Plants – Bargains in the Clearance Aisle

On By TimelessladyIn Plants
Christmas Red Tulips/Longwood Gardens Conservatory-Friday Foto Friends

What is that oddball bag lying beside my carrots in the vegetable bin of my refrigerator?

What looks like small onions or shallots is really a bag of Spring-Flowering bulbs, leftovers from my Autumn plantings.

While you’re looking for Christmas trees and poinsettias in big box stores or garden nurseries, take a moment to check if there are any leftover Autumn bulbs on clearance. Often a business will slash prices of out of season plants to the point of almost giving them away. I mimic frosty cold by storing unplanted bulbs as the Gardening-Know-How site suggests:

The highest chilling temperature is around 40 degrees F. (4 C.), so chilling bulbs in the refrigerator is ideal. Just be sure not to store them near any fruit, as the released ethylene gas reduces bloom. Store the bulbs in the refrigerator in a ventilated mesh bag.
~ Gardening Know How/How to Chill Flowering Bulbs

The article has many fine tips on how to select, chill and plant the bulbs in Spring. I have about three months to come up with good ideas for forcing these beauties. The bright flowers and colors will certainly be an antidote for the doleful greys of late-winter skies.

The glorious red tulips are part of Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Goodbye November!

23 thoughts on “Plants – Bargains in the Clearance Aisle”

    1. Timelesslady

      Thanks Carol…I always have a lot of daffodils, they multiply for me every year. The tulips only do well for a season or two, but the display is worth putting new bulbs in every couple of years.

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    1. Timelesslady

      I’ve never tried forcing canna bulbs. They also have great colors. I know the conservatory I visit often has cannas in the winter, but they have those big greenhouses to do the forcing in.

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  6. Here in Holland we roll tulip bulbs in a newspaper and put them on a shelf in the barn. Or we put them in a cardboard egg carton.

    Your mixed colors are so nice.

    Dutch tips: Always plant bulbs in an odd number. This will give you a more natural effect. And… when it is cold in January, you cab use the branches of a Christmas tree to cover your bulbs 🙂

    Veel plezier met je tulpen!

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    1. Timelesslady

      Thanks…they were growing in the Longwood Garden’s Conservatory at some point…I didn’t write down the date. I’m glad I had them on file.

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    1. Timelesslady

      I will probably grow these tulips inside. I will plant the after the required cool down time and then cross my fingers that they will sprout and bloom indoors.

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  12. Pingback: Planting – Clearance Aisle Update/Forcing Tulips – MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

  13. Pingback: Plants – Forced Tulip Update – MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

Thanks so much for your comments. They fill my life with sunshine.