New to bulbs

Hi Y'all,

I am new to the world of bulbs. My first taste was some bearded irises from Wanda here on dave's. Then my mom bought me some more bearded iris (superstition) and tulips (queen of the night) and now I am hooked. While at Sam's I noticed they had their boxed bulbs marked down 50% off so I got a couple (or six). Not totally sure where I am going to put them and how I am going to put them since I can't bend my knee! Guess I will arm the kids with spades and have at it!

Laura

edited for awful spelling! I am going to blame it on the kaluha in my cocoa!



This message was edited Dec 19, 2005 2:31 PM

welcome, laura! i'm a newbie gardener and cannot offer much advise, but i sure can cheer you on!

dovey is just super.

oh, how i wish we have sam's here.

4Xfun,
It appears your 230 plus bulbs would all be suitable for planting up here. Due to your location being so far south, it might be a good idea to give those boxes a cold treatment before planting. I've read somewhere that for tulips at least that is the recommended procedure for the southern tier of states. Perhaps other patrons from this site are more knowledgeable about this and they can either confirm or nix my advise.
At any rate, welcome to this thread and we hope you have a very merry garden.

Ohhh...another one of us :)) Welcome to the madness !!

"Hi my name is Margo...and I am addicted to bulbs"
vigorous chorus from all around me "Hi Margo, welcome to BA (bulbs anonymous)"

Seriously, this is a great forum. Very friendly folks here with a lot of information to share with us newbies. Enjoy and participate...and remember that the questions you ask will benefit all of us :))
Looks like a very good selection to start with.
God bless and Merry Christmas ! Margo

I am fairly new to bulbs also, but I agree with jmorth. The tulips for sure will need the cold treatment. Normally, I have heard is that in our part of the country tulips are treated as an annual. We don't get cold enough to give them the winter chill that they need. You should probably put them in your refrigerator in the crisper drawer for 6 - 8 weeks (I think that is the right timeframe). Make sure there are no veggies in there or it can kill the bulbs.

After they bloom, you can either let them die back and dig them for next year or just let them go and put in new ones next year. If you dig them, you will have to chill them again next year.

All that said, you got a great deal and even if the tulips are only an annual, you still get to enjoy them for the bloom.

Good luck.

Well, I was impatient so I went ahead and planted some. They did sit out in my cold garage for the last several days and it was awful chilly at Sam's so fingers crossed that they were cold enough.

I have a crepe myrtle in my front yard with a round bed around it. I planted Ollioules and Queen of the Night tulips close to the base of the tree, the next layer is the mixed Bearded Iris and then Paperwhite Narcissus. In my imagination it looks wonderful. Hopefully come spring I will see it played out!

Laura

Be sure when you buy the bulbs on sale that they are really firm, almost hard. If they are soft or worse yet, just the outer shell is there, don't buy them.

Thanks Woodspirit, I forgot about that. Luckily all where firm and healthly feeling but I did get a box full of bulb skins one year, that was no fun!

Laura