The Truth about Bulb Flowers
By admin | August 19, 2008
Bulb flowers are known to be the easiest way to grow a plant. Famous flowers such as tulips, daffodils, crocuses, daylilies, daisies, dahlias and snowdrops are all grown out of bulbs. Bulb flowers were extremely popular in Holland in the 17th century. There was a whole financial affair about the tulip flower bulbs, because tulips contained the greatest part of Dutch economy.
Most flower bulbs are so plain to grow that many gardeners adore them. Flower bulbs have another advantage over others: they are extremely easy to find. There are several types of popular bulb flowers, take a look at the following list:
The True Bulb.
It is the most popular bulb flower. Tulips, daffodils and lilies are grown from true bulbs. Basically, it is an underground stem containing embryonic plant. This plant contains in modified look everything that the future plant will need: the stem, the roots, the leaves, the flower buds. When the growing conditions are at their top, this embryonic plant sets forth and starts to grow.
The embryonic plant is surrounded by scales, which encompass it. These scales are modified leaves, and look like the husks or scales of fish or mammals. At the bottom of the bulb is placed the basal plate: it is the starting point of the roots and it holds the scales together.
True bulbs are extremely endurable: they can live through long periods of dryness. If they are carefully looked after, true bulbs can live long without having to be replaced once they were planted.
The Corm.
This bulb flower type is popular with gladiolas and crocuses. Unlike the true bulbs, each individual corm can last only one season. But you needn’t plant another corm the next season: the old ones give birth to their new generation, so that corms can last several seasons, if they are properly taken care of. Small bulbs, called cormels, are also produced from the maternal corm. They can also turn into flowers.
The other difference with true flower bulbs is that corms lack scales. They also contain a stem base, but the tissue of the base is solid. The roots of the flower bulb plant grow from the bottom of the corm, and the growth point is located at the top.
The Tuber
Tubers are also underground stem bases. But unlike the two above mentioned flower bulb types, tubers lack the basal plate. The roots of a tuber grow from both the base as well as from the sides. That’s why a tuber has multiple growing points and springs out from different places on the surface.
The Rhizome.
It is actually a thickened stem and it grows partly underneath the ground, until it springs out. The largest growing point of a rhizome is located at one end of the stem, and the additional growing points are located alongside the two sides of the stem. The bearded iris is the most popular flower bulb grown from a rhizome.
Tuberous Roots.
The tuberous roots are not exactly roots. They are fibrous roots that grow from one basic root. They are designed to absorb nutrients and water and sustain the main root. Tuberous roots usually grow together in clumps. The growth points of tuberous roots can be intertwined and found on various places of the main root, as well as on additional root offshoots. Dahlias and daylilies are the bulb flowers grown in that way.
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My Spring Bulbs Won’t Bloom - Why
By admin | July 8, 2008
You can hear the wailing from here. “Why aren’t my bulbs blooming?” “There are a lot of leaves on them but not a single flower.”
The overall cause of a bulb not producing a bloom is either the bud wasn’t formed or it was damaged in some way. No bud equals no flower.
Here’s why your bud might have been killed:
There wasn’t enough sunlight last summer or you planted your bulbs in too shady an area. For the most part, spring blooming bulbs want full sunshine for at least six hours a day. If you do not give them enough sunshine, they may live but not have enough energy to produce a flower bud.
You might have cut off the foliage last year before it yellowed naturally. If you cut off the foliage before it yellows, the bulb will not be able to get enough sunlight to produce a bud. Remember Doug Green’s number one rule for growing bulbs, “Grow the foliage, the flower will take care of itself.” You might have tied up the foliage over top of the bulb to give yourself room to plant annuals. This is an old trick that won’t go away but is still not recommended for growing good bulb leaves. (Do you think you’d grow very well if you had to hold your arms over your head all the time?)
You might have planted them too early last fall. Once the bulb had rooted and the ground was still warm, it might have started to produce a flower bud. Once that bud emerges, it either lives or dies on the soil temperature. An emerged bud that hits frozen or too-cold soil is going to die and this means there won’t be another bud for the following spring.
Perhaps you overfed or overwatered those bulbs. Overwatering bulbs will most often kill them because they will rot (think of leaving an onion in a glass of water). Spring flowering bulbs have developed in areas where there is winter-cold and spring-rains but summer drought. When you water your garden in the summer to keep the annuals and perennials happy, you are making your bulbs unhappy. Too much water and the bulbs will disappear taking their flowers with them.
Perhaps the bulbs have grown up magnificently and multiplied. If so, they might simply require dividing to produce flowers again. This is not likely in a normal garden setting but possible. You can tell if there are scads of leaves all coming from the same small area if the bulbs are too crowded.
You want to know if it is a disease. The odds are that it is not. Bulb diseases either disfigure flowers or kill the bulbs. None just kill off the flower bud.
The odds are it is a cultural thing and not a disease. You just have to figure out what you need to give the bulb to make it happy. You can do this at Doug Green’s flower-garden-bulbs.com website
Remember, grow those leaves to make the flowers bloom.
copyright Douglas Green 2005
Doug Green is an award winning garden writer with over 30 years experience in the horticultural industry. His bulb website is at http://www.flower-garden-bulbs.com and his garden blog is at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com
Tags: bulbs not blooming, flower bulbs, spring bulbsBasic Gardening - Planting Bulbs
By admin | June 29, 2008
Spring flower bulb planting in the fall is fast, easy and a nearly foolproof way to add color to your garden. By following a few simple steps you should enjoy your spring and summer bulb garden for years to come. Here are a few basic guidelines. Spring flowering bulbs need to be planted in the fall before the first hard freeze. Subsequent cold weather will sustain the bulbs’ dormancy period required to stimulate root growth and spring flowering. If you have purchased your bulbs early in the fall it is ok to store them unpackaged in a cool dry place between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit for a few days. For extended periods store them in your refrigerator, but keep them away from ripening fruit as the ethylene released by the fruit can damage your bulbs. When planning a new bulb garden site keep in mind the following:
- Mass or cluster plantings in round or curved shapes create the best color impact.
- Bulbs do not like “wet feet”.
- Make sure the area you are planting has good soil drainage. Do not plant in areas where the soil stays constantly damp. Make sure the area gets plenty of the sunlight in the spring.
- Read the label or planting guide supplied with the bulbs. Many varieties of bulbs will be taller than others, so it is important to plant the shorter ones in the front of the bed.
Prepare your flowerbed by spading or roto-tilling to a depth of 8-10 inches. If you have sandy soil it is a good idea to mix in some compost, shredded leaves or peat moss. For heavy, clay soils, the addition of coarse sand or peat moss will improve drainage. Once the soil is ready for planting, follow these guidelines when planting your bulbs:
- Refer to your planting guide to determine proper planting depth and spacing for each type of bulb. If no information is available a general guideline is to plant a bulb 3 times as deep as its diameter. By varying your planting depth a little you can get bulbs of the same variety to flower at different times instead of all at once.
- Make a hole for the bulb using a trowel, shovel or with the handle of a garden tool. Place the bulb pointed side up firmly in the bottom of the hole and gently cover the bulb with soil.
- Cottage Farms always recommends mulching immediately since mulch shades and cools the soil, helps prevent weeds and provides organic matter for the soil.
- Water your bulbs in thoroughly the day of planting. If the fall or winter is very dry, an occasional watering would be helpful. During the growing season make sure they receive at least 1-inch of rain or equivalent watering per week.
When your bulbs start actively growing in the spring it is recommended to fertilize every two to three weeks with a water soluble fertilizer like Cottage Farms’ Bud-N-Bloom Booster. Such feeding should be done in early spring / summer to promote flowering and superior bulb growth. After your bulbs have bloomed and the petals really begin to fade you may want to remove the flower spike to prevent seeding (which takes away nutrients needed for next year blooms). Allow the leaves to die back and dry up before removing. This is an essential part of a bulbs life cycle in preparation of winter dormancy and next year’s growth.
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