[nest] Planting Bulbs in the Springtime (Really!)
It seems like everywhere you go, there are bulbs for sale. Fiery red tulips and snow-white crocuses, sunshine-yellow daffodils and indigo hyacinths: they all scream “Spring is almost here!” to me.
However, if you’re living in an apartment, or you’ve moved in the past year, perhaps you didn’t get those bulbs bought and in the ground last October when you should have. Does this mean you will have to wait another year to enjoy their cheerful colors in your home? No, no, no! If you buy the bulbs you want now, and I do mean NOW, you can still “force” them to sprout and bloom in about three months.
Inducing bulbs to bloom when you want them to, rather than when they normally do, is known as forcing. In late summer, most bulbs are in a dormant stage. As soil temperatures cool, the bulbs begin root growth, which continues until the temperatures become very cold. When spring approaches and the weather starts to warm, shoots appear and are followed by flowering. During all this, the foliage helps store food in the bulbs for the dormant stages of the year. Forcing is simply manipulating this cycle. Here’s how to do it:
- For the first spring, plant your bulbs indoors and transplant them outside after they are done blooming. There is no scientific evidence for this, just my own experiences. I’ve had some luck getting crocuses and irises to bloom outside after being “forced”, but not much luck with any other bulbs. The following spring, however, they’ve done just fine.
- For indoor planting, any container will work. The size depends on the number of bulbs you plan on put into it; use your common sense and don’t try to put six bulbs into a small windowsill pot, or one lonely bulb into a 4-foot-high planter. The best soil mix for forcing bulbs contains equal parts of soil, spaghnum moss, and perlite or vermiculite. Ordinary potting soil retains too much moisture to be optimal for bulbs, but “soil-less” potting mixes work just fine.
- When it’s time to plant them outside in the fall, choose areas of your yard that drain well. Planting bulbs directly under the downspout for your gutter won’t give you the cluster of color you’re aiming for. They only need a light covering on top of the bulb, and some need no soil on top at all. Do some research of your own on the specific bulbs you’re planting.
- Now it’s time to “force” the bulbs. That means keeping them cold for about 14 weeks. If you have a garage, put the pots there and ignore them until the time is up. Now that we are getting fewer and fewer nights of hard freeze, you can put the pots on an apartment terrace. I did this one year, but I put them in cheap Styrofoam coolers to help protect them from frost and put straw around the sides and across the top of the pots to help insulate them. Of course, if there is an unseasonably warm day, you’ll be risking the bulbs trying to sprout too soon. If you’re cramped on space, try putting the bulbs in a brown paper bag and placing them in the fridge BEFORE you plant them. If you do this, put them where where they are unlikely to get anything spilled on them (wet is bad). Give them 14 weeks in the fridge, then pull them out and plant them.
- If you’ve bought or received some tulips in a pot, don’t try to plant them outside until after the ground warms up, sometime in late April or early May. To increase their longevity, keep them somewhere in your home that gets cool at night, such as near a window. Around 60 degrees is ideal, but I don’t think anyone sets their thermostat quite that low! Avoid placing them in direct sunlight, and water them only often enough to keep the soil moist but not wet. Standing water, as I mentioned before, causes problems with bulbs.
For the record, my “go to” guy for gardening is Paul James. I love him because he’s in Tulsa, so he’s familiar with our climate. Also, he’s a little wacky, and that works for me. I also rely heavily on the K-State and Sedgwick County Extension office websites for information, and they’ve never steered me wrong.
If you have any other tips on planting or caring for bulbs, or if you have a website or book on the subject you’d like to recommend, let us know!
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