Bulbs

Slowly (really slowly!) begins the time of early bulbs. I already put some bulbs to work, though I did not want to. But they had their shoots above the ground so I watered them a week ago, and then came the frost. I was afraid to loose the bulbs so I put the pot inside a cool room as I mentioned in my last post. Consequently the flowers began to develop. It was delightful to see these miniature, scented flowers in today's sunshine.

There are: 3 Crocus angustifolius, 5 Iris danfordiae, 2 Crocus sp. (maybe chrysanthus? – I will see later) and two Tulipa sp. The Irises are sweetly scented, a smell that simply reminds me of SPRING.

I will write about these and other bulbous species in next posts.

Now I would like to mention one of my bad experiences with bulbs, maybe it could be useful for somebody.

I find growing bulbs in pots without a greenhouse very difficult. Especially our Hungarian winters make the gardener's life hard, but also the watering has to be learned through many losses... One must to be extremely careful with the watering can. Overwatering is fatal, but if the plants don't get enough water during spring, the result is like this:

This Crocus has dried out, the roots died, the flowers did not open and the leaves also remained undeveloped. The bulb itself is not dead, but if it gets water continuously, it rots rapidly. Ian Young has many interesting and instructive posts about this.

You must make a very well drained, sandy potting compost, and then water absolutely regularly, with much water. If the excess water can go out, then nothing is too much for these little bulbs in spring.

My problem is also our hot springs, when the pots must be protected from the heat, and feeding the bulbs is another task which I have yet to learn to obtain better results.