Good morning, and it's a miracle! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Well, actually a couple of miracles.
First, I managed to get every single fucking spring bulb into the ground! Denver had a string of lovely days, with highs creeping into the 70s on Wednesday and Thursday. Starting last weekend, I took my trusty drills and bulb augers out to the front yard, and started drilling holes and plugging them with bulbs. On Wednesday I put in a big push, and, after mowing the lawn, spent the time between the morning warm-up and the afternoon cool-down putting hundreds (yes, that's right, hundreds of beauties out. By day's end, everything but a few dozen crocuses for the back lawn patch were planted.
The second miracle? As I was planting daffodils in front of the front porch, I discovered that somewhere, very late in the season, the passionflower vine I thought was gone had undergone resurrection. And I also discovered a volunteer passionflower.
On Thursday, I got off work a couple of hours early, and was able to get the crocus into the lawn — and also solved the mystery of why unplanted bulbs appeared in the front yard as I was finishing up covering the holes.
When I plant bulbs with the augers, I generally drill a hole, drop in a bulb, then leave it uncovered so I can keep track of where I've already planted. But on Wednesday, when I went around to re-fill the holes, I found several bulbs laying out on the ground. I figured I had just dropped them in my haste to be finished.
On Thursday I was following the same pattern and, as is usual, Zasu Pitts Pootie was being my gardening buddy. And then I noticed her crouching down, and trying to poke her very large paws down in the crocus holes. She was frustrated because I'd used the small auger and her paws wouldn't fit — unlike the large auger holes in the front yard where she could reach down and pull out what was in the bottom of the holes.
Doh!
But the job was finished, and just in time: cold and snow came in Friday afternoon and will continue through the weekend. Which gives me a chance to fart around with getting the indoor bulbs going. My technique keeps developing as I ferret out more information and try new tricks — but you can look back at previous editions: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4.
One thing that has changed since that first year is that I no longer use soil at all for forcing bulbs. In containers I rely exclusively on water absorbing granules and colored glass gems as the "planting" mixture. I like this brand of granules, rather than the larger crystals, because they absorb water much, much faster — they'll be fully saturated in a few minutes, rather than the several hours it takes for crystals.
I've also discovered that if I leave the gel thick enough, I can skip the glass gems and just set the bulbs on top; it's quite stunning to fill a narrow cylindrical glass vase 3/4 of the way up with gel and set a single bulb on top to bloom inside the cylinder. However, the gel does not work at all in forcing glasses — the roots of the bulbs never develop. (As a side note, I've been scoping out forcing glasses on e-bay and have discovered (1) that I can get nice, vintage glasses at quite reasonable prices, (2) the Brits are totally nuts about mid-19th century forcing glasses, with their starting prices being much higher than American ones, and then going to the stratosphere — one that looked very intriguing sold for over $300!)
The twist I'm going to try this year is "planting" the bulbs in gel only — burying a few up to the crown in gel. I'm theorizing that the saturated gel will act as damp potting soil — then again, the bulbs might just rot as if they were sitting in a container of plain water. I want to try this because I'm thinking that if I set the bulbs in gel, then surround them to the crown with gems, the gems will help hold them upright — keeping the blossoms upright can be a struggle.
One method I tried successfully last year was tracking down and purchasing clear floral tape to make a grid across the top of the containers. If you can't get hold of floral tape, 1/2" transparent tape (the really cheap stuff) also works.
Another twist I'm trying this year is that I've found several sources that recommend soaking the bulbs in water overnight at room temperature before setting them in the forcing medium, whatever it is. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning — perhaps that it starts the rooting process better, or softens the top so that the leaves can emerge more easily? I have found that when I first put up the bulbs, whether in gel or forcing glasses, it helps to leave them at room temperature for a day or two to jump start rooting — I put them back in cold storage after I first see the little rootlets start emerging. I soaked a batch the other night, and noticed that on a couple of bulbs the rootlets had started emerging.
Of course, the soaking softens the papery outer-layer of the bulbs, so now I need to figure out if I should leave it there, or take it off — it peels off quite easily when wet. I'm taking it off of a few of the bulbs to see what happens.
I bypassed buying any white or yellow hyacinth this year for forcing: they've always been problematic for me. They tend to root slower, bloom later, and require weeks longer refrigerator time to develop long enough stems. Instead, I bought bags of Blue Jacket, Sky Jacket, Delft Blue, Pink Pearl and Fondant specifically for forcing (although I planted a few of each outside). I also ordered a bag of Purple Voice, the majority of which I planted outside, but I saved a few for forcing. I forgot to order Jan Bos — it's very good for forcing, blooming very quickly. However, last year I found that Delft Blue and Fondant also bloom easily and early, making them perfect for holiday gift giving.
So today I'll be mucking about inside — serene in the knowledge that the outside bulbs are planted and being well watered-in and cooled by the falling snow, and getting the inside bulbs on the way to brightening the dull days after the solstice.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?