Heart of the Garden

I’ve been planting bulbs outside since Halloween. Most of them got a dusting of bone meal. It made Skippy happy as he went snorting up dust clouds and disturbing everything I’d planted, but we shall see if it makes a difference in the Spring.

I threw some tulips in the fridge to force them into their truncated cold dormancy period of 15 weeks. Here they are next to our other obsession. I plan to get annoyed that they are taking up room, but I hope it’s worth it. I’ll have to make sure they don’t dry out too much in their bag of peat and sawdust. Then I can force them on April 22ish in a desperate grab for color.

Good news: Amaryllis, cyclamen, and paper whites do NOT need a cold dormancy period. But if you want them to re-bloom, they will need a rest – no light, no food over the Summer. Then take them out to re-bloom in September.

I also forced some clustered narcissus (tiny daffodils) that were labelled as “Indoor” so I’m ASSUMING they do not need a cold snap.

Here’s what they looked like growing outside last Spring. It’s like yellow personified! Trumpets of bulbular glory! Just looking at these makes me feel drunk with giddiness.

A note about paperwhites: My sister kept hers really short by adding 5% alcohol to their water. Keeping them short sounds mean, but they don’t mind! They won’t get all leggy and flop over. You can add 1 part booze to 9 parts water. Any boozledo.

These two amaryllis were from fancy garden centers so they are blooming fine b/c they must have kept them in a fridge. The third one in the back bloomed three years ago and all I’ve gotten since are leaves. I let the leaves die back on their own outside in part sun over the summer then let it rest in the dark, but I think it might just be too cold in our house for it to trigger blooming again? I don’t think I fertilized it enough.

Any bulb can be forced. Forcing is basically manufacturing a cold dormancy period, then producing a fake Spring awakening of sorts. There are several ways to do it:

• Put the bulbs in a “soil free” mix or a homemade mix of soil, sphagnum moss, perlite and vermiculite so they sprout roots. Be sure to put them root-side down and point facing up. Don’t bury them. They should only be sitting in the medium. I don’t have giant bags of perlite etc sitting around right now b/c my house is a construction zone, so I’m taking a chance on the sawdust, newspaper shreds and peat moss. Then, store your bulbs in the fridge or in a garage that doesn’t get below 33-45 degrees.
• Or you can put them in the ground in some kind of easy-to-lift container that you will have to dig up in 13-15 months. That seems a bit fussy and I don’t really have the space for that.

To force them after their cold treatment, you can do one of several things:

• Put the bulbs in a pot filled with rocks, or glass things that elevate the bulbs roots above the water at the bottom of the pot.
• if you put them in a soil free mix before you forced dormancy, you can simply keep them in there and maybe add some moss on top or river rocks. As long as it doesn’t trap water and rot the tops of the bulbs.

Put the whole kaboodle in a sunny, cool window and fertilize as it blooms with fish emulsion or liquid kelp. And it should bloom for about 10 days. Kind of high maintenance early spring indoor color fix.

I just read on Youbetyourgarden that “they’ll last a little longer if they’re cut, rather than left attached to the bulb itself.” OK. I trust you Mike McGrath.

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References:

How to Make an Amaryllis Bloom Again, USDA

Forcing Bulbs for Winter Blooms, National Gardening Assoc.