I am cleaning up my garden some for the winter & the thought of spring comes in. I want to try some bulbs in containers & have never done that. Can anyone give me some hints on how to do it? I want tulips & other bulbs that are easier to grow. They will have to be ones I can get cheaper as I need quite a few.
Thanks for any help
Bulb in containers
sugar - i can tell you what n o t to do. i tried planting bulbs in containers but not knowing what i was doing, i put them into containers and left them out all winter. they froze. i found out later that if you put them in containers in the fall you should put them in your garage or somewhere sheltered but not outside. dont know if anyone else has better way to do it. i would like to know also.
Herbie here in zone 8 I don't believe they would freeze but I could be wrong. A couple I couldn't move.
In zone 8 would it get cold enough to give the tulips the proper dormancy they need? I generally just keep my bulbs in the fridge loose and pot them up just before I want to put the pots outdoors. They come along really well. After flowering when the foliage looks a little draggy you can put those pots elsewhere to let the bulbs set and then harvest them again for their dormant period.
jagonjune I think it will.. it gets down in the high 30s some.. we are in northern Florida panhandle..almost Alabama. It went down in the high 20s for a couple of nites last year.
Here are some sites with information:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=forcing+spring+bulbs&btnG=Google+Search
NoH2O I don't want to force them indoors.. I just want to to come up this spring outdoors. That forcing bulbs mite be fun though to try indoors too.
Herbie.. We have PVC pipes run all over the farm & some are no more than an inch deep.. they don't freeze.
This message was edited Oct 15, 2003 12:56 AM
Sugar, there are lots of bulbs on the market, and most of them do very well in containers. Most of my garden is made up of bulbs, due to gophers and deer.
Some of the spring bulbs I have planted in my yard: Daffodills, Crocus (which are GREAT when you naturalize them in your lawn), Hyacinth, Tulips, Snowdrops, Fresia, Bearded Iris, Calla Lillies (Keep them watered), allium, etc, etc.
As for summer flowers, I have a few Gladiolus, Acidanthera (another kind of glad, which looks like an orchid), Iris and cannas. I also have some lillies, but the deer tend to bite the buds off before they bloom, so I rarely get to see them flower.
The image I'm including is one corner of my back deck, before my flowers really started to come up, in late February.
well i am gonna say being in Ga sc border. tulips and hyacinths dont do here unless they get at least six weeks of cold. even in containers i have had a time with these.
i have several bulbs in containers and it doesnt get cold enough long enough here for them to freeze or rot.
for our areas its trial and error. but for the most part most bulbs wil do well in conatiners.
I saw tulips in a six pack that you could order from a magazine. I think it was in People Places and plants. they are pre chilled and ready to go. Home depot has sprouted tulips and daffs in pots and six packs up here this season. they are new to me. If you have a second refrigerator, you can pot them up and stick them in it for the necessary time. Just don't let anyone eat them! Even if you get 30 degree weather, your ground doesn't freeze and the pots, if they are large enough, won't either. You can also sinkthe forcing pots in the ground if you have room and bring them out once they start to sprout, they will get cold but they won't freeze that way either. I have three asiatic lilies in large 16" plastic pots that are coming up for their 4th season here in MA where we got -10 this winter for over a week. You shouldn't have too many freezing problems in FL.
I couldn't remember exactly what I'd heard so I looked it up and found this:
"Avoid placing bulbs in the refrigerator near fruit or vegetables. Fruits and vegetables can give off ethylene gas that will prevent bulbs from flowering. You can also plant the bulbs in containers with soil and place them into the refrigerator, provided you have room."
http://www.sloatgardens.com/000911_news_letter.html
I may have just not seen it in the previous posts (my brain takes little naps sometimes without warning) but I thought this might be helpful info .