Expert: Long Island Gardener - 12/3/2006

Question
hello,
I would like to know how long i can store spring bulbs that are still packsged? I got these from Holland at the end of November, and I overordered. I would like to know if I can keep them safely until next fall and continue to plant them.
Thank you,
Caron Mittler
PS: I live on Long Island in New York

Answer
Bet you think you're the only one who does this.

You're not the first to fall victim to a case of acute enchantment with the 4-color Tulip and Daffodil Catalogs.  Like a seasonal flu, thousands of gardeners can be caught placing orders in a race against time, with their bulbs arriving sometimes hours away from the first hard frost.  I still have 250 to get in the ground and it is going to snow tomorrow.

Fear not.

Having been there and done that, I have learned from others with the same disorder - experts with PhDs who practically get high ordering spring bulbs.

Take one big new garbage can.  Place a foot of growing medium at the bottom; alternate that with layers of the bulbs you ordered.  Peat moss, garden soil and sand, with a full bag of mixed in bone meal make a strong growing medium.  The bone meal is great for the roots.

If you're really lucky, you'll be able to get them in the ground at the first break in the weather.  But if there's a hard frost and the ground is frozen solid, you can keep them in the garbage can, watering them, in the garage, through the winter.  You can also pot them through winter in pots, if you have enough pots and you can keep the whole mess in a garage and cover that with a blanket to keep it from freezing solid.  That by the way would help avoid mushy, rotting bulbs.  They should be kept moderately dry and cool, not wet and not frozen.  The bone meal will feed the roots a slow, steady diet of root-building Phosphorous.  Those pots can be "forced" in February if you bother to put them outside during the day for a strong dose of sunlight, then bring them in for shelter to keep them from freezing solid.

The trick here is to keep them from rotting.

Too much moisture will do that every time.  So there has to be great drainage in the garbage can or whatever pots you use, and as I said, not too much moisture.

Think this is the last time you'll ever make this mistake?  Think you'll learn the error of your ways?

Not likely.

Sometimes, we gardeners just can't help ourselves.

Let me know if you have any questions about the procedure or supplies.