Bulbous plant’s Guide and FAQs

[Hamad]

following are the average climatic conditions of Karachi for the year 2012, to give us an idea (what to expect in 2013/2014) and to plan ahead

[Hamad]

following are the average climatic conditions of Peshawar for the year 2012, to give us an idea (what to expect in 2013/2014) and to plan ahead

[Hamad]

Munir Wrote:Very well explained.Earlier some or perhaps most of us may have been guessing or not even attempting to understand. Now certainly made easy by you. Thank you,Hamad.
Yet, I ll continue & prefer to use word "bulb" for all categories.

Farhan Ahmed wrote:
Great effort. Very detailed account

Hamad AK wrote:
we appreciate your hard work. ..great job.now it is easy for us to understand bulbous plants..a civilian salute from me...
continue your efforts

Thank you all

Hamad

[jdashraf]

An excellant and commendable effort.

[Hamad]

An excellant and commendable effort.

Thanks JDAshraf

Hamad

[KBW]

Great effort Hamad sb. I am sure it will help many of us to understand the subject better and many of us will now categorise the bulbous plants as true bulbs, rhizomes, tubers, corms etc while referring to them. Indeed they are all very different plants and need different handling. Generally speaking, all bulbous plants (true bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes etc) come from such area where either the food is not available all year round or the weather is not growth friendly all year round. In such conditions, bulbous plants, over the years, have developed their way of storing food for the harsher days when it is not available. They go dormant during periods of stress / periods when food is not abundantly available. Understanding of this aspect really helps in growing bulbs. I got too interested in growing bulbs in early 1990s and ended up forming a library of books about various types of bulbs, techniques for growing etc (which I still have back in Pakistan). In the end I realised that some of them can be grown here and some of them can not be grown in most parts of Pakistan. The beauty of bulb growing lies in the understanding of what can be successfully grown in various Pakistani climates and not to get too tempted to grow everything beautiful that one comes across in catalogues / on various websites.

BTW, the first hardiness table that describes the hardiness zones looks a bit strange to me. Could you please check it's authenticity / source? Another vital factor that one may like to keep in mind is the natural habitat of a bulbous plant. Himalayan / central asian mountains and South African mountain are a home to a large variety of bulbous plants but they do not have a similar climate. Therefore, a true bulb for example, which has its roots in Himalayan mountains might not behave the same way as another true bulb originating from South Africa.

Best regards and thanks a lot for the effort.

[Munir]

Hamad, have you recieved any detailed input from KBW for your project regarding Tubers? If not, do remind him, since he looks to be one of the more knowledgeable & experienced person here in this field,as also in many other aspects of gardening.Better hurry up, lest/before he takes another break.

[rafique]

Really commendable effort Hammad sb. I would like to konw the source and athenticity of the information?
And is this information is available for other cities of pakistan

[Tahir Khan]

Nicely explained FAQs about bulbs.

[KBW]

Hamad, have you recieved any detailed input from KBW for your project regarding Tubers? If not, do remind him, since he looks to be one of the more knowledgeable & experienced person here in this field,as also in many other aspects of gardening.Better hurry up, lest/before he takes another break.

Munir bhai, I will do whatever I can in areas where I have practical experience. Giving an advise to someone is a big responsibility which I try to fulfill by sharing my personal practical experience, only, if that could be of any help to the other person.

BTW, fortunately or unfortunately we are living in an era of genetic engineering which on one side has given us unbeleivable results conversely we also experience vast uncertainity in plant behaviour. Most of these hybrids developed in labs / controlled environment do not get sufficient exposure to nature and do not develp their own natural systems to fight abnormalities which are a part of nature. They might not even inherit all traits that their parents used to possess. So it's quite a fluke growing these hybrids because all of them may not respond the same way as their ancestors were known to perform. This is the dilemma. One simple solution that I follow is to buy relatively old hybrids which are there in market for at least 5-10 years and have been grown successfully in different parts of the world, specially Pakistan. You know it is too tempting and easy to buy these hybrids on various websites nowadays but we must know that all of them will never perform in our environment as mentioned in the website.

I do not believe in generalisation and have wasted lot of money in the past following the generalised advises given in book, written in some other country having an absolutely different climate. One better way could be to share the performance of a particular cultivar of a particular specie of bulbous plant in the relevant section so that members know about the performance of a particular cultivar. Another easy way is to grow those bulbs only which are there in market since many years (old varieties). But if we want authentic input, we will have to go specie by specie and with that, cultivar by cultivar.

With regard to breaks, I have been traveling a lot recently and now trying to settle down at a new plance. Have already started updating the rose database and will keep doing as and when I get time. Today, I was free as my fishing trip was cancelled and could spare time for gardening.
regards