I know. Spring is still a couple of months or so away, but my daffodils are already breaking ground in anticipation of an early springtime. Even though I know that another “Daffodil and Snow Tire Festival” is always a possibility in Arkansas, those early shoots bursting forth always get my hopes up that my least favorite season, winter, is FINALLY over.
I couldn’t even begin to think about living in Minnesota. Sorry. Maybe I could actually live there in the summertime when our temps sometimes exceed 100 degrees. But not winter. Nope. I’d be whining every day, all day.
And so I get my spring on early and so can you even now especially if you still have some of those tulip or daffodil bulbs hanging out in the frig or basement or wherever. You know the ones. They were so promising last fall when you grabbed bags of them at the nursery because you were going to have the most glorious blooms popping up all over your yard this spring. Yep. The ones you just never got around to planting because it was too hot or too windy or too dark. Those bulbs.
Well, here’s what you are gonna’ do to force those pretty little pods of potential into blooming:
1) You will not throw those babies away or put them on the compost pile.
2) You will look around an find a suitable container. Grab a clear glass one if you can. That pretty cut glass one that Great Aunt Martha gave you (and you only drag out when she’ comes to visit) will be perfect. Shallow is perfect, but you can make just about anything work.
3) Get some pretty floral stones or your child’s glass marbles and fill up that glass container about 2/3rds full or at least 4 to 5 inches worth. Better yet, get your child to help you do that ‘cause this is pretty much child’s play anyway.
4) Place your bulbs on top of the stones/marbles so they are standing upright The bulbs can get real friendly with their neighbors, but not so neighborly that climb aboard them. In other words, one level only.
5) Add water to the container so that it comes to the bottom of the bulbs. Check every week or so and refill the water if necessary.
6) Put your promise of spring in a cool, dark place for the next month or so until the roots develop. Otherwise, you’ll have all green tops with few roots and probably few blooms.
Now, if your bulbs are amaryllis or paperwhite narcissus, you don’t need to chill those. Many tulip, crocus, daffodil and all hyacinth bulbs force well, but they do need chilling. Check your packages but, seriously, what do you have to lose at this point.
After several weeks in the dark your bulbs should be showing lots of roots. Begin waking them up to sunlight (if you can find any) on a gradual basis until green shoots appear and are about 3 to 5 inches tall, move them to a sunny spot to bask in the sunshine. When the buds begin to show color, move them back to indirect lighting.
You’ve got your spring on!
Note: Now if you’re a smarty pants and one of those A personality types, you probably would have started your bulbs last fall in time to have blooms for Christmas or Valentines but, heck, what would we do with all of those poinsettias and roses then if the rest of us procrastinators did that?
If you really want to know about that early stuff, though, I’ll be glad to help you out with that. Just give me a word in the comments, and I will get back to you real soon or at least by next fall.
Come back in a few weeks and I’ll let you gaze upon my springtime in a bowl. You’ll be glad you did.
