Friday, December 24, 2010

Planting Bulbs In Winter

I have been working a lot of hours lately and boy am I glad that I am off work for the next four days. Now I have the chance to plant the bulbs that I have accumulated from trades and from Brent and Becky's fall bulb sale. Also, some of my lily bulblets that were stored in the fridge were begging to be planted.

These are the bulbs from B and B. They arrived the day we had the first snowstorm. I have already dug the holes for them and even had my husband picked up some garden soil from Home Depot as back fill a few days before the snowstorm. Sometimes the best laid plans don't work the way we wanted it to be. Mother nature didn't cooperate.


These are Lycoris radiata bulbs from trade that I have completely forgotten. I put them in a mesh bag and stored them in one corner of the basement. When I remembered about them they are already growing. The Lycoris radiatas are not hardy to zone 5, so these plants will be grown just like my amaryllises and crinums.


Here are some heirloom crinums from a trade.


A couple of Crinum 'Stars and Stripes' bulblets. They are the size of a daffodil bulb. It will probably take two years for them to bloom. I think it is worth the wait knowing the bloom will look like the next image.


This Crinum 'Stars and Stripes' image is courtesy of Smurfboy1977 of West Virginia.


Hermodactylus tuberosa bulbs.


Also known as "Snake's head Iris" and "Widow Iris". At first glance, the flower look like an iris but on closer inspection it lacks the vexillum tepals. Its name is derived from Hermes,the messenger of gods and the rest is "fingers"= Hermes's fingers. Native to Europe. Photo was taken from Brent and Becky's site.


Glad I potted them up today. They will overwinter in the coldest part of the basement and hope they will bloom for me in the spring.


I rescued these Muscari armeniacum bulbs from Walmart. I brought home three bags with thirty bulbs in a bag.


Daff Pheasant's Eye(Poeticus Recurvus)bulbs.


The daff Pheasant's Eye and the Muscaris were planted in this huge pot.


One of the pots that I've cleaned last fall that I am going to reuse for lily seed planting in early spring.


The pot has big holes at the bottom so used some drywall tape.


Last year, I rescued a lot of boxed amarylisses and never used the pots that came with them. They don't have holes so I asked my hubby to put some in them and he used his Drill Press. Nice and easy.


Here is L. pardalinum, snug as a bug planted in the pot. This is grown from scales. This species is not a good multiplier.


This is how the bulblet look like when I pulled it out from the bag of peat moss it was stored in.


Here is bag of LA lily Koures grown from scales.


I counted nineteen healthy bulblets from the bag.




LA lily Koures growing in my garden.


Last spring, I obtained a huge bulb of Martagon Hansonii from my local lily society, scaled it and got three bulblets.


Lily breeder Bill Cramer sent me of what he thought is a Hansonii hybrid bulb. I scaled it and here are the bulblets. Like the Hansonii species bulblets, they still need vernalization, so I put them back in the fridge.


Here are OT Saltarello bulblets from scales. This lily multiplies like crazy. Here is the previous post when I scaled the bulb:Scaling A Lily Bulb.


I am forcing a few Hyacinths, they have lots of healthy roots growing already. It's my first time to force bulbs.


I found L. formosanum sending up a new growth after a couple of months dormancy. I grew this lily from seed, hope it will bloom for me next year.

Happy holidays!

11 comments:

Autumn Belle said...

You are a bulb saviour and can weave magic into bulbs. I'd like to wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011!

Anonymous said...

You are bulbing busy!

Lily said...

Autumnbelle,

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to you also. Thank you for stopping by.

GWGT,

Yes I am! And I am not done yet. I ran out of thawed potting soil. Happy New Year to you!

Muhammad khabbab said...

Just amazing. I love flowering bulbs and half of my website is dedicated to planting flowering bulbs :)

p3chandan said...

Wow a whole lot of bulbs there, cant wait to see them bloom in spring! Keep us posted when they do..Happy holidays, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you!

Lily said...

Muhammad,

I too love them. This year I've added lot of spring flowering bulbs in my garden. Thank you for stopping by and will visit your garden soon.

Lily said...

P3chandan,

I will definitely keep everybody posted when these bulbs bloom. Have a wonderful and prosperous New Year!

tina said...

That's a lot of bulbs! They will be fun planting!

Lily said...

Tina,

I had fun planting the bulbs specially the Lycoris radiata. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful New Year!

Andrea said...

Hi Lily, Happy New Year and more blessings for you! It is much easier for us here in the tropics as we dont need to dig our bulbs for storage as we dont have winter. They just stay on the ground during the dry season, without leaves, and come rainy season they will sprout flowers ahead of the leaves, so it is a very specttacular sight. I have lots of orange amaryllis in the yard, perennially there since i was born, haha.

Lily said...

Hello Andrea,

I don't plant tender bulbs (for my zone) in the ground. I pot them all up which makes it easier for me to transport to my basement rather than planting them in the ground and dig them up come fall. My lilies and other bulbs that are hardy to my zone stay in the ground, no digging required. The amaryllis you are talking about is probably Striatum, which is a species, belongs to the genus Hippeastrum.

Lucky you, you live in the tropics.

Happy new year to you also.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it.

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