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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Garden -> Small bulbs
FORCING
SMALL BULBS INTO INDOOR BLOOM: Getting a Jump on Spring
By Niki Hayden
 Small bulbs of early spring are nature’s promise that summer is close
at hand. A tiny blue crocus is the check in the mail, the appetizer before the feast,
a warm-up of the orchestra before the baton is raised. Each whets our appetites
and excites our senses. They are all the more exciting because of their modest
beauty. By the time snowdrop blooms fade, spring unrolls splashy lilacs, showy crabapple
blossoms and vividly hued early standard-sized tulips.
You’ll have to get down on hands and knees to savor such miniature bulbs.
And they nearly disappear unless thousands have been planted under a tree or
alongside a walkway--unless you plant them in pots and boxes where they are in
the line of eyesight. Suddenly they make a striking presence, like jewels in a box.
 Small bulbs are perfect for forcing into bloom. Keep them at cool
temperatures in the refrigerator, cold frame or outdoor patio and you’ll have
pots of bloom that can be brought inside. It requires some planning but blooms
at the end of winter add a cheerfulness at nature's bleakest time.
All bulbs from cool climates require a period of cold to set their bloom.
Tropical bulbs like amaryllis, the brilliant holiday flower, do not. But the
miniature bulbs of species tulips, daffodils, squills, snowdrops, crocus, grape
hyacinths, bulb iris and hyacinths will require from ten to fifteen weeks of
temperatures between 40 and 48 degrees. During that time, they will develop root
growth before sending up a shoot.
 Choose
pots with drainage holes and fill them midway with potting soil. Plant
bulbs with their pointed ends up, closely together. The tips of the bulbs should
be flush with the pot's rim. The bulbs can touch each
other and will look fuller when they bloom--but don't squeeze them together so
tightly that their delicate skins bruise. Allow two-thirds of the bulb to be
beneath the soil. The only exception is bulb iris, like Iris reticulata,
which need soil just dusted over their tops. Water thoroughly. After this first drenching, you’ll want
to keep the soil moist, but not wet.
Place the pots in a refrigerator set at 40
degrees, a cold frame, unheated basement or protected porch. If you choose a
refrigerator, make sure that children don’t mistake the bulbs for snacks
because some bulbs are poisonous. And if you place the bulbs outside in the
daytime, squirrels will dig and eat many small bulbs such as species tulips,
although most animals will avoid the toxic narcissi family. To protect bulbs, you may need
to place a screen over the pots. This is why a cold frame works so effectively,
too.
The place must be cool and dark, but not capable of freezing. You don't want
the tips of the bulbs to freeze and kill the young shoots, but you do need to set
their botanical clocks by providing an essential cooling period. Since bulbs
bloom at different times, it's easier to plant bulbs of the same kind together.
To vary the blooms, consider mixing pansies among the bulbs after they are
reaching bloom stage. Pansies, like bulbs, need moist, cool soil.
 In the case of
crocus bulbs, the blooms last only a few days. If you’d like
continuous bloom with these small bulbs, plant a new crop each week and enjoy the blooms
for weeks. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, bulb iris and crocus
all require ten to twelve weeks of temperature under 50 degrees. Wrap the pots in damp newspaper,
check to make sure the soil never
dries out and eventually, you’ll see roots and shoots. That’s the signal to
bring the bulbs out of the cold and into a cool room.
As bulbs come into flower, they prefer indirect light and a temperature of
about 60 degrees. In full flower,
they like bright sunlight with a temperature of 68 degrees. When they have developed a full bloom, place them
back into indirect light to preserve the bloom for as long as possible. Don't allow
them to dry out. All bulbs grown in pots depend upon moist soil conditions.
 Iris reticulatata, snowdrops and flowering onions
provide an unusual
bloom in late winter as do squills, species tulips (much smaller than the hybrid
tulips), miniature narcissus and scillas. Equally as amenable to
contrived conditions as the more common tulips and daffodils, they also
take up less space and will look far more dramatic in a pot on your table than
sprinkled under a tree outside.
Once bulbs begin to sent up shoots, you can plant grass seeds that provide a
mossy look. Cat grass or wheat grass germinate quickly, but any grass seed will
do.
Bulbs that have been forced spend more energy blooming than those out in the
garden and their strength will be sapped--for a time. You can plant them in the garden after they have bloomed. Leave their
dying foliage intact. Bulbs continue to use their foliage to gain strength from
the sun as they go into hibernation. It may take two years for their bloom to
return, and hybrid tulips do shrink in size year after year. But species tulips
and small bulbs will come back with vigor.
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