Tulips and wood hyacinths popping up out of the ground!
3 years ago
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unplanted hyacinths, tulips
Comments (8)They WILL NOT survive till next year but if you plant them now they will most likely bloom... or at least look weak for a year but have a chance to come back strong the year after that. If you leave them out of the ground, they will definitely die. Unlike seeds, bulbs are not truly on pause and have living cells that slowly use up the stored energy. Think of seeds like a solar-powered calculator - truly in suspended animation, waiting for you to press "on" at which case they wake up and begin working; if stored in perfect conditions they can last hundreds of years. Bulbs, on the other hand, are like an unplugged laptop with the screensaver on - the energy drains slowly, but inside the cells are still active (developing the embryo of next year's leaves and flowers) and still need to have a big energy reserve to come back on at all....See MoreFertilizer for tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils?
Comments (17)I compost, but due to allergies to molds, can't do the turning, etc that dedicated hot composters do. I do just what Floral does - dump garden debris that isn't diseased and kitchen scraps onto the pile which is neatly contained by a fence. After a couple of years, I pull out the finished compost and spread it with no issues as the molds aren't active by then - literally no other work involved. For us, it's far less work than hauling to the town transfer station and enriches soil in a way that doesn't create issues with excess nutrients in ground water and surface water in the way that water soluble fertilizers can since the organic matter in compost will hold onto nutrients until used by the plants. In many parts of the US much of the water pollution is from non-point sources such as overuse of fertilizers by agriculture and homeowners. Unless a soil test tells you that nutrients are lacking in your soil or you are planting in pots, adding fertilizers will be worse than useless since in many soils, the excess nutrients wash into either into the groundwater or into the storm sewers and from there into the nearest body of water. I think here in the US companies like Scotts have miseducated us to think that plants won't do well without fertilizer, but IME gardening in two different states and 5 gardens over more than 40 years, I've rarely used fertilizers, just compost and shredded wood mulch. I do use lime or ashes in my current acidic soil to raise the pH for veggies, but that isn't fertilizer. Posie is right on the money as far as why to use mulch....See MoreSo, this popped up on Munstead Wood...
Comments (8)Hi amelie325: A few questions to help solve the problem: 1) Is yours own-root? Own-root have chlorosis esp. in alkaline soil or water. My W.S. 2000 have leaves like that for 2 years, despite lots of sulfur, plus horse manure (high in iron and other traces elements). Finally this 3rd year, I put cocoa mulch NPK 3-1-4, more trace elements, and WS 2000 greened up with a jump in growth. We had a rain early summer, pH of rain is 5.6, versus my hard well-water at pH 8, and alkaline soil. Fish-tank litmus paper sold for $5 at Walmart is used to test the pH of water, but there's a cheaper & faster way which I wrote for the English Roses Forum, see below. If your tap water is tested alkaline (or blue in red-cabbage juice), one tablespoon of vinegar per 1 gallon of water will bring pH above 7.5, down to 6.5, which roses prefer. 2) How's the drainage in your pot or in your soil? When I first bought Mirandy as own-root band, leaves were white/yellow. I put tons of nitrogen (blood meal, soluble fertilizer, etc.), it didn't green up. Finally I drilled holes at the sides of my pot, and that solve the problem. Plants can turn yellow when the soil is too wet, due to poor-drainage heavy clay, or pots' holes which are plugged up. Deep Purple is another example: Last year the leaves were dark-green, this year the leaves are yellowish. I dug that up and found alfafa-meal gunked up with my clay into concrete. Both University of Mass, and University of Kentucky documented yellowing (chlorosis) in plants fertilized with alfalfa pellets. They gunk up, blocking oxygen to plants. For in-ground plants, eHow stated "Soil microbes control the daily supply of nutrients, and in extreme cold or hot conditions, or if the soil is waterlogged, microbes slow down, which slows down nitrogen release. This causes the gardener to think there is a nitrogen deficiency" 3) If the drainage of your pot is excellent, then it's a nitrogen and trace-elements deficiency from leaching out of pots due to too much watering. I grow roses from seeds in pots, we had constant rain this year, with blooms turned from dark-pink to light pink. I gave it MiracleGro soluble fertilizer with trace elements. Last year I used MiracleGro soluble for Roses, NPK 18-24-16, the high nitrogen/salt really hurt in our drought and heat above 100 degrees. This year I switched to MiracleGro NPK 10-52-10, less nitrogen, less salt, but higher in iron, plus Boron trace element (most deficient in alkaline condition) .... I was able to revert the blooms from light pink to dark pink. Best wishes to your Munstead Wood. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheapest way to test soil pH using red cabbage...See MoreTulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, Fritillarias, Muscari, Alliums
Comments (18)Had to respond to this. My bulbs just arrived from Holland today-earlier than usual. Being married to a Dutch DH, of course we grow bulbs: mostly tulips-lily, fringed, Rembrandt, Darwin, doubles, the new giant, etc. I think my favorite is the plain ol' Darwin. We plant 300+ fancy and Darwins in the "Welcome Garden" every year in clumps of 10. They come in packs of 10 directly fron Holland. Every year, we order them at the Tulip Festival in Orange City, IA. Yes, the fancy ones, in fact most tulips are annuals now. I would like to find some of the old fashioned perennials, I suppose they may be species tulips. Has anyone found good species or pernnial bulbs anyplace? We grew 'King Alfred' daffys, but quit planting them, cuz we always miss their bloom, since we snowbird. We had a lot of clumps, but I don't even know if they still bloom. I lined the front beds with grape hyacinths (Muscari). I had to replace a bunch every year and finally decided they just don't do well enough here. My border always had holes in it, so I just let them die out. Alliums are a different story and if I get the right cultivar they are wonderful and winter hardy.I love doing paperwhites & amaryllis in the winter and seeing the little scilla early in the spring. I enjoy the neighbor's crocus, but have no success with it here. gramma jan...See More
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoKathsgrdn thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10- 3 years ago
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoKathsgrdn thanked raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio- 3 years ago
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