It's Time to Bury a Bulb

Keeyla Meadows, author, garden designer and landscape artist shows us how to color our spring beautiful.  Every March she shows off her garden to wide eyed visitors seeking color and ideas for their own gardens.  The secret behind her March garden is November planting.  Keeyla says her bulb planting time is between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.  When planting bulbs, her “rule of thumb”, which is definitely green, “is to make the depth of the hole twice the width of their diameter.” 

There are several different things that come into play as Keeyla plans her garden.  “Color is key in how I organize both my planting zones and bulb selection,” she emphasizes to the SF Chronicle.  The next focal point is designing your area with different shapes and sizes of beds and pots to plant in.  Once you have your areas ready to plant note the different sizes and colors of the bulbs you picked and make each section an assortment of color. 

With so many alluring choices it can be hard to choose your selection of bulbs.  If you are just starting out choose the practical approach.  To Keeyla this means bulbs that are “easy, reliable, will return and even multiply.”  These include Blue Dicks, Sparaxis, Homeria, Lilies, Crocus, and many more.  The very last step to planting grandeur is adding wildflower seeds to your pots which will invite friendly pollinators.  Once spring comes you won’t believe your eyes as your flowers began to bloom with all the zest of life. 

For more information on Keeyla Meadows, her art, videos, gardens and books check out her website at www.keeylameadows.net. 

Along with the Keeyla Meadows favorites we get advice from Meghan Shinn who wrote in hortmag.com. 

“Paperwhite narcissus is a favorite bulb to force into bloom indoors for the holiday season. They typically take 3 to 6 weeks to grow and bloom once they are potted up. 

Unlike other bulbs, paperwhites do not need a chilling period to bloom. To plant them, line a container with stones, marbles or beads and simply nestle the bulbs into place among them. Add water and place the container in a bright, cool place.

Paperwhites have the tendency to flop over just as they come into bloom, making stakes or other supports necessary. However, if you can keep them from growing too tall, you can also make them sturdier. Here is the trick for shorter, sturdier paperwhites:

Once roots show and the bulb’s stem is an inch or 2 tall, replace the water with a solution of 1 part hard liquor to 7 parts water. If you’re a teetotaler—or don’t feel like sharing your Jack with flower bulbs—you can use rubbing alcohol instead, but you will need to dilute it more. (Liquor is 40 percent alcohol; rubbing alcohol is 70 or 100 percent alcohol, and you’re aiming for a solution that’s 4 to 6 percent alcohol.) The sugars in beer and wine make them unacceptable choices to serve your paperwhites.

Use your alcohol solution anytime the liquid level in the container looks low. The result will be paperwhites with stems about a third shorter than they’d be without the booze. This method has been tested and proven sound by Cornell University.”

Article written by Meghan Shinn www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/sturdier-paperwhites