Bulb rescue

Someone new has bought a neighbour's house and has decided to rip out all the perennials and replace it with sod! (The house originally had no lawn, just gorgeous flowers.)

He said I could take anything I wanted, so the landlords' kids and I dug up tons of Puschkinia, Scilla, lilies, and various mystery bulbs. It's early in the season here, so only the Puschkinia and Scilla are in bloom (and one tulip and one daffodill), the rest are only leaves so I'm not sure what is what.

I don't expect anything to bloom this year, I will be happy if the bulbs just survive and bloom next year.

Is there anything I can do to help these transplanted bulbs survive? I know they shouldn't be moved at this time of year.

Thanks in advance.

I would just try to keep as much of the root and leaves intact, and put a little handful of colloidal rock phosphate (not ammonium phosphate or some other chemical kind) in at the bottom of the hole. I'm an organic gardener, so that's how I roll. :) Hopefully their new home is made up of nice compost and other humusy materials. I would probably give them a shot of compost or manure tea or (if you use it) fish emulsion works great. You could use bone meal instead of rock phosphate, but I try to be vegetarian, so I don't know the amounts. Then I'd treat them like any other transplant.

Whatever happens, don't sweat it too much-- you are doing a good thing by saving as many as you can! I bet most of them make it, though. Good luck!

I'm vegetarian too :).

I'm not sure what colloidal rock phosphate is, but I guess they have it at gardening centres?

I am not too sure about where you are in Canada, but my brother still has frost IN the ground, so if this is the case, I would put the bulbs into large pots or containers with some good quality garden compost you buy from the store, plant up the bulbs as they are just coming out of winters hibernation, the Daffi's and tulips may not do much flowering this year, but should survive till next Autumn in pots if watered over the summer, dont whatever you do cut ant foliage off the bulbs as you should let this die down naturally as it feeds the bulbs for next years flowering, as for the lilies etc, make sure you dont damage the tiny growing tips as this is the flower buds too, they are already made inside the bulbs, but if you pot them up till the soil is a bit better then they will still flower this year, maybe smaller flowers, but that will be due to them being shocked by lifting them as they started to grow. this would also be a good time to gently divide any large clumps of bulbs as they dont flower too good when over crowded at planting time, add a good handful of fish/blood and bone meal to the planting hole to give them extra food, this product is organic and ready mixed when you buy it,, good luck. hope all goes well as it seems a shame to through out good bulbs, WeeNel.

It's nice to meet another vegetarian! We should have a little forum for us! I'm sure there are a few around, looking for alternatives to fish emulsion, feeling guilty about killing grubs! (well, maybe not sooo much.)

Colloidal rock phosphate can be found in most garden centers. Not always places like Home Depot or other giant hardware monsters that pretend to also be nurseries.
Regular rock phosphate is also fine.

The last post brought up some interesting points -- what is your ground temp? If your ground is frozen, then are the bulbs doing much growing at all right now? I'd say if you could keep them in a dormant state by planting them outside (if the ground allows this) it would be much easier on them then forcing them to grow inside.

However if your ground is frozen, theres not a lot you can do. It sounded from what you wrote that things are getting going, though. I always think that if you can get them in the ground the sooner, the better. Good luck!