I live in Alaska and didn't get my bulbs until after december, I read
that you can start bulbs in spagnum in planters before you plant them
after the frost. Will this help as the growing season can be short up
here.

Jack

In article .com,
"armyguy" wrote:

I live in Alaska and didn't get my bulbs until after december, I read
that you can start bulbs in spagnum in planters before you plant them
after the frost. Will this help as the growing season can be short up
here.

Jack


I have the same problem as you, and I'm near Homer, Alaska.
I still have 3 feet of snow on the ground.

I don't know if this will work, but it's what I'm going to try:

pot up the bulbs in potting soil; put them in the bottom of
the fridge or in the neighbor's root cellar or dig a hole in
a snowbank and bury the pots. Let the bulbs grow some roots.
(They can't freeze, but being buried in deep snow won't hurt
them. A root cellar or fridge would be *great* if you have
room in the fridge or access to a root cellar, garage,
basement or something like that.)

When the ground thaws, I'll try to carefully transplant the
bulbs into the ground.

I don't know if it'll work or not. My bulbs spent most
of the winter in the fridge, in their bags. They're in the
kitchen now, and are starting to sprout a little bit of green.

(We got tired of not having room for food. I have
laying hens and have to store 10-12 dozen eggs/week in
the fridge, between my market days, when I sell the eggs.)

A pot of Angelique tulips that I potted up and left in the
fridge all winteris on my windowsill right now, in bloom.
Pink doubles -- really nice, especially with so much snow
still on the ground outside, but the pot of daffodils I forced
just grew leaves -- no flowers yet. (?)


Jan Flora
Homer, Alaska
Zone 3 or 4, depending on who you ask

--
The way to a man's heart is between the fourth and the fifth rib.

well, when I went down stairs (the "crawl space" gotta love alaska) I
found that all my tulip and related bulbs had been attacked by
something that looked like a fat brown aphid, I have lost at least half
of them and guess that the garden will be of daffodils as those seem
the only thing that survived.

I took the bulbs, shed the skins to get at the bug then sprayed them
down with neem oil. Hope it works.

Jack
P.s. it's easier to get to the heart by going under the ribcage at the
sternal notch, however you will need at least a 2 1/2" blade and "push
Hard"

An "S" cut is more preferred than twisting but they both do thier job