Purchase the healthiest, best bulbs you can afford. Larger bulbs tend to produce bigger flowers. Avoid any that are desiccated and withered, or display symptoms of mold or rot. These are all signs of damage caused by improper storage. Discard any that have begun to sprout premature shoots. Bulbs overexposed to light or warmth in storage can begin leaf growth. Their immature root systems may ultimately result in weak, floppy stems.
Reputable nurseries and mail-order catalogues are the most reliable sources of bulbs that grow true to name. This is important if you're worried about color co-ordination. It's frustrating when the statuesque white Darwin Tulips you planted emerge as orange Parrots, right beside your Pink Darwins.
The Holland bulb trade is enormous and sometimes mix-ups in labeling occur during shipping and transportation. However, sources specializing in plants sell only premium bulbs and handle them carefully. Mislabeling occurs less often and, when it does, orders are normally guaranteed.
| True Bulbs |
Hyacinth, Tulip and Daffodil are often classified as major or true bulbs. There are in fact many smaller, or minor, true bulbs as well, such as Scilla (Bluebells), Muscari (Grape Hyacinth), Allium, Chionadoxa and Snowdrop are some.
True bulbs are often described as a thick underground stem with a bud in which the embryo of the next year's plant is surrounded with plant tissue. Most true bulbs have the superficial appearance of onions - an oval or elliptical shape, a basal root plate, and an outer, papery sheath of tunic coat which protects their rigidly-compressed leaf scales from moisture loss.
The chief exception is Lilium, or Bulb Lily, which is easily recognized by loose, overlapping scales lacking a protective fibrous coat. An enlarged basal root system partially compensates Lily for its lack of protection, but it requires a continually moistened medium as it is never completely dormant.
Bulbs can reproduce by seeds, but they reproduce more efficiently by producing juvenile bulbs, sometimes called bulblets, usually clustered around a central parent. Some species will also produce tiny, miniature bulbs attached to the base of stems or leaves. Lilium is the most prolific in this regard. It can reproduce by seed, bulb division, and the miniature bulbs that form on its leaves and stems. It can also reproduce by scale division.
Every other season gardeners should dig and divide Tulip and Crocus to prevent overcrowding. Every three to four years they should dig up their Daffodil and Narcissus. Compact quarters result in smaller bulbs and a decline in the quantity and quality of flowers. Propagate by separating bulb offshoots, taking care to retain a portion of the parent basal plate, and plant them in a nursery bed if very small. Many offshoots will be large enough to plant directly in the garden.
| Corms |
The best-known garden corms are Crocus, Dog-Tooth Vilet, Gladiolus, and Acidanthera. Only the first two are reliably hardy. The others are classified as tender and must be lifted, stored indoors over winter, and replanted in spring. Most corms originated in equatorial regions and continue to favor warm, tropical habitats. Delicate species like Freesia or Babiana may perform adequately when spring-planted in the warmest regions of British Columbia and southern Ontario, but most Canadian gardeners will have to be content to enjoy them as pot plants.
Flattened and laterally compressed, corms are composed entirely of stem tissue and do not contain dormant flowers. A central leaf bud or dried leaf base forms a tip at the corm's center. Blossoms eventually grow from racemes or offshoots of the prominent sheathing leaves that emerge first.
Each mature corm lasts just one season. It expands all
