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!