Bulbs: Are your daffs and crocus starting to show green? (Part II), 1 by SteveIndy

SteveIndy wrote:
Hi beaker, my first lilies will bloom in April. May and June are the biggest lily months for me. Some go into July but even then it's the last Orientals. I had one lily - Black Beauty - bloom just into August - well if you don't include my Formosa lily which did bloom in August. The picture below is from last year but I got these Easter-lily looking things from Brent and Bcky several years ago and they keep getting better every year. Sometimes some of the Asiatics will bloom in April but most wait till May. I have about a dozen lily sprouts sticking out right now which I'll have to cover tonight since we're getting a hard freeze and maybe an ice storm.

Thanks Wallaby - you're right, hyacinths ARE expensive. I tend to like the bigger bulbs though - 16/17 cm at least, and 18/19 if I can get them - since they produce bigger flowers and seem to come back stronger in subsequent years. Van Engelen used to let you pick the size you wanted - but now you can only get the largest ones in their forcing collections and otherwise the standard is 16/17, which is still OK. Tulip World went down to 15/16 as standard and so I do not buy from them anymore. I found a new site, however, that seems to have fantastic hyacinth bulbs and offers them in three sizes - Wooden Shoe bulb farm. I will be ordering from them in the future. I love a lot of the specialty bulbs that Old House Gardens offers as well and I love their operation - quality ids great and service is top notch - but they are not cheap either. You should try any of the pinks with Woodstock - Fondant is a solid frosting-color and Pink Pearl is a little paler.

Thanks for the comments on the Iris reticulatas - I have never grown them but they're always so bright and seem to come up so early!

This message was edited Feb 17, 2006 5:55 PM