A friend bought too many tulip, daffodil, hyacinth, etc, bulbs last fall and never got them planted. They have been stored in the basement and are beginning to sprout.
Solution?
Can we plant them in potting soil and expect them to bloom this spring?
If we let the plants do their thing, can we dig them up and relocate them to the garden and expect then to give us many more years of growth and beauty?
This is not exactly like forcing bulbs. There must be a way to salvage them before considering the composter.
Yes, plant them about 4-5 inches in the pots of potting soil and put the pots outside in a sunny spot to finish up the winter. You can even put mulch around the pots and on top if you want to. The emerging shoots will be fine.
The tulips will bloom again next year if you give them a little bulb food and when you plant them in the ground, mix in some small pea gravel. Good drainage is important for tulips. You didn't say where you are, but here in the southeast, not all tulips return after the third year. But with the huge variety of bulbs available now, a lot of them do. Once they bloom in the pots, clip off the blossoms, leave the leaves alone, and plug the soil and bulbs and all into places in your garden, planting them two inches deeper in the ground than in the pots. Next year they will return at the proper time. Come fall, sprinkle a little bulb food where you have them planted and it will feed them and ready them for next spring.
Do the above, you'll have neat flowers to enjoy, and once you plant them, let them do their cycle where they die back by summer and you'll be pleasantly surprised when they pop back up next spring at the right time. Mark the spot so you'll know where they are come fall when you give them granulated bulb food, though. It helps.
madgardener whose done that very thing with her extra bulbs and is what I'm doing with the extra's I planted in those three window boxes a few weeks ago. I can't wait'! and after they're done, I will have these 36 inch plugs of all sorts of bulbs to tuck into spots
ok, you don't have to mix any pebbles in with your tulips. You have sandy, glacial soil right? Well tulips have been bred in Holland, despite that they originally came from Turkey. It's been so long since tulips hailed from Turkey, they wouldn't know how to act if we replicated the conditions. But getting past all that...............you have sandy soil. Throw in some bulb food when you plant those plugs, and mark the spots so you can find them in the fall and sprinkle some more bulb food over those areas again adn you'll have better luck at your tulips than I do here in Eastern Tennessee where I plant mine in raised soil above the red clay............. madgardener, zone 7, Sunset zone 36, East Tennessee (I love cheese, a LOT )
I got a bowl full of bulbs and going to do the same thing. no excuse I didnt get em in the ground, we had nice warm fall but I am running out of room for bulbs outside. sigh. Ingrid (also in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, getting another cold blast)
C wrote:
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make.
Just finished some 12-yr old cheddar. Exquisite. It did not even come close to some 28-yr old cheddar I had in the early 80's. That taste was beyond description, a once-in-a-lifetime tastebud thrill. Grocery store variety of aged cheddar is usually 4 years. I think there are laws against molesting 4-yr olds cheese, at least there should be.
For the most part, yes. Developers tend to scrape away the good soil, build ugly structures and then put back just enough marginal soil back to cover their messes and to support grass.
Most Wisconsin gardeners in these parts spend their days reclaiming the land and rebuilding the soil to where it again can sustain life. The challenge is even greater when the development is on an old tired cornfield.
don't panic, go out to the shed and retrieve those bulbs and gently mash them a little. If they're soft, but still kinda firm, plant them anyway in pots of soil and put them outside to finish up the winter. If they're moldy, toss them. You could bring one in the house to thaw and cut it in half to see if there is a green center. If there is, you've pushed the envelope and can plant them in soil now for a late bloom. I've done this several times. Some survive, others didn't. It's just something we have to deal with. Better to plant them in pots of soil and see if they emerge than in the ground unless your's isn't frozen. Which I suspect it is. Yes, bring them indoors and pot them up. Let me know how they do or don't come spring. madgardener who has lost lots of bulbs over the last 20 years..........
Darn it, Marilyn, you need Barb to nag you into getting those bulbs you bought planted! Send me a note the next time you purchase fall/spring bulbs, and I'll put you on her nag line. I guarantee that you'll get them in the ground. It hasn't failed for me.
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