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A Home & Garden Editor

Pamela Lang

§ 985-2131 (125)

Pot bulbs now for early flowers

NOW IS the time to plant
hardy bulbs for a great
spring display. Nurseries and
garden shops have a good
selection of bulbs to choose
from and this might be the
year to expand your collec-
tion and try something new
both in bulbs and the
method of planting.

Traditionally bulbs are planted
in clumps or massed in annual beds
where they put on an eye-catching
display for four to six weeks.

Small, early-blooming bulbs are
not a problem when it comes to
planting annuals, but most of the
larger, late-blooming varieties, par-
ticularly daffodils can be trouble-
some.

Years ago when I grew late-
flowering daffodils it was almost
the first of July before I could
transplant my annuals.

It is not wise to lift the bulbs or
cut their leaves off until they have
matured. The practice of tying the
leaves in knots is also harmful to
the bulb and next year’s flower. To
overcome this problem I have
resorted to planting all my daffodil
(narcissus) bulbs in one or two-gal-
lon pots.

To prepare the soil for potted
bulbs, use a light, well-drained
medium such as four parts garden
soil, three parts compost or aged
manure, three parts peat and two
parts perlite.

Using a one-gallon pot for mea-
suring should provide enough to fill
five or six two-gallon pots. To this
volume of soil add two or three
handfuls of a bulb fertilizer such as
3.15.6 (chemical) or 5.5.5 (organ-
ic).

You may wish to use finely
ground bor:e meal for half of your
fertilizer requirements, but bone
meal is very slow to break down
and is not a balanced plant food.

Typically bone meal is 2.14.0
and may take years to disintegrate

Roy
Jonsson

SOW IT GROWS

and then it provides only one ele-
ment — phosphorous.

A very small handful of
dolomite lime can also be added to
the soil mixture to raise the pH up
to a more neu .il level.

Fill a two-gal!on pot (or smaller
shallow bulb pot) about one-third
full and then set in eight to 12 flow-
cring size bulbs about one-half inch
apart and one-half inch from the
sides of the pot.

Add another one-third of soil
and then set in a similar number of
smaller undersize bulbs you may
have. Fill the pot to the brim with
soil and compress so there is about
one half-inch of free board at the
top. This is important when lifting
the pots and for watering.

Find a sheltered and well-
drained site to bury the pots. 1 use
my surplus soil pile and bank the
soil up around the sides of the pots.

To this mound I add a very thick
layer of dead fern fronds and then a
sheet of plastic when the very cold
weather sets in.

Sometime in late January or
early February, after the snow has
gone, I lift the plastic and fern
mutch to see if the bulbs are show-

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ing signs of sprouting.

If the leaf tips are an inch or two
above the ground I lift the pots,
scrape off the excess soil to allow
for watering and bring the washed
pots up on the deck to a sheltered,
sunny location.

If the leaves are more than two
inches long, do not remove the
excess soil from around the base of
the bulb leaves as it will create a
weak spot at the base and cause the
leaves to collapse.

Keep checking the pots and lift
them as the different varieties start
to show leaf tips. With a succession
of maturing bulbs you will always
have a nice display of potted daf-
fodils on your deck or stairway dur-
ing the late winter or early spring.

For special occasions try placing
the bulb pot in a wicker basket and
use it as a short-term house plant.

This procedure works best for
daffodils, but I have also used it for
tulips, iris, crocus and hyacinths. 4

If you want to force some bulbs, NEWS photo Terry Peters
CREATE A splash of early color next year by planting bulbs in

pots now. They can be buried in a flower bed over the winter.

Mr & Mrs Beaton of 3056 Paisley Ave N. Vancouver

Q.) What prompted you to enter
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See Puts page 16

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After

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