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frugal or dumb attack?
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Posted by auntiegrizelda z5 MI (My Page) on Sat, Nov 12, 05 at 1:23
| I picked up some clearance bulbs at WalMart at a really good price. Is there a way to hold them over the winter without planting them? The sale of my house fell through and now I'm afraid to commit to the purchase of another until I get another offer on this one. I don't want to plant them here for someone else but not sure what to do with them. Any ideas? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: frugal or dumb attack?
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| I don't know about holding them over. What I would do is plant them in containers. I've had good results doing that in the past. They will look good where you are & transport easily to a new home. |
RE: frugal or dumb attack?
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Nope, they have to be planted this fall.
Plant them in gallon or pots, allow them to go thru their annual life cycle, and they should be fine. Their bloom in 2007 might not be the greatest, but with time & a little fertilizer they'll never know the differance. |
RE: frugal or dumb attack?
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| One or two gallon containers with a good free-draining mix and slow release fertiliser. You can plant quite closely for most of the usual spring bulbs: daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and anemone coronaria. Give them at least two inches of mix over the top. It may not be as deep as you'd usually plant in the garden but it will be enough in a container. Sometimes the tulips will give a poor performance in the first year but really come into their own in the second year, when you plant them out. If they've lost some plumpness through 'being left to last' then they may divide into daughter bulbs or just not perform. Most of the 'usual' ones are pretty tough, though. I notice that you're in a cool winter zone. You will probably have to put the containers where they won't freeze, or wrap them with bubble-wrap. If they freeze then you'll likely lose the bulbs. |
RE: frugal or dumb attack?
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I'm gonna disagree with the others, based on my experience with bulbs in zone 5. You can leave them in an unheated garage all winter, plant them as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, and they will come up and bloom. They will be later blooming than if they had been in the ground all winter, but still be fine. I have done this several times with good luck. Why would I do that, you may ask.....
Now days I limit what I buy to what I can plant that day, cause so many times I would come home with a truck load of stuff and not always get it in the ground when I should. |
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