What has been your experience with forcing Erlicheer daff?

Is there a way to edit subjects? No? Oh horsepuckies! (Or is it horsepuckys?)

Ok, in my last posts (thankfully ignored) I first confessed to having trouble growing paperwhites (Erlicheer and Inbal) over water & pebbles-SOME YEARS, thus qualifying me as an idiot with a bizarro thumb. Then I edited that and wrote a new post, with a subject that was both misspelled and unintelligible, confirming the idiot factor. I couldn't edit the subject, so maybe third time is the charm.

As to growing over water- I just gave up for this year, potted up the bunch of them (in potting medium). Some years are like that. (Some posts are like that too-if I write them. At 2:30 am.)

Once in dirt, the Inbal bulbs grew roots and blossomed. The Erlicheer sat.

Now I have grown Erlicheer as paperwhites for 20 years. Longer than I have grown anything for the holidays-Even Amaryllis, which I grow every holiday season and beyond. I have to do something to endure the Idaho winters. Usually the bulbs get potted up, spend time in my finished but unheated basement first in a dark bathroom, then on to a basement window, finally upstairs in south windowsill. The process takes longer than regular paperwhites, but usually only by 2-3 weeks.

I don't always get the Erlicheer to root and grow in pebbles/whatever over water, but I ALWAYS get them to bloom. Until this year. In the past I've purchased the erlicheer daffs from Touch of Nature, Bluestone, and Brent & Becky's. more than once. And from a few places I don't remember the names of.
This year I got them from a new vendor-all 40 or 50 of them. This vendor has good reviews here (DG's Garden Watch Dog) and I've had some limited experinece with them this mail order company was ok, so when I saw a sale, I went for it. Keep in mind I also bought, potted and gave away (bud scapes popping on all I gave away-even most of the Amaryllis held over from other years)-30 to 50 amaryllis mini& regular. So it hasn't been a truly brown thumb winter.

Upon noticing that ONLY the Erlicheer were not blooming I emailed the vendor, then called. Twice. Got voicemail. Left messages. No phone calls, no email. Finally, late that night I saw an email message. There was an apology for not getting back to me, then the following statement.:

"The Erlicheer are gorgeous daffodils, but not a variety I would
recommend for forcing. They should be planted outdoors to bloom in the
early spring. If you do want to force them indoors, they should be stored
MUCH colder than the 50 degrees, but not in a refrigerator with ripening
produce. Either in a dedicated fridge, or outdoors if you have very cold
weather. They should be chilled for many weeks before being brought
straight inside for forcing.

But I really think they are best planted outdoors."

Huh? Best planted OUTDOORS?
I had not only just told them what my experience has been, but I have seen Erlichher have seen Erlicheer everywhere touted from as being "as easy to force as a paper white" (or and classified and sold as ONE of the paperwhites), or as summer daffodil for people for who forget to plant last fall or had no fall/winter to plant daffodils in; to a daffodil needing a lot more cold & time at the other end of the spectrum. But almost all suggest it eventually bemoved "toi a sunny window sill," and nobody else suggests that it is "best planted outside." A few even have it as hardy only to zone 6, which would make it a non-starter everywhere for me here in zone 5a. Brent and Becky's "Daffodils for North American Gardens" lists it as one of hte best Daffodils to force on page 87.

And I HAVE forced it to flower indoors many many times. For 20 years. And so I had just told the vendor.

I don't think I am the only one. AM I
PS Just for the heck of it, I tried a couple Bridal Crown bulbs (from Brent & Becky's) over colored marbles a while back. They are growing flower stalks!.

This message was edited Feb 15, 2010 12:02 PM

Forced them in soil without a problem several times.

I thought there had to be one of you who would confess to have at least successfully forced these. But then I thought I had successfully edited this earlier today in the name of clarity...

I just talked to Aaron at Edensbloom in Arizona - http://www.edensblooms.com/
in Arizona. He sells Erlicheer BECAUSE it doesn't need a lot of chill time. (In case you aren't sure, there isn't much chill in that part of Arizona, nor does it sound like he treats them with something. He tsaid maybe the other dealer was confused, and thought because these are hardy, they also NEED cold. I told him, no, their Erlicheer really does need chilling and I thought the daffodils were really a different strain of the bulb.

Some bulb companies sell this bulb in the spring as the "Summer Daffodil"-because you can plant it for blooms in July even if you didn't get any daffodils planted last fall, or thought you couldn't because it doesn't get cold enough where you live.. They use the alternate spelling- Earlycheer, and are very expensive; but it's the same bulb. That's the strain I am used to.

The first company (I'm going to write a negative comment in DG before I their name ) claims to have 'the biggest bulbs commercially available" and I must say I was very impressed when they first arrived. They are really fat-so fat they look like hyacinths, not daffs. Since size is determined by diameter, I think they may have bred their own strain of Erlicheer, and lost the gene that is makes the bulb aeven good forcer, let alone a paperwhite or Summer daffodil.
I blame myself for not sticking with what I knew worked-like I've been saying, I've been growing this successfully for most of the past 20 years as a paperwhite! I've used plenty of bulbs from companies who do not tout this as something you can do with this bulb. Bluestone, Touch of Nature, Brent & Becky's are just three that come to mind. Although Brent and Becky's has suggested something like it in the past. I will go back to one or two of them next year-or maybe to Edens blooms.



This message was edited Feb 21, 2010 3:53 PM

This message was edited Feb 21, 2010 8:33 PM

Don't be shy. Who's the vendor you spoke with first, the same, I'm supposing, that you ordered them from?

Ok, I did in the end have great success with these bulbs in 2010, I just never posted about it.

I took each of the non blooming containers of Erlicheer, and put them down in the big windows in my unheated basement. I didn't do this all at once, paid no attention to the calender so have no idea how long it took, but I would guess by the end of March, middle of April the show was finished. So it didn't take too long. Every single Erlicheer bulb in every container bloomed. Some popped up stalks incredibly quickly. Some I hadn't even planted by the time I first posted. The flowers produced were late, but big and, as always, beautiful to look at with a fabulous scent.

While I haven't started bulbs in the basement consistently in past years, I generally did-not because they seemed to need cold, but because with all the Amaryllis I grow, I was out of windows. Bulbs are stored either with protection in my unheated garage or in my basement, unheated except 2 bedrooms and a bath when my boys were growing up, or now, when I have company- usually those same sons. But two of the windows are in the bedrooms. I did grow Erlicheer in the years the boys were growing up. And the Erlicheer usually are stored in the basement with the Amaryllis. I do usually pot the Erlicheer in the second half of my fall planting. So IT DOES generally get some chilling-but nothing like the 10 weeks one article on forcing Erlicheer suggested.

I will, once again, grow Erlicheer sort of like a paper white.I think I am even going to buy my bulbs from the same vendor. They seem to have the best price, and they do have the biggest bulbs! The flowers they produced were also very big, even if rather late.

Still not going to tell us who the vendor is?