Bulbs!

About a week before Christmas, I realized I had not purchased any hyacinth bulbs for forcing in hyacinth vases. I checked several ‘discount’ stores to see if they had some still in stock, but no luck. So, on a bright Sunday afternoon, I went to a local greenhouse and they still had some bulbs that they were planning to also start in vases. I bought two packs, which was about 20 bulbs, and also purchased a bag of crocus corms for forcing, oh and an amaryllis bulb even though I had already purchased 3 of these elsewhere. I also discovered that even on a busy shopping day on the weekend before Christmas, when the mall is packed and there is no parking, you can still go to a greenhouse, have your choice of parking spots and get individual one on one attention from the sales staff!

After the holidays, once I had taken down the Christmas tree and safely packed up all of the holiday trimmings, I got out my dozen or so hyacinth vases collected over several years, and three tiny crocus vases, and started my bulbs and corms. Those I had left over, I went ahead and potted up into several pots. Already I am seeing lots of roots and shoots starting to come out. I’m looking forward to the scent I’ll have once all of these are blooming. And, I have enough pots of them to share with family and friends!

Already blooming in the sun room are one of four amaryllis bulbs, a zygopetalum orchid (which has quite a scent), another orchid that I don’t know the name of and a couple of African violets given to me as a Christmas gift. Yet to bloom, but with buds, are a velvet orchid and another orchid that I also don’t know the name of it, but it has a striped leaf. I can’t resist variegated and striped leave plants, which is why I own that orchid!

My next ‘gardening chore’ is to go through all the seed catalogs and put in an order for this year’s seeds. While I am at it, I am thinking of ordering a Meyer Lemon Tree. I saw a gardening show with a feature about this and it seems like something I should have!