Hit the Dirt; More on Forced Bulbs

Good morning. This is out at present vs. If I hit the dirt today I'm going to talk about more bulbs before seing Amaryllis have spectacular blooms are not easy to force. When you buy the bottle they're ready to go. Use regular part of you soil and choose a clay pot for its weight. Six to seven inches deep and one to two inches wider than the bulb. Cover the drainage hole with a piece of crock or screening. Pack the soil to halfway up the pot and place the bulb on top. Then pack more soil around the bow. One third of the bulb should be about the soil. Water once until active growth starts placing a bright warm place 65 to 75 degrees and in a few weeks the buds stalk appears the leaves come later. Water only when the surface soil feels dry feed months there with food or liquid fertilizer about a 5 10 5 ratio. I've tried liquid seaweed. When blooming starts a cooler spot will prolong the bloom. Then what do you do. Some people just toss out the bulbs don't please. You pinch off the spent store and keep the pot on a sunny window sill feeding twice a month and watering after

danger of frost the park can be put outside. After a while the leaves will turn yellow and die back stop ordering and turn the pot on its side so it doesn't get wet from the rain. Then bring it in just before the first hard frost set in a cool spot for two months six to eight weeks before your desired bloom time. Remove the top 1 inch of soil and replace it with fresh soil and fertilise arrows do not like their roots just like to be root bound only once every three or four years and do it at this time. Then you are treated as a bug. Occasionally they will not bloom until the second year and if they form small new bulbs pups the pups take 3 years to bloom. If you want really quick results try lily of the valley. You may have to get these mail order at this time or dig some out of your own patch. If they're plentiful use a shallow pan with a screened drainage hole. Regular potting soil and fill the pan one third full of soil and place the pips pointed side up on the soil.

About 12 pips to a nine inch pan. The roots can be trimmed back to 4 inches. Also at around the pips making sure they're upright and leave just the tip showing water keep in a bright location at room temperature and you should have fragrant blooms in three to four weeks later in the spring you can plant them out in your shade. God not of the regular spring flower involves. These can be forced but need different care. Shadow containers pans as a POTS dish is a good half fill with stones and place the balls close together and cover two thirds of the bulb with small stones or potting soil and water to the base of the bulb. A good soil mix is 2000 potting soil and one third clay loam some people like to put in bone meal. But the bog contains all the nutrients it needs for flooring. Call with ventilated plastic in place in a cool 40 to 50 degrees spot cover with blankets straw or leaves a cool basement is handy or fridge or it is

good if you have room for the cooling period is important four to six weeks for a crocus six to seven weeks for Cilla and snowdrops seven to eight weeks for dwarf Iris 12 to 13 weeks for Narcissus and gray president and 14 to 15 weeks for tulips. Then you bring them into direct light at 50 to 65 degrees for one to four weeks keeping more Oist but not over watering when the leaves are about three to five inches tall. Bring in full light. Keep moist but don't over water. With good planning you can have something blooming all winter. Try putting crocuses and narcissus in one part for successive bloom or grape hyacinths and tulips. One note plant tulips with a flat side to the outside of the pot Bobs can be planted. Let them die back naturally and either plant in the spring on the full feeding with bone meal and they will probably take a couple of years to bloom again. But who knows. I just brought in a hyacinth in bloom that was given to me last Easter and I just dumped

the whole part outside and ignored it at that time until now. This is Sally if I hit the dirt.