Most of us who live in cold winter climates get sick of winter just about the time that sleet, ice, snow and gray days really get going.\u00a0 That depressing period generally starts after the first of the year, when the holiday excitement is long gone, along with the decorations.\u00a0 Living spaces are bare, New Year\u2019s diets have begun and souls and landscapes are enveloped in cold, dark clouds.\u00a0 Gardeners await the return of the light while huddling in warm corners and gazing at websites or clutching spring plant catalogs.<\/p>\n
Art Wolk aims to change that scenario by persuading even timid gardeners that they can lift their winter-depleted spirits by filling their homes with bountiful pots of tulips, daffodils and other spring-flowering plants.\u00a0 His book, Bulb Forcing, <\/em>is a lavishly illustrated manual that de-mystifies the process of inducing bulbs to flower in advance of the outdoor growing season.\u00a0 If you are thinking about ordering bulbs to plant in the garden, read Bulb Forcing <\/em>first.\u00a0 You will want to buy extra ones to pot up for the dark days.<\/p>\n Wolk is a master of the art of bulb forcing.\u00a0 He has been at it for more than three decades and has won scores of accolades, including two Grand Sweepstakes Awards at the Philadelphia Flower Show.\u00a0 One of the beauties of the book is that he reveals many of the tricks of the flower exhibitors\u2019 trade and makes those tricks accessible to average home gardeners.<\/p>\n Wolk\u2019s humor is disarming and allows him to pack a lot of science into his text.\u00a0 Bulbs succeed best, he says, when they are treated to conditions that mimic those of their places of origin.\u00a0 I was especially impressed by his emphasis on the need to recreate those natural conditions by ensuring that the bulb-growing medium contains lots of air.\u00a0 Most garden writers refer to this as \u201cgood drainage\u201d without explaining what the phrase means.\u00a0 Water moves easily through a planting medium because a wealth of minute air pockets allows it to do so.\u00a0 Wet, compacted soil or potting medium denies air to bulbs\u2019 roots, dooming the bulbs to a slow death from rot.<\/p>\n The rules of good bulb forcing come down to the following: buy the best bulbs, plant them in clay pots containing a well-aerated medium, chill them sufficiently and provide ample exposure to bright light and cool indoor temperature to stimulate flower production.\u00a0 I love the author\u2019s solutions for providing the necessary cold storage or vernalization, which include storing potted-up bulbs in cardboard boxes filled with mulch or compost and constructing a cheap, movable cold frame out of plastic window well covers.<\/p>\n My single criticism of the book is that Wolk underemphasizes the difficulty of completing the critical last step in the forcing process.\u00a0 Finding a bright space with temperatures of sixty to sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit can be difficult if you lack a cool greenhouse or unheated, enclosed porch.\u00a0 Most of us live with other people, many of whom prefer rooms heated to a temperature somewhat above sixty-five degrees.\u00a0 Finding the right combination of light and slightly chilly temperatures can be a problem.\u00a0 That said, Wolk\u2019s enthusiasm is sufficiently inspiring make readers want to overcome the challenge.<\/p>\n Bulb Forcing<\/em> includes extensive discussions of how to get the best results with a wide variety of species\u2014from tulips and daffodils to little bulbs like grape hyacinths and miniature iris.\u00a0 Towards the end of the text he tackles something that I thought was impossible, or at least highly likely to turn out ugly\u2014the mixed forced bulb arrangement.<\/p>\n The subtitle of the book is \u201cfor beginners and the seriously smitten.\u201d\u00a0 Providing how-to\u2019s that will entice novices while simultaneously attempting to inspire more experienced bulb forcers with professional tips is a tall order.\u00a0 Not everyone will be interested in every chapter, but the author\u2019s stunning photographs make it hard to skip even a few pages.<\/p>\n The best how-to books\u2014whether they are about cooking, boat-building or gardening\u2014make you want to rush out and try whatever it is the author addresses.\u00a0 Wolk\u2019s book does that, encouraging readers to take risks, observe results and try new species and cultivars.\u00a0 Timidity, to the author, is a far worse fate than failure.\u00a0 I would never want to compete against Art Wolk at a flower show, but I would love to work alongside him at the potting bench.\u00a0 Reading through Bulb Forcing<\/em>, I feel as if I already have.<\/p>\n Bulb Forcing<\/em> can be obtained from major book vendors, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most of us who live in cold winter climates get sick of winter just about the time that sleet, ice, snow and gray days really get going.\u00a0 That depressing period generally starts after the first of the year, when the holiday excitement is long gone, along with the decorations.\u00a0 Living spaces are bare, New Year\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[271,270,274,278,276,279,277,282,283,273,280,281,272,275],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-art-wolk","tag-bulb-forcing","tag-container-gardening","tag-container-gardening-tips","tag-daffodils","tag-flower-bulbs","tag-hyacinths","tag-indoor-plants","tag-philadelphia-flower-show","tag-potted-bulbs","tag-specialized-gardening-techniques","tag-specialty-gardens","tag-spring-flowering-bulbs","tag-tulips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}