After last year’s winter-that-wouldn’t-die I decided I wanted to force some tulip bulbs again after a two-year hiatus. My biggest challenge is always getting them through the required chilling period that lasts 12 to 16 weeks. I only have so much room in the refrigerator!
In the past I’ve always potted up my bulbs and stuck them in the crisper drawer. But when the bulb catalogs arrived in August I had a heckuva time picking out just one or two of those beautiful tulip cultivars. And I really wanted to grow some hyacinths, too. I love their intoxicating scent. I decided to do a little research to find out if there were any other ways to force bulbs that wouldn’t take up so much space.
I learned that you can put potted-up bulbs in a bucket or container and bury them in a flowerbed to be dug up in January (yeah, RIGHT, I’ll just shovel off this 3 feet of snow first and then drill through the frozen ground—no thank you). You can also put them in a basement or unheated garage. My basement is heated, so that was out. The garage is very well-insulated and the bulbs need a temperature of 45 degrees or lower to be properly chilled. My garage temperature won’t get that low until late November or early December.
I thought I’d found a solution when one notable garden expert explained that he lets his bulbs sit in the crisper drawer in their mesh bags until the chilling period is over. Then he pots them up. That sounded like a dream come true. I could fit a lot of loose bulbs in my crisper drawer. I could see myself wading through an entire room full of flowers while the winter winds howled outside.
I was very excited, but my new plan seemed a little bit too good to be true, so I investigated a bit further. As it turns out the bulbs would be fine during their loose chilling period, but they wouldn’t form any roots. If I potted them up in January it would take them many more weeks to grow roots and leaves. They probably wouldn’t bloom until March or April. So much for brightening up my winter days.
I came up with a compromise of sorts. From what I read it really doesn’t hurt the bulbs to sit loosely in the refrigerator drawer for a few weeks, so I will keep them there until early December when the garage is cold enough for them. But just in case that plan is a miserable failure I also potted up some of the bulbs and stuck them in the crisper drawer like I’ve done in the past.
Either way I hope to have some fresh flowers surrounding me in late January or early February.