About Long Island Gardener Expertise Growing Tulips? Dahlias? Daffodils? Gladiolus? It doesn't get easier than bulbs and tubers. Once in a while, something goes wrong: The dreaded Narcissus Bulb Fly, which resembles a honeybee. Mosaic virus, which can ignite a field of tulips in a single season. Nematodes, lurking underground. Here on the North Shore of Long Island, the garden is full of surprises. If you live in the Northeast/Atlantic Coast, I can help you pick the right bulb for every season, indoors and out, and help you fertilize, bloom and harvest for home or work. How: I have degrees in related fields, but my best understanding is all learned from trial and error. For most of my 53 years I have been gardening somewhere. No matter what the problem, I've learned the best answers are always Organic -- Earth friendly, less expensive, healthier for people and pets, easier and cleaner than toxic liquids and powders that big chemical companies sell so smoothly.
Experience Besides degrees in related fields, and a few favorite horticultural societies, I work as a docent at our local botanical gardens -- but it's the years of work in the garden that's the real test.
Question I purchased Darwin Tulips (Pink Impression) and want them to bloom approx the second week of June. I live in the San Diego area. Can I just plant them late in March? I plan on refrigerating them 8 weeks prior to planting. Thank you.
Answer Twenty bucks says it's not going to be icebox temps in San Diego -- not in March, not in January, not before the next Ice Age. True, the only way you can pull off the dormancy issue is with a d-i-y refrigerator treatment, as you propose. But you have not given consideration to the other issue: Ambient temperature once the Bulbs break dormancy and are brought out to bloom.
Too much heat, you see, ruins Bulb flowers before you even know what happened. One Horticulture Magazine reader described the 'blasting' experience in a letter last April posted online:
www.hortmag.com/article/Flower_Blasting/
Seems that some of this reader's Spring Bulbs 'produced flower stalks, but the flowers themselves either never opened or were misshapen.' Instead, she wrote, buds 'were brown and dry inside...'
Horticulture editors traced the wreckage to 'a number of conditions, including improper storage of the Bulbs, late planting, inadequate or excessive moisture, sudden temperature changes, or viruses. Storing bulbs at high temperatures often leads to flower failure... Ethylene gas generated by fruits in a refrigerator ...Late planting ... because the bulbs do not have time to develop a sufficient root system ...late freezes, inadequate moisture, and wet autumns ...'
First of course there's the uphill battle where you have to chill them. Typical forcing of your chilled, potted Tulips places them in cool, damp, aerated Soil with temps in the 40s, store them at 30 degrees F through next May 2009. Continued textbook conditions would surround them with air that is consistently 45 degrees F right up to Show Time. There's very little leeway, up or down, there.
If -- and when -- they bloom successfully, you are STILL not home free. One special morning in June you must remove them from the cold treatment and set them out; even in the Shade, San Diego is not going to offer the crisp chill needed for success. Petals will drop, color will quickly fade in a matter of hours.
But the best part is that if your Tulips are going to blast, YOU WON'T KNOW until the DAY THEY OPEN if they're going to deliver the flowers you have dreamed of or a dud. Add to that your drop-dead scheduled bloom date and I think you can see this would be pushing it.
Nevertheless, I'll tell you what I told someone else who recently asked about doing the same Tulip dance as you, but in August (an even more harrowing scenario). One professional European Spring Bulbs wholesaler maintains you'd have better luck placing an order from a commercial operation than doing this yourself. He recommended Van den Hoek Broeiproevenbedrijf:
www.hoekbroeiproeven.nl/index_e.php
[click the British flag for pages in English]
VAN DEN HOEK BROEIBEDRIJF 'T Veldt, Netherlands
Tolweg 13
1681 ND
Zwaagdijk-Oost
Another Bulb Specialist agreed. Her comments however extended to the planned wedding, about which she opined, 'Ignorance is bliss or maybe love is blind! Hope she is more realistic about marriage!'
June is 2 months more do-able than August. But if this is a big deal, have a backup plan... or order from a pro and import. Good luck; keep me posted.
