Mid-Atlantic Gardening: DO YOU HAVE SOME SIGNS OF SPRING 2013?, 2 by JBerger

JBerger wrote:
[quote="UMD_Terp"]JB-

I would love to see pictures of Daff field. How often do you dig and divide the bulbs? It is my understanding that it should be done every 5 years to maximize blooms.
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There is not much to look at. Twelve rows are there, but it looks like we lost hundreds of bulbs since last year. We do not dig and divide. I actually started this with a few hundred of the very different pinks, and other hybrids. There were over 3000 bulbs planted over the years. I lost many of the hybrids(Brecks) except for a few that I will show you later in the year as they bloom.

The cheaper bulbs (all Brecks) seem to thrive and multiply, naturalization I guess they call it. I had them all listed at one time and the same year I lost all the tags to the Iris, the daffy tags went also. That was the stupid blizzard we had a few years ago. I did at one time wholesale them but last year they bloomed before the market opened for the season so I ended up with a stand at the entrance to the farm. It works that way even better than wholesale. I can cut and sell when I please this way. We always had a farm stand anyhow so people look for our flowers. Only daffs now. No more glads or sunflower or the others. Since the kids are both working for the State of NJ there is no one here to help me in the fields so we gave up selling most of those that took so much work. Daffs just come and go without any help and that is good for us. We are not adding anymore rows this year. The right side of the twelve rows will be our new bird area. We want to plant shrubs there instead of veggies. Shrubs that attract birds and butterflies. Hoping we get it done this Spring but not sure if we will. The garden on the left of the rows are pussy willow, iris, lilac, tulips and some other bulbs, holly trees I propagated from cuttings, peony bushes...just a bunch of "stuff" I would stick in to hold until I sold it and that is what did not sell or what we decided to keep. I used to call it my holding bed. Now it is just a bed. LOL.

See what happens when you ask me a simple question....you get a darn book as an answer. Sorry. JB