Group Purchase Blooms(Hamad/UK)

[Hamad Ahmed Kisana]

Tahir Sparaxis are very hardy bulbs

yes khan sb you are right sparaxix are hardy and i think babiana are also hardy but i think they died due to sudden change in temperature.they arrived here in June in very harsh weather so they died.
khan sb can i ask that why you sale that beautiful place although very personal question.....i can imagine your beautiful garden in Abbottabad with plants like cyclamens,begonias,hydrengias,azaleas,and many more..just asked because it is wish of every gardener to have a garden in place like Abbottabad and you sale that beautiful garden.

[mikhurram]

Freesia's and sparaxis are commonly available in Lahore, Islamabad these days and they are extremely hardy bulbs. Iphenions & Muscari are often termed as bad bulbs owning to their invasive nature and are not worth ordering. Do make sure that the freesias are lifted from the ground at end of April. If left even in a raised bed with good drainage merely 50% will sprout in the coming season. Thus it's advisable to lift them from the ground at end of April and store them in refrigerated chillers from May till August. Or these Freesia bulbs can also be stored at room temperature in net as advised by Brig Arif Sahib. Single Freesia's are better than double freesia's.

[UMARKHANMARDAN]

Oh no Hamad you can ask its ok.I left Abbttabad, its very hard to own a house there.One has to keep it maintain every time.Yes i really enjoyed so many plants that i can not enjoy here.Seth Asghar was my teacher in gardening.He has great collection of Peony,Cyclamen, Primula, Dahlia,Azalea,Tuberous Begonia.The techneque he thought to me for very fine & expensive seeds was never sprinkle water from above.Place the pot in shallow water & let it get through seepage.Once its moist remove the water from the base.I used this for Cyclamens & Primulas.Another plant which is very succesful there is Gerenium.

[Hamad]

Bulbs are hard to grow and there are so many things involved in their success and failure, according to my understanding the bulbs fail to grow because they were not in soil (planted) at the right time and the reason was the time of our purchase was a bit late and then they skipped the cycle and went into dormancy again and bulbs are not like seeds they cant be kept for longer, like Scillia in current purchase are sprouting already even though they were not planted because if their clock tell them to break the dormancy and start growing they grow in most cases and in some cases if not like Glads even then they will die and will not sprout next season because they behave different as compare to seeds, seeds can be kept for longer but bulbs 99.99% will die and that was the case in 1st purchase but this purchase will behave different because this is the right time to plant them and hope you will get better results.


For the same reason you cant buy off season bulbs but you may get off season seeds, most of the suppliers put the bulbs on sale at the end of the season because they cant keep them for the next time and they prefer to sell them at any price they can get considering something is better then nothing.

Tip to keep bulbs for the next season if purchased at the end of the season
according to International bulbs society if you purchase something (Bulbs) at the end of the season don't keep them for the next time its always better to plant them and let them grow to complete the cycle, they may not flower or perform and then you can dig them up and store them for the next season, in this way the casualty rate will be very low and you will still have something for the next season instead.

My experience
I have first-hand experience with Glads, once I bought Glads on an offer (quite cheap) and plant them in August, they were not looking good and shrinking already but I took the chance and planted them and all sprouted and couple of them flowered and I manage to save half of them and that was in Pakistan Wah Cantt.

the above conclusion was according to the situation but the reason could be many more as I have said earlier there could be many factors involved in the failure and success of a bulb as they are too complex to understand, but we are not giving up and getting there with the experience and experiments .


I hope this will help

Hamad

[Hamad]

in new group purchase Freesia, Glads, Anemone and Scillia are sprouting for me.

Hamad

[Tahir Khan]

Nice

[Munir]

Planted mine on 6 Nov; no signs yet of sprouting except Glads Nanus which all 16 have sprouted & grown 1-6 inches.Any need of fertilizing?

[mikhurram]

Freesia, Anemones, Amaryllis, Lilliums, Dutch Iris, Sparaxis, Ixia and gladiolus etc these days are available at Pride Seeds, Moregreen and Chanan Din Seeds. One should import those bulbs which are not readily available in Pakistan. Munir Sahib fertilization at this stage is not necessary but can given during active growth period only.

[jdashraf]

Planted mine on 6 Nov; no signs yet of sprouting except Glads Nanus which all 16 have sprouted & grown 1-6 inches.Any need of fertilizing?

Same here, what are the water requirements for these bulbs?

[Hamad]

No special care and no fertilizer yet and in my case if my bulbs will not sprout then one of the factors could be my mali, because he is quite conventional and old-school but no complains as he is a loyal person and for due reason I just ignore or don't bother, but so far results are quite good.

Javaid sb water them generously at the time of planting and try not to water until you observe/see any signs of growth and if the medium get too dry then water them but just a little because with more water they get rotted and may not sprout, minmum water before growth and sufficient water after growth until flowering and after flower died back again less water and stop when the foilage turned yellow because that is the time to dig them and store them or to leave them in soil while they are dormant.

hope they will also bloom for you guys fingers crossed.

Hamad