Now that I am fully into the preparation—as opposed to mourning—role for fall, it is time to pick up bulb bargains for last minute installation and forcing. Most bulb merchandisers, large and small, are eager to get rid of surplus inventory and settle in for the winter. Gardeners can reap the benefits.
First the good news. If you haven’t bought or planted bulbs yet, don’t worry. Unless your north forty is already hard as rock or covered with snow, you can still plant outside. Even if your north forty has turned to tundra, you can pick up some bulbs for forcing. In fact, if you live in a place where your north forty is already frozen, you are probably in for a long winter and will need some early color. Get cracking and pick up some bulb bargains.
Of course you are worried about time. With rare exceptions, like the time spent waiting for the income tax refund, there is never enough of it. However, you certainly have time to plant bulbs. If your tools are handy, you can plant twenty bulbs or more, indoors or out, in fifteen minutes or less. This is a very small time investment for a large return. Besides, we gardeners may never have time to clean the grout in the bathroom, but will always find a few minutes to plug some paperwhites in among a few stones and add water. It’s just a matter of priorities.
Right now, if you have errands to do, stop at the nearest retailer that stocks bulbs. This can be your grocery store, which really wants to clear them out, or your local garden center. At the garden center, they have already put up the holiday displays. Look in a back corner for the leftover bulbs. They will probably be on sale. If the idea of tulips or daffodils is too intimidating, pick up bunch of little bulbs. It takes no time at all to install fifty or one hundred crocuses because they are small and need only shallow trenches. You can tuck them in among the larger plants and multi-task, inserting the crocuses as you pull out the spent annuals in your garden. You can also pot up hundreds of them easily.
If you are not doing errands, go to the websites of your favorite bulb vendors and see what is on sale. I was surprised to find that some of the best modern and historic bulbs in various categories are still available at good discounts. As with any other sale, the key is grabbing the goods before they are gone. Even if you have a small yard or a container garden, there is always space. Take the sad looking “hardy” mums out of those weatherproof pots on the doorstep and plant the pots with layers of tulips, daffodils and crocuses. Leave them where they are, or in some other out-of-the-way place outside and in the spring, you should have a colorful array.
Everyone seems to have a relative who is an expert at forcing bulbs for late winter bloom. Wherever I go I hear about someone’s ninety-five year-old cousin who never even completed fourth grade, but yet fills every window in her house with forced blooms every year without fail. No one knows how she does it, except that these days she needs a little help getting all those pots up out of the cellar.
I have yet to actually meet any of these amazing people, though I live in hope. In the meantime, I do the best I can without the benefit of their advice. My friend Scott Kunst, proprietor of Old House Gardens, has a good one-page tutorial on bulb forcing on his website at http://www.oldhousegardens.com/ForcingBulbs.aspx. I always force some hyacinths and this year ordered extra bulbs of the soft pink ‘Lady Derby’, which is reputed to be a particularly good forcer. I have several special forcing jars for hyacinths, but I may also try the paper bag method, described on Scott’s page, which sounds so simple that it might even be the answer to the riddle of how the ninety-five year-old cousin gets so many beautiful flowers.
The most important thing to remember as the darker days come on is that you should never be without flowers and growing things; for even one single day. Pick the last blooms, fruiting branches and vibrant leaves from the garden and bring them indoors to enjoy while you bargain hunt online. Think of botanical gifts for the friends who will appreciate them and remember that people who love plants make the best friends. If there is a question about whether you have the time, money or the right place for a bulb or a plant, use a bit of common sense, but take a leap of faith. I find that such leaps almost always lead to soft landings and wonderful discoveries.