If your mail is like mine, the glorious catalogues hawking the latest bulbs arrive just about the time those beauties are in full bloom in April and May. You like what you see? Why not order more?
Ordering something that won`t arrive until fall and having to wait a full year for next spring`s blooms is a little beyond comprehension. Tulip and daffodil planting time is fall, period.
If that`s so, there are still a couple of months to wait before making all those holes in the ground. Nevertheless, the boats are in and the bulb crop has arrived from Holland.
”We have had a very early season here in Holland. We`re two weeks early,” said Jack De Vroomen, president of De Vroomen Bulb Co., by phone from Lisse, the heart of the Netherlands` bulb-growing district.
”Labor Day weekend is late this year so we`ll have our bulbs in the garden centers by then for sure,” he said. The wholesale bulb company supplies more than 300 varieties to many of the garden centers and mass marketing outlets in the Chicago area from its Lake County office.
Being the first one on the block to buy fall bulbs is not as big a deal as producing the first ripe tomato, but shopping early ensures the widest choice of colors and types.
”The best selection is early,” said Lisa Manhatton, a horticulturist for Frank`s Nursery and Crafts, a chain of Chicago area garden centers. ”As people become more educated about bulbs, they want more specific varieties and specific heights. They are planning their plantings more carefully.”
Manhatton said the chain receives its stocks of bulbs in mid-August. While she admits it might be ”more exotic when you order bulbs directly from Holland,” she said the reasons to buy locally include more competitive prices, store personnel to answer questions and the ability to purchase accessories such as bulb fertilizer and planters.
You also get to inspect each bulb for size and firmness, she said.
”It`s important that the bulbs be of good size and they should be firm, not soft, which would indicate rotting during shipping.”
Jill Selinger, who runs De Vroomen`s local office, said mail order companies often don`t specify the grade of the bulbs they are sending out.
”With tulips, for example, there is a No. 1 grade, which is a large bulb, and a No. 2,” she said. ”The No. 2 grade bulbs will bloom but they won`t put on as large a show the first year, but No. 2 grade bulbs are priced accordingly.”
The smaller bulbs are useful for mass planting, Selinger said, especially with daffodils, which tend to get bigger from year to year. Tulips are better bought at the top grade because they tend to deteriorate after their first year and usually quit blooming in two to three years.
”I think it`s the hot weather here in the summer compared to Holland and it seems to bother the tulips more than the other bulbs,” Selinger said. As with so many things in gardening, a plan is the best way to approach a bulb purchase. ”You should have an idea of how many square feet you want to plant and buy enough to have a good show,” Selinger said. ”You should buy a quantity of the same thing for a nice oomph. A few of several varieties is not as effective as 25 or 50 of the same one.”
While making next spring`s bulb investment soon is a wise move, it is advisable to take the sleeping beauties out of any plastic containers and put them in a cool, airy spot in the house until true fall arrives. ”They are completely dormant and it may be a bigger problem if you plant them too early when the ground is warm,” which may trigger a false growth period, De Vroomen said. ”The best time to plant is October through November.”
One bulb that seems to send up its leaves each fall is the muscaris, or grape hyacinths. ”I would hold those until early October,” De Vroomen said. Also, ”it doesn`t hurt the bulbs to plant them a little deeper than normally recommended.” He said the muscaris can be planted four to six inches deep and daffodils six to eight inches deep to keep them from sprouting in the fall. He said the sprouting does not hurt the bulb or sap its strength.
Muscaris are lumped with what most people call the ”minor” bulbs, although in Holland the diminutive purple-flowering species is used lavishly in formal beds. ”There is quite a demand for the minor bulbs,” said Manhatton of Frank`s. ”People like them for naturalizing areas.”
One bulb that has a planting cycle all its own is the true lily, which should be out of the ground for as short a period of time as possible. ”It can be quite warm in stores and they might dry out or sprout,” De Vroomen said. ”When they`re in the ground, they stay cooler or you can store them cold for a couple of weeks and then plant them so they can establish roots before winter starts.”
Selecting colors is another advantage of stocking up early. Where bright colors ruled a few years ago, now the trend is to pastels. ”Whatever is the fashion in clothing then goes to flowers,” De Vroomen said. ”Now they`re talking about pastels still but deeper shades, deep purples and pinks.”
A pastel tulip was De Vroomen`s hot item last year: Angelique, a double
(many petals) peachy-pink late bloomer. Another late bloomer, Shirley, opens lavender and fades to white with purple edges.
”We have some tulips with variegated leaves so when the flower is gone, the foliage is still interesting,” Selinger said. ”New Design is one with a pink flower that has a white edge to its leaf.”
Bulbs are virtually foolproof. If they are planted at the proper depth and receive fairly decent drainage, they will flower the next spring. ”If you cut a bulb in half, you can actually see the flower in there, especially with a hyacinth,” Selinger said. ”If they don`t bloom, it was the conditions that caused it, not the bulb.”
The traditional recommendation of using bone meal as the fertilizer of choice is fading. A synthetic fertilizer with a higher nitrogen content has been formulated for bulbs. ”It`s a time-release fertilizer so the bulbs get a little in the fall and some in the spring,” Selinger said. ”I prefer to mix it with the backfill from the hole or in an established bed I place it on top and rake it in.”
Bone meal also can attract critters with its scent, Manhatton said. For problem areas, Manhatton said she recommends placing screening on top of the soil to prevent squirrels and other animals from digging. In areas where the deer come by to browse off the tulip foliage in spring, Manhatton said there are several repellent products available that contain Thiram, which is sprayed on the foliage.
Getting to that stage isn`t possible without having the bulbs to plant this fall. Selinger likens it to clothes buying:
”If you start looking for your summer wardrobe in June, it`s pretty much picked over,” she said. ”When bulbs are out, they`re out, there`s not another boatload coming along.”
