Gardening with Gary




Gardening Advice from an Expert

Spring Bulbs

You can recycle your spring bulbs which have been forced for bloom in the winter, usually purchased from a florist.

But, you must maintain the green foliage for as long as possible. Cut off the dead flower stems and yellow or brown leaves, and place in a window with strong morning light. Water well when dry, with a saucer underneath, and empty the saucer after 1/2 hour. Give the plant a general house plant fertilizer as directed on the label, every two weeks.

In the warm spring, you can plant right into your 'bright shade' garden beds and allow to grow as long as they like. You may need to stake tall leaves carefully. Keep watered and fed well. This is done to provide food to the underground bulb or tuber for next year's flowers.

They will need a cold period to initiate buds, so it is best to leave them in the ground until next spring, when they will again come up and bloom.


Dividing Spring Bulbs:

Q. I know iris get divided in July but when do you plant them again? Also, I'd like to know when tulips, gladiolus, grape hyacinths, daffodils get divided and then replanted.

A. All your spring-flowering bulbs are to be dug up after they have stopped blooming completely. They are divided and replanted with the foliage intact right then. There is no advantage to having them out of the soil for dormancy. They can go back into the soil beds and develop roots for the next spring's growth.

By keeping the foliage green and fresh, you are building up the food in the bulb, so that you will have more flowers next spring. By dividing them, not necessarily every year, you give the plants more room to grow and not crowd together as the bulbs [or iris rhizomes] split into large and small ones.

Glads are a summer-flowering corms and are treated differently, as are dahlia tubers. They are planted now as the soil is workable and grow and bloom all summer. In the fall, the foliage blades brown and die. You then cut off the foliage and dig the corms up. Place them in a cool, dry, dark spot until next spring.



Q. My spring bulbs have bloomed less and less over the past years. Why?

A. You did not say, but I trust that you get cold weather where you live, so that the bulbs are getting the needed cold root temperatures all winter long. Otherwise, they will not bloom. Cold periods initiate blooms inside the bulbs.

Another reason is the age and planting depth of the bulbs. If you have had them several years, the blossom count will drop each year until you will see hardly any flowers. You need to keep adding new vigorous bulbs to your beds, mixing them right in with the older ones. That way, as the older ones stop blooming and die off, you will keep having new ones there to take their place.

Planting depth is important. If they have bloomed for you and just stopped blooming, then the depth is not a problem. If you have planted new bulbs and they never bloomed, it could be that you planted the bulbs too deep [I like "].

Feeding is essential. Are you giving them anything? Bonemeal helps bulbs make food for storing in the bulbs and the production of next season's flowers. Use a general fertilizer throughout the summer, applying once every two weeks, until the foliage dies down. Then, once a month is fine. Bulbs with insufficient food will produce few or no flowers.



Mrs. White writes~
I bought 20 spring bulbs late Nov. and meant to plant them, but never got around to it. Can I plant them now so that they will come up this Spring? I live in Louisville, KY.

A. This is getting really late now! [late January]. Can you dig into the soil beds? Many spots the winter has frozen the soil, so you must wait until spring, unless you have Tarzan-like muscles.

Since these bulbs are newly purchased, they have undergone cold treatment and therefore will bloom in the spring. Plant them in well-drained, spaded beds as soon as you can dig into them. If you time it right, you just may be able to get at least some of them rooted in time to send up their spring flowers. Good luck, but in the future, try to plant all your spring-flowering bulbs in October, or November at the latest in KY.



Nancy writes~ When is the best time to separate and replant spring bulbs? Is there any special knowledge that I'll need to do so? What happens to their appearance? Are they smaller after separating the bulbs? How often should they be separated?

A. Yes, your tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths, etc., need separating and the time is the Fall. Certain bulbs need dividing or separating in order to maintain a healthy, flowering stand. Crowded bulbs are less likely to produce a high quantity and quality flowers. When flower number and size starts to diminish, consider separating the bulbs and replant. Separating these bulbs will increase, not decrease the amount and size of the flowers!

Bulbs planted at recommended depths initially require less dividing and resetting.

Spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, tulips and hyacinths should be divided in September or October. Granted, it is difficult to determine the location of the bulbs without staking or mapping them out previously. Care should be taken when digging to prevent damage to bulbs. It usually is easier to dig a large area and separate bulbs then trying to dig individual bulbs separately.

If bulbs are planted among trees, shrubs or perennials consider replacing the bulbs every three to five years instead of separating. This minimizes damage to the root system of the nearby plants.

Note though that summer flowering bulbs can be divided in early April or late fall. Some bulbs, including Surprise Lilies (Lycoris) may not appear to need dividing. However, plants will produce more flowers if divided.

When dividing or separating bulbs, carefully remove side bulbs from the main bulb. Replant all bulbs at correct spacing. The following provides a guideline for dividing bulbs.

Tulips - 3 - 5 years to divide
Daffodils - 3 - 6 years to divide
Hyacinths - 2 - 3 years to divide
Lilies - 4 - 6 years to divide
Surprise Lily (lycoris) - 3 - 5 years to divide
Iris (Bulbous types) - 3 - 6 years to divide
Alliums - 4 - 8 years to divide
Crocus - division seldom needed
Grape Hyacinths (muscari) - division seldom needed

Copyright 1995 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.



Q. I live in zone 6 and was wondering what bulbs I can plant that will bloom in very early spring.

A. These are right up at the top for me for pleasure and color. I especially love them since they signal the start of spring and the end of winter, not my favorite season...memories of Ohio and Michigan!

I have a nice website listed below where you can go look at small pictures of each of these flowering bulbs.

Daffodils
Tulips
Hyacinths
Crocuses
Lilies of the Valley
ScillasAnemones
Snowdrops
Dwarf Irises
Muscari

http://www.theplantexpert.com/springbulbs/BulbList.html

Well-known spring flowering bulbs are Tulips, Daffodils, Crocuses, Hyacinths and Alliums. Spring flowering bulbs have in common that they need to be planted some 3–4 weeks before the frost is in the ground. They need the cold season to start their biological clock. Hence in general spring flowering bulbs will grow in climate zones 4-8.

Also, go to my website and click on Spring Bulbs:

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/gardengary/gg.html

Kay writes~
I live in San Antonio, TX and wondered when I need to plant bulbs for Spring. Is it too late?

A. Checked with a Texas source for you: When best plans fail and you still haven't planted your bulbs by early winter, the answer is - just plant the bulbs as soon as you can, even if you have to chip into the ground. Bulbs are not dormant, they're alive - and they wont last much longer if left unplanted. If you can get them into the ground (either in pots or in the garden), chances are good that they'll grow. If you donut plant them soon, you may as well toss them out. Bulbs that get less than 10 to 14 weeks (depending on their type) of sustained cold temperatures still come up but may be shorter than usual. If they are types or varieties that perennialize or naturalize, they'll come back normally in future years if their foliage is left to die back after bloom in spring. Expert gardeners have one more late season trick up their sleeve: they pot up unplanted bulbs for indoor forcing, or as container plants. With containers, you have the advantage of being able to control the initial soil temperature by adding your own soil. Choose the light potting soil mixes sold at all garden retailers. Move small containers to an unheated garage or other cool, yet protected place. In spring, use the potted bulbs as accent plants or bring them indoors. Remember these are last ditch measures. Once the time for fall planting has arrived in your area, the sooner bulbs are safely in the ground, the better.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension