It's too late here, snowing off and on, ground frozen at the surface intermittently. I just got my Johnny's catalog yesterday, with lots of tulips and narcissus and other spring bulbs offered, but it was already too late to plant them when I got the catalog. Are any of you Midwestern or Northeastern folks still planting bulbs?

Jeanne

The only bulbs i'm planting right now are going into styrofoam boxes. The boxes came from the grocery store and are the kind grapes are shipped in.

I thought i'd put some tulips in there, bring them to my 50 degree under the staires storage to get roots than put them in my garage. My garage is unheated so I hope the boxes will keep them at the right temp.

I don't know if this will work so I'm trying 2 boxes of them. This way I don't have to use my garden space and I can toss the kit and kaboodle if I want to.

Liza, your layered bulbs sound like they will put on quite a show in the years to come. Thats alot of bulbs though!

Patty

Patty,

What a cool idea to use the styrofoam containers! A rose friend uses them to start rose cuttings-- she calls it her "Hillbilly Greenhouse!" Soooo, I have a few of those left over from last years experiments w/ cuttings, so now a new use for them!

Mine are rhe picnic cooler size. What size are yours? I haven't been to the grocery lately to ask the produce guys for some.

Liza, I never got around to getting some tulips ordered or planted for Valentines, but w/ Patty's idea, and me digging up daffs & Dutch Iris right now, maybe I'll grab a few bags at the discount center and give 'em a try.

I didn't layer last year, but I did alternate tulips & alliums and some Dutch Iris up and down my rows. Blooming times worked well enough in overlap to not be a problem, but as the foliage died, and a zillion wild rudbeckias grew in their place, and it got hot, and I got "distracted" (aka lazy?-LOL) trying to remember what was where became a challenge. Dang faded, never made, or lost labels! LOL! Which will make the digging up & replanting in something this fall, and bloom time next spring, quite interesting!

Liza-- you and Flowerfarmer could challenge each other to a planting duel-- see who can plant their several thousand bulbs faster than the other lady!

Good luck, and hope you have some Ben Gay!

Susi.

Liza - Adding bulbs to my selection for 2006 so I was real late in ordering this year - due to my lack of experience but managed to find Rannuculus which all the big suppliers were out of (didn't want a 1,000 bulbs anyway). So have 300 of those coming and 600 Dutch Iris due to arrive any day. Piddly amount compared to your 1,000's of bulbs. Lesson learnt, order spring bulbs in August. Now I'll just cross my fingers that I'll get flowers before the Gophers find 'em.
Cheers - Kim
Billabong Fresh Flower Farm

I planted purple sensation yesterday, thanks to Jeanne for sending me some. It was perfect weather to do it, 62 degrees and sunny. That's very unusual for this time of the year. Today is turning cold, so the timing was right, and I'm glad to have them in. I'm not the big flower farmer either, as some of you are, so my bulb planting is also much less. I'm not real fond of planting bulbs either, they're lots of work, but you can't beat the enjoyment in the spring.
Cheryl

I am NOT challenging anyone to a bulb planting dual! I work as fast as my body allows and that it it..totally self regulated! Bet Flowerfarmer is planting more then me too! And probably has aquipment to get her trenches made, atleast. The soil was slightloy dryer today or less gumbo-y. I got in another thousand so guess I am half done.....but it really means that I have over 1000 daffs still to do. TOmorrow I will start valentines tulips in crates before I hit the trenches.

Today I did 80 square feet with daffs, and then blue dutch iris, allium spherocephalon, and triteleia Corrina. I have most of my new lilies in except the tigers and rubrums. They may go at the other end of the garden if there is room left there. I want to get the tigers as far away from the hybrids as I can.

The styrofoam boxes are 16"x24"x4"deep. They have lids and stack nicely. I did plant some daffs and aliums, but that was earlier this month.
Patty

A duel? Kinda silly, eh? I recently read, Sticks and Scones. "En Garde!!"

I can't imagine anyone doing this unless they truly love the flowers. We don't necessarily love every aspect; but, we can/do amuse ourselves. That and a few good tunes to listen to while toiling in the soil. Whether we have a trench digger or not, it's still alot of work this business of growing flowers. I also have the greatest admiration for other growers.

Anyway, yes, we continue planting the bulbs. And, November is getting away from us. We were behind this year because we had such a late frost. We finished digging the last dahlia tuber some 10 days ago. Digging tubers and planting bulbs is pretty much what our October/1/2 of November has been. Then, I took a few days to visit family in another state, and left poor hubby behind. He finished digging the Karma dahlia tubers in one of the coldframes a couple days ago -- along with other projects. Sooooo, this week we're planting more bulbs some of the coldframes. There really isn't any down time in this business. A friend of ours had a t-shirt stating exacting that.

Evidently, I've missed something. Why the styrofoam boxes?

Trish

I want to force some tulips. My thought is that I can start them inside to get roots and then put then in the garage. My garage is unheated. I thought the styrofoam boxes might help so the bulbs won't turn to mush in our way below zero winter. Think it'll work?
Patty

There are just so many unexpected "failures" during the growing season. I really can't entertain the thought of setting oneself up for failure. I dunno. My crystal ball tells me that most likely, Patty, you will have tulips blooming on short stems with your "experiment." How are you going to manage the fluctuations in temperature since it won't be a controlled environment? My guess is that you'll just have to report back at the end of your experiment. May you have success!!

If we're growing tulips in crates, we use 5-degree bulbs. These bulbs have been chilled for approximately 8 weeks; and, we grow them in the crates for another 8 weeks or so according the requirements of the varieties. We can control the bloom time better with this method. We usually have 6-7" of soil in the crates. Bulbs in crates have a way of working themselves out of the soil if they're not planted deep enough.

Pot forcing for Valentine's, Easter and Mother's Day, the 9-degree bulbs are best. This crop blooms in three weeks when brought into the greenhouse. This is the method used by the large commercial growers of potted bulb plants.

In our ground beds in the field and hoophouses, we don't need to use the pre-chilled bulbs in our zone. They received the required weeks of chilling.

This coming season we have contracted with an upscale urban market to provide bouquets early in the season. These bouquets will include tulips, daffodils, lilies, freesia, lisianthus, stock, etc. It's easier planning and growing in hoophouses in the beginning of the season than we find it to be extending the season in the fall. We're still tinkering with season extension.

I am down to 600 bulbs left, after a week of heavy rain and Thanksgiving and cortisone shots in both knees. I figure two more good work days will finish it. I also have most of my collectiono of shrubs planted in the new shrub garden and still have a few roses to move before winter sets in...but around here winter never stays "Set" for long. The weather is calling for possible snow showers tomorrow though. As long as the temp is above 30 degrees and the mud isn't sticking to my boots I can do it. After a week of kids home and their demands on my time I would really enjoy some uninterrupted time in the garden!

I did it, I did it! The last 600 daffs are in the ground! After a day of near snow we started today with blue skies and temp around 40 degrees and i just couldn't resist! By the I time I had my 300 done the last 300 looked so lonesome I Just went ahead! STill have a few odds and ends to get in including the overlooked Costco tulips---about 350 but can do that in another day soon. THen there are a few things for my personal garden...the really expensive new ones from Dutch Gardens, and the bluebells to go in the woods. But my big commercial planting in my new field is done! All 4000 bulbs!
Sleep little bulbs, spring comes soon...atleast here in Puget Sound!

Lizalily -- good for you!!! I know how it feels! I didn't order spring bulbs this year and am crossing my fingers and hope that all that I planted last year will come up!!

Wendy

Congratulations! Isn't it a nice feeling, having a big job finished in time for the right weather?

That day of "near snow" that you had became six inches of snow here. It's gorgeous, everything frosted heavily in white, with all the evergreens' branches drooping gracefully under the weight of the snow. I can't garden, but that's not new, the ground has been too frozen for gardening for weeks already. I'm grateful for the snow cover for my plants and hope it stays for the winter. We do have a winter storm warning until midnight tonight, the more snow, the merrier. The local ski mountain opens tomorrow!!!

Here, it's time to dream, plan, and pore through the garden catalogs that arrive almost every day.

Now that I'm planning to grow cutting flowers just for myself and my boss (and maybe a little more) and grow my own veggies, I'm actually running out of room and have to figure out what to eliminate. That's because I've gone from a basically unlimited-space field to just seven raised beds in another area. I moved way more perennials from the field into the raised bed than I can really use. There is room for a few veggies this coming season, but not many, unless I dig and discard some perennials, especially peonies and lilies. I just don't seem to be able to toss peonies or lilies - kind of like a lot of folks and roses. Roses don't do well here, but peonies and lilies do fantastically well. If those peonies and lilies all thrive, I might need to go to market just as a day vendor when they're in bloom. I have to make up my mind between that and growing more stuff we can eat. Can't fit both. It would be fun to be at the market again just for a day. But then, home-grown Mokum carrots (too tender for machine harvesting, so you can't get them in the store) are yummy, as are asparagus and truly ripe strawberries. I have all winter to make up my mind, I'm just hoping it gets easier somehow. Suggestions, anybody?

Jeanne