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06-01-2004, 06:48 PM

The message
from (paghat) contains these words:

In article , Sacha
wrote:

This subject seems to come up every year, often once snowdrop time
is past.
So - just a hint to any new gardeners he snowdrops do best when planted
'in the green'. IOW, don't buy those packets of bulbs from GCs or
supermarkets, buy them (or request them from a friend) while they're still
'in the green'. That is, they've finished flowering but still have their
leaves. Take them straight home and plant them where you want them to
flower next year.

I assume this means that if I buy a bunch of potted ones from a local
nursery to add here & there, there won't be any issue of bulbs' energy
depletion as when narcissi are forced for nursery sales? Narcissus
varieties seem to take a couple years or never recovering from being
forced on production lines for pre-season sales, though the same varieties
do superbly if planted as bulbs in autumn. Is it the snowdrops' big root
system that makes them feel differently about being treated as
transplanted spring perennials?

If you dig up large crowded clumps of garden narcissi after flowering,
separate them and replant immediately, the leaves will look untidier and
disappear a little earlier than they would have done; but the bulbs
themselves will re-establish just as easily as snowdrops do by the same
method. The larger bulbs will flower the following year.

Janet