Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Despite My Neglect



Back in the fall I should have planted a bunch of tulip bulbs I had set aside.

But a combination of events and "states of being" (doesn't that sound better than saying on some days I was just too lazy) kept me from ever planting them.

So they languished downstairs until this past weekend when I noticed that despite my neglect, nature won out and they were actually starting to grow.


Turns out where I had unwittingly stored them provided the ideal conditions for these bulbs to winter. They apparently got cold enough then warm enough to mimic their natural growing cycle.

I can't explain why they did this despite a complete lack of water but I'm happy they did!

A few years ago I bought a huge glass jar of tulips, the bulbs grew in no soil just a little water, which you kept filled as the tulips grew. I thought I could do the same thing so I've put them all into containers, given them some water, and put them near a window. So far most of them have grown between a half to a full inch.


Hopefully they'll keep growing and I'll have some gorgeous indoor tulips this year.

4 comments:

  1. Meg,

    This should work. It would be similar to forcing bulbs just later in the season. What color are your tulips?

    Maureen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Maureen! I hope it does.

    Funny you should ask about the colors. I'm not really sure what they are.

    : )

    And that was part of the problem with planting them back in the fall since I have specific colors schemes planted in different locations of the yard.

    When I bought these they were already flowering in pots. Once the flowers died I labeled the pots so I would know which colors they were and stored them intending to plant them in the fall.

    But then the dog knocked the pots over and all the bulbs got mixed up. So when fall came around I was just going to start a whole new flower bed and get a surprise in spring they all popped up and I could see the colors again. But I never did.

    Some of the tulips are definitely pink. There might also be white or maybe yellow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did these grow and bloom last year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some of these did bloom. Others just sent up stalks but never bloomed. I think the way I set them up water logged a few of them- if I were to do this again I'd set it up so only the roots (not the bulbs) touched the water.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...