we dig bulbs

Bulbs are the eggs of the flower world, so it's no wonder I love them so.  Inside of each bulb is everything the flower needs to produce strikingly beautiful flowers, so different from your run of the mill garden flowers.  They spend most of the year beneath the dirt, waiting to put on a amazing show that only lasts a few weeks, but is definitely worth the wait. 

Forcing Amaryllis bulbs during the Christmas season is a tradition we always look forward to.

Last year the bulbs I wanted sold out very quickly, so this year, I pre-ordered our Christmas bulbs.    

Pre ordering was a good idea because it ensured I'd have the exact bulbs I wanted, but it also meant they'd be here a bit earlier than usual. 

The bulbs arrived a couple of weeks ago with a note advising me to plant them right away or store them in a dark place that was around 55 degrees.  The dark I could manage, but there is no place in or around my house that is anywhere near 55 degrees.  When the bulbs arrived it was still hitting the high 90's in the afternoon and I hoped they hadn't been damaged by heat while they were shipped. 

If I had planted the bulbs when I received them, they would have bloomed long before Christmas, so I left them in their paper sacks and in the box they were shipped in, and kept them in the coolest darkest place my house had to offer. 

Yesterday, when I took them out to check on them, and instead of looking like the bulb above, they looked like this:

Bulbs are ridiculously easy to force, all you have to do is drop them in the dirt and water them.  The only warning they come with is, "Plant them BEFORE the sprout."  Um.  Yeah.  Looks like we missed that by a couple of weeks.  I'm sure this is not a complete bulb emergency.  They should green up and do just fine.  I hope. 

What I do every year with Amaryllis bulbs is called "forcing." You plant them inside, which simulates the conditions of spring, causing the flowers to grow. Planting bulbs outside is a bit trickier in Central Texas. Most of the bulbs I love require a long, cold, frozen winter to produce beautiful flowers in the spring.  

I've tried planting bulbs outside in the past, resulting in various degrees of failure.  This year I discovered a website called The Southern Bulb Company that specializes in bulbs that grow well right here in Texas. 

Excited about the prospect of bulbs blooming in my front yard, I ordered five different kinds of flowers, and yesterday, I put them in the dirt. 

This is a trial run for me, so I made sure I marked the spot where each bulb was planted with a popsicle stick.  That way, if some of the bulbs don't come up, it will be a little easier to figure out what kind of bulb it was. 

I also drew a simple diagram of each tree and the bulbs I planted there. 

And, I kept all of the labels in a spiral notebook, which should make re ordering any impressive bulbs a little easier. 

The bulbs I planted outside are bulbs that have been found in the gardens of very old houses and abandoned lots here in Central Texas. They are considered antique or heirloom bulbs and have proven they can survive our hot summers and mild winters and other Texas extremes.  I'm excited and hope to see flowers as early as February.  Here's what I planted yesterday. 

The Chinese Sacred Lily is considered a winter bloomer. 

We could see flowers in February. 

The Golden Dawn Narcissus - both of the Narcissus bulb types I planted are supposed to multiply, creating more bulbs each year. 

The Grand Primo Narcissus

The Blue Peruviana Scilla - I'm always looking for blue flowers.

The Tinka Tulip - Most tulips would have to be dug up and refrigerated over the winter.  These are supposed to be fantastic Texas Tulips that come back year after year with no need for a cold winter.

I'm happy to have all of my bulbs in the dirt and excited to see what happens over the next few months...