Dear Daffnetters,
Below is an email from Treasa Brookman which she requested I send
this to Daffnet. Please include her email address on your
reply. Hopefully Jason, you are available to send a response to Treasa.
Many thanks,
Nancy Tackett
Martinez, CA
———————————————————————————
HI! I am a Master Gardener in Southern Illinois. One of our Master
Gardeners has gotten some bulbs and sent this email, do you know if
this will work or not? I have lost Jason Delaney’s email or I would
have sent this to him.
Thank you! Our ground is not frozen, I think we could still plant some of them.
Treasa I have really bad news. I have been given more bulbs for the
master gardeners. My best estimate is 2500 – 3000. All spring
flowering A bunch of different varieties of daffodils, tulips,
paperwhites, muscari,hyacinth,and others. All are in great condition.
Anyone that wants them can have them. Does anyone know the best way
to store these until early spring? We could then use them for projects.
I have a building that i keep between 50-55 degrees with very
low humidity. During the day i warm it to 65 so it is more
comfortable to work in. If i put the bulbs in their original bags
into trays and cover them with dry sawdust, it should keep them close
to 50 degrees. Good idea or bad? Maybe someone at the university
knows a way to keep them until spring.
—
Treasa Brookman
Hello Treasa!
The bulbs really should be planted now—the sooner the better. However, as long as the ground is workable and the ambient temperature outside is above freezing, you can hold off for a while longer if absolutely necessary. The latest the botanical garden planted fall bulbs for a major springtime display was the first of February, which only delayed the display by a few weeks.
If you cannot get the bulbs planted now, I advise leaving them in their bags and containers and putting them an old refrigerator or in your cold— but insulated; they absolutely cannot freeze —garage until you can get them planted. If not for a few weeks or even month or two, wrap them in plastic bags to keep them from desiccating and poke some holes in bags to keep them from holding too much moisture. Don’t cover them with sawdust or any other medium, as it will act as soil and they will root into it, which will make for a mess when you are ready to plant them in the ground. In the meantime, especially while your ground is still friable, cover the area(s) to be planted with a thick layer of straw to prevent it from freezing solid; then, when you’re ready to plant, even if the surrounding soil is rock-hard, just pull back the straw, plant, and then use the straw as your mulch to get you through the remainder of winter.
Or, you can always throw a potting party and pot up these bulbs now and sell the potted, flowering bulbs at a spring fund raiser….people go crazy for pots of bulbs to give as gifts and for home décor. We’ve had great $ucce$$ with this in our local daffodil club, inspired by the displays of potted bulbs at the 2004 ADS convention.
As for the paperwhites that you mentioned—these are not hardy for you, so distribute those to your group and have the members force them indoors.
Ironically, today we planted four crates of daffodils and 8K crocuses at the botanical garden. The soil in STL—just an hour due west from you—has not yet frozen solid, and by 10:00 a.m. today it was quite pleasant outside, if not a tad windy. There was barely a frozen crust on the ground this morning; in most places it was completely friable and ideal for planting. This week it’s supposed to be in the 60s here, considerably warmer than usual. Take advantage of this window while you can, if not for the bulbs then for your fingers!!!
More questions? My contact info is below.
All best, and good luck,
Jason
Jason A. Delaney | Missouri Botanical Garden | North Gardens Supervisor and Bulb Collections Specialist
Post Office Box 299 | Saint Louis, Missouri 63166-0299 | United States of America |
Jason,
I have floral refrigerator, and from long experience I have not been able to
keep moist daffodil bulbs in that refrigerator all winter without them
sprouting. I tried the first year to keep them at about 40 degrees F and
I had blooms in February. The next year I lowered the temperature to about
32 to 34 degrees F and they still developed sprouts about six inches tall
and bloomed within a month after I took them out. I continued to
experiment for a number of years. Finally I gave up as I am mostly a show
and grower, the daffodils planted in the ground blooms in good time for my
shows.
I have kept dry bulbs over the winter in the cold garage in a brown paper
bag. Some of them had short foliage growing the next year when I planted
them in March. However, they didnt do well that year, and came back to
bloom well the second year. In the spring the bulbs had lost a lot of
substance and were getting soft.
Clay