and somewhat replicate what they would be receiving in their native region. These treatments have been developed over hundreds of years and they are still being modified today as new varieties are being developed. Using this knowledge helps growers to expand their stocks and grow big bulbs, while the home gardener may have less success."

I would like to share some gardening information regarding bulbs for those of you who are interested. For best depths and spacing, always follow the instructions that come with your bulbs. For uniform planting holes, use a bulb planter. I have a long handle one for special jobs as my old knees are getting bad. I am lazy and I have a tendency to be the cardboard gardener. For old beds, I just lay my old bulbs on the raised bed and then dump some new sacks of top soil on top of them. This gives me two or 3 levels of bulbs and allows me to have a longer blossom time for our area. Plus I always plant 3 types of bulbs. Early spring, Medium spring and late spring. For new beds, I just put down enough cardboard right on the grass where I want the new raised bed to be. I make it the shape I want it to be. Then put a layer of bagged topsoil on, lay the bulbs on top of the dirt. Never like little soldiers in a line, but in circular groups of colors and fill in the circle. Remember plant them twice as deep as the bulb is high. They have no roots at this stage. Then throw another bag of topsoil on the bulbs, water well, then about 3 inches of mulch and water really well. Our kids know us so well, that Christmas, Mother's day and birthdays are usually gift cards to places that have garden centers. I love it.

Most bulbs, and we prefer Dutch Bulbs, grow well in any average garden soil with good drainage. It is desirable, however, to break up heavy soils before planting. (See! Here is another good reason to follow my directions above!) Before covering our bulbs in their planting hole, I sprinkle some of my favorite bulb food, Bulbs Alive, but you can use any bulb booster. The directions recommend on the Bulbs Alive box is 1/2 cup per bulb in the hole. Too expensive for me! So I put about 2 tablespoons in with each bulb. After planting, I give our bulbs a deep watering and then let Mother Nature do her job, unless it is dry, then the sprinklers take over. Since we seem to enjoy average weather conditions and it seems to provide enough moisture for our bulbs. However, if the weather is unusually hot and dry, a weekly deep soaking will produce larger, longer-lasting blooms. (A general rule of thumb is that all plants need an inch of water each week.)

When flower stems and foliage begin to emerge from the ground in the spring, I apply some more Bulbs Alive by scattering over the soil in early spring. I don't even bother to work it in.

We are fortunate to have sprinklers where our bulbs are planted. However, if you do not, remember bulbs appreciate regular watering just as all flowers do. As a general rule, they should be deeply watered anytime natural rainfall is less than one inch per week during their growing and blooming season.

We never have enough compost to use as mulch and short of going into the village to knock on doors and asking for leaves in the fall, we use a cheap cypress commercial mulch on our bulbs and other flowers by keeping the soil from drying out, maintaining a more even soil temperature and reducing weed growth. It also prevents soil from splashing onto the flowers and foliage.

Flowers should be removed when petals begin to fade, so they will not go to seed. If seedpods are allowed to remain, they will draw of the food needed to nourish your bulbs for next year’s growth. All petals should be removed from the blooming area after they have fallen. Even where bulbs have been naturalized in a lawn, leaves should not be cut until they turn yellow and winter naturally. While they are still green, the leaves serve as a source of nourishment to the bulbs. If you cut them, you can usually forget about seeing them rebloom the next spring.

I am a lazy sort of gardener, so I tend to indulge ourselves with perennials and bulbs. Most bulbs prefer not to be disturbed and can be left in the ground for many years. But this upcoming spring, we will have to check out overcrowding. Especially in the Iris beds. When too many bulbs try to occupy the same space, they will be less vigorous and flowers will be fewer and smaller, an indication that it’s time to transplant them. In the late spring (as soon as the last frost has gone), I liberally dose our gardens with all kinds of zinnias. I love their colors and they fill in all those bare spots in mid to late July and go on until frost. Check out zinnias. The come in all different sizes, heights, colors and even make great cut flowers.

So back to the bulbs. One can dig up bulbs as they are going dormant (which is when foliage is brown and papery and can easily be pulled free), divide and move them to a new location. This is the time to get some benefits from the investment we made in our bulbs. Some varieties, of course, are more prone to multiply than others, and from time to time will need to be dug up and divided before being replanted at better spacing. I never do the following, but for the zealous gardener, you might want to consider lifting spring-flowering bulbs after the foliage has died back, store them in a cool, dry place during the summer for replanting in the early fall. We are in zone 6, so our winters are not too bad.

Daffodils and the smaller bulbs-Crocus, Scillas, Grape Hyacinths, and etc.-are better if left where they are so they can grow and multiply for many years. If they are planted at the proper depth, annuals may be planted right atop and amongst them.

Dutch Bulbs are winter hardy, even at extreme temperatures. However, we mulch them lightly, especially the first winter after planting. Some people use Evergreen boughs, pine needles or leaves as mulch. Again we do not have any of these, so we indulge ourselves again with commercial mulch. This provides good protection in areas where there is alternate freezing and thawing, which may have a tendency to displace bulbs from their planted positions. Winter mulch should not be put down until ground has frozen hard. Snow is a natural, and ideal, final covering. We remove winter mulch early in the spring, before bulbs begin growing and we set the mulch aside to recycle again in other areas or in the same area in the fall. We just make a big pile of it in an out of the way area.

For those friends and relatives of ours who live in milder climate areas of North America, where little or no frost can be expected, later planting is recommended. Just remember, tulips do not do well in Florida, nor do Iris and other things like that. But for those of you in North Florida, just remember, after receiving your bulbs from Holland, they should be given a “substitute winter” by pre-cooling them before planting. You can store them in opened packages in the bottom of your refrigerator. (Fruit should not be stored in the refrigerator while bulbs are cooling, since it produces gases, which could damage the bulbs.) A six-to eight-week cooling period is recommended. So we use an old refrigerator that only holds soft drinks etc and no food.