One more bulb post~ maybe!

Our wonderful neighbor has allowed me to use her greenhouse! This is the neighbor with the big red barn where our sweet cows live in the winter. It is red too.

She laughed when I asked if she was using the little red greenhouse this winter. Then she looked at me funny when she realized I wasn’t joking and invited me to plant whatever I wished. So I did!

300 daffodil bulbs (Sorry about this pic. My fingers are in focus but not the bulb. Hmph.)

These are not our grandmother’s big, old, bright yellow (read: boring) King Alfred daffodils. These are lovely flowers with alluring names and delightful fragrances like Pink Charm, Yellow Cheerfulness, Replete.

Here a couple of images from the net.

Aren’t they pretty?

The plan is to grow these in the greenhouse the first year to see if they meet my rigorous standards for cut flowers. If they pass, I’ll dig them and replant the bulbs in the “daffodil field”, a specific location on the property set aside just for these lovely narcissus. I imagine future waves of delicious vibrant colors in the early spring when we are so color deprived. They come when we need them the most.

I didn’t plant the bulbs in the typical bulb fashion: one hole, one bulb. Instead I dug a trench and placed them really close together, but not quite touching. Sort of like eggs in a carton. (It’s hard to see because of all the bulb skins littering the ground. I left those little bits to compost down.) Since they are only staying here a year, I don’t have to worry about them running out of room when they multiply. Plus the flowers will be easy to harvest. Working smarter, not harder is (one) of my mottos.

After placing in the trench, I feathered in a layer of soil so as not to bump the bulbs. The tips need to be facing up. Then covered them completely with about 4 inches of soil. We should know in a couple of months how this greenhouse experiment worked.

In the meantime, they sleep.

Okay, OKAY~ Just ONE MORE bulb note! Just ONE more! (At least until spring) The week I found the frozen tulips on the porch, I also found a mesh bag of 50 Bridal Crown daffodil bulbs. Frozen solid. 😦 Everyone of them were soft when they thawed. But, being the everlasting optimist, I planted them anyway.

Look what I discovered yesterday!

Tiny little sprouts!

So I scooped the planter out of the garage and deposited it in the basement garden underlights. I don’t think the cooling time was long enough so these stems will probably be short. But they seem to be alive and growing!

Yippee!

Paradise~ just north of nowhere

 

What’s for supper: Pork chalupas! Yum!

Weather: Rain, mainly before 11am. High near 48. Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Tonight rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%.