PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY BULBS

[Madiha Humbal]

Dear gardeners,
of all the annuals i have fallen in love with bulbs. They are fascinating creation of Almighty Allah. No matter what happens i cant seem to resist them although i have failed with almost all of them. Last autumn, in november, i ordered a few bulbs of gladioli, anemone, dutch iris, hyacinth and freesia. i was only able to get flowers from hyacinth. i lost all of my anemone bulbs in the soil, they kept on producing leaves but did not flower and then disappeared totally. the rest of my bulbs did bot bloom also but they were very healthy plants and then in spring (in march) they started to wither and i lost almost all of my gladioli bulbs. freesia is left and some of dutch iris.i had also ordered rain lily which never flowered and went into dormancy. right now my hyacinths, rain lilies, freesia and some of dutch iris are in dormancy period. then i ordered summer bulbs of day lily, agapanthis, clivia,lycoris, eucoris and football lily. i have planted them in soil and it has been almost two months but there is no sign if growth in them. i see a few roots in day lilies and clivia but the rest are unresponsive. please tell me what to do. when and how to plant them and when to buy them.i plant my bulbs in containers, and receive a full unobstructed six hours of sunlight on my patio. i have to get them right. your help is much needed. JAZAKALLAH.
Madiha Humbal

[Hamad]

you are right Madiha bulbs are indeed beautiful creation of Allah, first you have to understand bulb's behavior in general then you will be able to handle them whether they are spring flowering or summer flowering, and don't you worry about your loss/failure coz we learn from our failures and mistakes.

you may consult following topic to understand them in a better way.
http://www.gardeningpakistan.com/viewto ... =90&t=2726
also read frequently asked question, you will find most of your answers in that section

generally spring flowering bulbs like Hyacinth, Glads, Anemone and few more have to be planted at the coldest time according to KHI I cant tell you the exact month as I live in Wah near ISD/RWP and there is a big climate difference, once planted water them generously and don't water them until you see some sign of growth (water only if the soil get too dry) once they start sprouting water them generously and after flowering reduce watering and once the leaves start turning yellow stop watering and after a week or so once the foliage dry out, dig them and store them for following season.
for summer flowering bulbs plant them in spring and same watering tech applies.
Day lilies are on flowering nowadays, they should be ok and you must have purchase their fans as they don't have bulbs they got fleshy roots and they should be planted ASAP, I have never experienced Clivia and Football lily so hard to say anything Lycoris tend to bloom in fall, not right time to plant them, Eucoris (Amazon lily) should be ok, morning sun is recommended for summer flowering.
I hope this may help
for further queries you may ask, and for KHI planting months Izhar Bhai or any other member from KHI may help or guide you.

the above info was according to my limited knowledge

Hamad

[Syed Adnan]

Always be careful with watering the bulbs as they can easily get rotten, keep them on dry side.

[Madiha Humbal]

JAZAKALLAH Hamad Sahab ans Syed Adnan Sahab for your help. one more question please. is it time to plant my dormant rain lillies????? they have been dormant for almost three months now???? if yeas please also advice the number of rain lillies per 12 inch pot and the depth in which they should be planted. also please mention the sun requirements of the rain lillies.

[Syed Adnan]

Rain Lillies are very easy to grow, I lived in Lahore where these are perennials, you can plant them now, no problem, these love to be bunched together so no worries even if you plant few in a pot soon they will cover the whole pot. A care free easy to grow plant.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Rain lilies are could not care less plants, the attitude is shared by both the plant and the gardener. In Karachi they should be ever green and bloom through out the year, the more the better feed them like any other bulb.

[Madiha Humbal]

dear gardeners,
this summer i had bought two tubers of tuberoses. they are going dormant, and as my information suggests, they will start producing more tubers. they are in little 7 inch nursery pots. my question is should i shift them to larger pots for ease of productions or shift them when thier blooming season starts? also is it true that a tuber produces one tuberose and then it is unable to do so again? and it withers away after producing new tubers? if so, shall the new tubers be devided from the old ones to prevent rotting?

[Syed Adnan]

Tube Rose normally blooms in summers in PAK (May onwards) , you have to put them in soil & they will remain flowerless until winter passes. During winter donot over water as they can rot easily.

You may also store them in peatmoss or saw dust in a card board until winter passed.

Tube rose are heavy feeders of fertilizers, provide abundance of manure, compost or balanced 10-10-10 NPK. this is must to get good blooms next year.

Regarding "The one produce flower will not flower again" ....i think it is a myth. It should flower next season again, but remove the dead flower stalk after bloom.

Any type of pot is good the bigger the better , all pots should have good drainage for any kind of bulbuous plant.

[Madiha Humbal]

thankyou very much adnan sahab for your help. i have already reduced watering to twice a week. is it enough or shall i reduce them further more. i plan to shift them in larger after the winter season is over.

[Syed Adnan]

Depending on your pot size and soil structure, i never water bulbs (which have no roots) for 15 to 20 days in winter even more, the top soil may seems to be dried but internally it carries water, just sprinkle some water to keep it moist in dry winters and keep on checking the soil moisture though either bottom drain hole or digging a small amount of soil, it will give you a fair idea of how long you can wait for watering.

A thursty bulb is better than a dead one.