Last fall I tried a new method of preparing bulbs in containers. I bought a large selection from Brent and Becky and proceeded to pot them up in containers and then store them for the freeze. This is what they look like right now. Sprouts are up and I am encouraged.
This has been the second hard winter in a row for Tennessee. In mid January I went out to check on these pots and they were frozen solid on top. I couldn't stick my finger in far enough to determine how deep it was. But now, here you can see the daffodil shoots coming up.
This is a single tulip well under way in the middle of a container. I hope it will make a photo opportunity. As you can see, I have packed these containers in leaf mulch. I used a bagger on my mower last fall to pick up the leaves, and I put some of them to work to encase my bulb containers in a layer of insulation. I didn't know if it would be enough. I could have buried them outright, but I didn't. I just packed the leaves around them up to the brim.
Fourteen days have passed since the last pictures. Every pot has shoots up now.
And some blossoms are beginning to appear. I think its time to remove these containers from the leaves they are packed in.
Here are my containers all cleaned off and set out to bloom. Everything looks good. I cannot identify any bulbs that were lost to freezing.
Here is the first container to show a collection of blossoms. It is primarily Tete-a-Tete with some grape hyacinths in the lower level.
Here is the second pot with early blossoms. This one is showing Tete-aTete, daffodil Rapture, and more grape hyacinths.
Finally some blue to go with the intense yellow. Here are some Delft Blue hyacinths, Wisley daffodils, and Anemone Blanda on the bottom. It is a good, strong combination. I chose the bloom times of these with information from the Brent and Becky catalog.
And finally here is a collection of daffodils in one pot with three Wisley and one Rapture blooming at the same time. I am watering these containers daily and keeping them where they see about half a day of sunlight.
What a great idea! Could one use the black pots that you buy mums or azeleas in and use them? Do you shred your own leaves or get them from a city or country source? I have a gardening friend that mulches heavily with shredded leaves. All her neighbors know to call her when they have bags of leaves for her or she goes and gathers them up before the recyle truck comes. She uses shredded leaves instead of buying bags of mulch. Her flower beds are beautiful!
Nice blooms Cibarius, are you planning on planting the bulbs in the yard once they're done blooning, or leaving them in the pots?
Hi Pippi,
Here is a picture of my second container and tulip Merry Christmas has appeared near the center. It is going to add a strong element of red to the combination. I use commercial planting pots and the black pots that shrubs come in. However, this year I have come to appreciate the curved edge at top that provides a hand-hold, and if I had a pot any larger than this, I would have trouble lifting it. I have to lift them over and over to position them for watering and for photography. A pot that is 18 inches across the top and 13 inches deep, as these are, is as big as I want to struggle with. I got the leaves from my yard, and I gathered them with a bagging attachment on my riding mower. Its a great source of material for mulching and for composting. Even after insulating bulb containers through the winter, the leaves are still available for other uses in the warm season.
Thanks for responding Annette,
Normally I do not try to transplant container bulbs into the garden. But it depends on how much I need to add them to the landscape. I have potted these with good soil. They could spend the entire growing season in the pots and do reasonably well. Or I could move them out of the pots and into the ground as soon as their blooming is finished. The most important thing is to let the foilage go through its growing cycle to maturity and to deadhead the seed pods. When I am putting together a container full of bulbs in the fall, I like to use new, vibrant, commercially produced bulbs that I know will perform at their peak. Here is a picture of my third container that has a very successful blue and yellow combination.
Thanks for the info, I have 9-10 containers planted with daffs, tulips and pansies, and I was wondering if I could leave them in the pots and how they'd do next year if not planted in the ground.
That really sounds like something I'd like to try in the Fall. We have problems with the darn squirrels and chipmunks digging in the flowerbeds..I am wondering if I sprayed or sprinkled Critter Ridder or red pepper over the soil after I planted them, if it would stop the squirrels from digging? I've even considered buying some chicken wire and molding it to the flower pot. I agree that the pots with the rounded rim look much better than the standard pot one buys Azeleas or mums or other shrubs in. Thanks for sharing this idea.
The rounded rim pots came from HD and they are a good size. Living in a container is not ideal for any bulb, but it can work. I had a Henryii lily live in a container for several years - I was ignoring it, until I finally gave it a place in a bulb bed. I will show you a photo of it later this year. It is important to let the foilage of any bulb mature fully and to dead head the flower. Let the container dry out toward the end of summer, and you should have a viable bulb for the next year.
Here is a picture of a group of tulips that is just beginning for me. The red ones are Merry Christmas. The white one is White Magic. And the Rembrandt-type is Grand Perfection from Brent & Becky. This is going to be a good display, but I am surprised by the stunted heights at bloom time!
Pretty tulips Cibarius. I had some that were shorties this year too. Nice color combo. Your Grand Perfection kinda looks like my Portofino, except yours has more red feathering in the bloom. Here's Portofino.
Yes, I noticed the similarity. Mine came up so short! I was surprised by this. I expected them to be towering above the others at 14 inches, according to the catalog. I don't know what happened. Maybe those bulbs got too cold.
Doug
Doug, Here's my Ice Cream tulip that should have been 16-18in, but is only maybe 6-8in. I also planted 50 of them, but I'm seeing less than 20. Now the Portofino above I didn't expect to return from last year, so that's a nice surprise.
It's rainy, damp, and cold here at 41*. So fun to see such pretty flowers. I like the idea of the containers and the combination of colors. I have daffodils and hyacinths blooming outside.
Just got a new catalog today from Brent and Becky..and I'm already highlighted some of my favorites. Also went to used book store at our public library and bought this wonderful hardback book called Gardening with Tulips by Michael King and the original cost of this book was $29.95 and they sold it for $3.50..Looks like it was originally into the library system and hadn't been checked out since June 2008 or 2009 so they pulled it and sent it downstairs to used book store. The colored photos are fantastic, and it give so many ideas of combinations that look good together. That's my reading material for tonight.
Guess I had better take pad and pen to bed with me because I know I'm going to be making my list then referring back to the catalog I got today for my Fall purchases.
Annette,
Where did you get the Ice Cream bulbs? The bloom looks very interesting!
My Grand Perfection isn't getting much taller, but it has a good appearance.
Doug
Hi Doug, I got the Ice Cream tulips from Bloomingbulbs.com. I planted 50 of them, and the bulbs were very healthy, but I'm seeing less than half of them. Bb was the cheapest by far, a lot of the other online sources that I checked ridiculously expensive. It is an unusual tulip. Annette
Hi, Cibarius,
I've enjoyed looking at the pics of your bulbs planted in containers...and am impressed at your success with growing combinations! That's not easy to do I know!
I tried a similar approach with 'Princes Irene' tulips this year~~planted them in containers in late October, watered them down, bagged each of them in black plastic garbage bags ( loosely closed to permit some air) to keep the critters from burrowing in the pots, then buried them deep in chopped leaves out in the yard. Left them out all winter but unwrapped and brought them in a week apart in early march. and placed them on a very sunny window sill in the garage, watering occasionally . They seemed to like it there so I have brought them in to the house and also placed them on the front steps as they come into bloom. I did eight of these containers...
I expected to re-plant them into my various decorative cement urns and planters outside, but haven't gotten to that...and I've become rather attached to them and am afraid the deer will devour them immediately upon transplant...
Here's pic taken two weeks ago of a planter full of immature tuliips just brought into the house...(today they are very bright and busty!). 'Princes Irene' tulips from Van Engelens:
Pls. keep the pics coming...I'm always interested in techniques to grow bulbs... t.
This message was edited Apr 4, 2011 4:00 PM
tabasco,
Your Princess Irene have been a beautiful forcing. They look very good, and you have them to place where ever you please. I will check out Van Englens next year when I am planning my next set of combinations.
Here is a picture of Hyacinthus Anastacia with Daffodil Golden Echo. You can also see Tulipa Calgary just beginning. Making the right combinations is tricky. I had to decide what Brent and Becky meant by "early" and "early mid" as it applied to entirely different flowers. By the end of this season I should be able to list several combinatons that I know will flower together or in close sequence.
Here is a very nice combination of bulbs. The daffodils are Tete-a-Tete and Rapture (both very long-lasting). The blue is Muscaria armeniacum (also long-lasting), and the red is Tulipa Merry Christmas. The first two had to wait for the tulip to catch up, but it was a pleasant wait.
Can never have too many pretty pots of flowers in early spring! Very nice.
I went back into my DG Garden Blog that I haven't visited in many months and found records of some of my past combinations that worked and even this article giving explicit bloom sequences: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1082/is_n5_v38/ai_15908955/?tag=content;col1 for different classes of bulbs and lots of other combo details that may be of interest.
One little trick I used this year was to force or plant the bulbs one kind to a pot, then when they come into bloom I divide and transplant, say a blooming hyacinth with a few daffs in bloom, an amaryllis (for real drama), some little muscari and other LLBs (little blue bulbs) with whichever tulips are in bloom. I have been able to make some nice centerpieces this way...
Below are a couple of my first 'bulb combo' containers from a few years ago... (and sorry about the copyright stuff)...I can't seem to find pics of my best recent results...
t.
WOW! I can tell you have been busy this winter and the blooms are beautiful. I have never heard of anyone growing bulbs in flower pots and you came up with a smart idea. We always plant them in the ground-I noticed we have tulips coming up that hasn't done anything in several years and I am anxious to see their blooms once again.
Keep up your good work and please keep shareing your pictures with others!
I also force tulips in pots in the ground over the winter, but I place the pots in concrete and cast iron garden containers in my garden.
These are pots of "Princess Irene" Darwin tulips. The photo was taken today (April 5), so as you can see, it will be a few weeks before we have blooms.
Hi, Leewood! So glad to see you posting about your bulb projects!
Here's another little forcing project...I grew this cute (lonely) hyacinth in a big old pot with loads of other hyacinths but separated it out to re-pot it into the china pot for display. I grew those particular hyacinths in the garage in a sunny window for most of the time...after cold storage outside under leaves...
And one of my pots of 'Princes Irene's' as of today...placed with Hyacinthus orientalis 'Blue Delft' and 'Miss Saigon'.
I still haven't transplanted them into their urn....maybe tomorrow...!
By the way, I read somewhere that 'Princes Irene's' are excellent for these kinds of forcing projects. I luv 'em, and 'Orange Princess' too.
(So sorry if I'm hijacking your thread...but I get so excited about forcing projects!)
Tobasco, do you plant your potted bulbs in the ground after they are finished blooming? The containers of various planted bulbs sounds really pretty. I have lots of Amaryllis blooming in my house right now. One year, I planted tulip bulbs in my window boxes. They bloomed the following spring.
tabasco, I was going to ask you where you got your intructions for forcing bulbs the way you do. Now I know. Thank you for sharing this. Uprooting and transplanting a bulb when it is in bloom is very bold. I'm surprised it didn't kill the plant or terminate the blooming. I have never heard of this before. I can see how it would make some very interesting bloom combinations that don't occur from bulbs in the ground. Tell me more about how you managed to include Amaryllis in a spring bulb combination!
Leawood, I'm glad you joined in. It was your instructions from last year that inspired me to try burying containers in leaf mulch, and it worked rather nicely for me. Tulips are well under way here in Tennessee. The picture shows one of mine from ten days ago (March 27). I am interested in comparing our respective winter low temperatures. This may have something to do with which method will work in which areas. Last winter our lowest temperature was about 15 F. We can get colder, but this was still a rather sharp, long lasting winter. I didn't bury my containers deep enough in the leaf mulch, and I lost some bulbs. But still, they did fairly well. How cold did it get in KS?
A couple of comments -
I've used 'Princess Irene' for the pots I force for the last 10 years and have to say, they are the most successful of all the varieties I've tried. 'Apricot Beauty' is another good one. In general, I think the mid-season Darwins are best. The Mayflowering bulbs all get too tall and gangly for my uses.
The bulbs in the concrete urn I showed (above - April 5) were forced in a plastic pot in the ground, then taken out of the pot and placed in the concrete urn (the plastic pot was too large to fit into the concrete urn without the rim showing). I did the same thing last year and the bulbs didn't skip a beat.
Our winters are much colder than yours, Cibarius. We had several nights (and a couple DAYS) with below 0 degree weather - it was -20 one or two nights in particular. I bury my pots in a hole and cover them with ground pine mulch, making sure the top of the pot is below the level of the ground, to be sure the bulbs are not damaged by the freezing temps.
Leawood, I think your method is very good, especially for the colder parts of the country, and it obviously works well. My method of mounding up leaf mulch, instead of digging a hole, has worked here in Tennessee. And I think it would provide adequate insulation in a winter with temperatures down to 0 to 10 degrees F. One mistake I made was that I did not completely bury the pots. Next year I will do it that way and maybe begin removing the upper layer of mulch after the coldest part of winter. I did loose some bulbs to freezing this year, but I still had plenty for a display.
Here is a picture of one container giving its last gasp. The hyacinths and daffodils are gone, and tulips have come into prominence: Greigii Red Riding Hood, Calgary, and Strong Gold, and Anemone Blanda is still hanging on.
That's a gorgeous combo. Obviously, what you've done works well!
I'll send a couple pix taken today.
This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 11:07 AM
Here's what one of my urns looks like today (4-11-11) - obviously, it will be a week or two before the blooms are fully open.
Notice the dead plant in the yew hedge - these are very old hedges and the plants are going one at a time. It looks like someone who is missing a tooth when you cut it out.
This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 11:09 AM
The urns by my patio
