Forcing growth

[AhmadIrfan]

Hi, i just bought some local gladiolus bulbs they dont look too fresh like the imported ones but they are of good size, i was wondering if i could refrigerate them to force some growth before planting them like we do for the hyacinth bulbs.

[Izhar]

no need to force them... simply plant them in late October...

[tweedle2009]

I got lots of allium globemaster bulbs a month and a half ago.I have refridgerated them in a box full of moist coco peat.Plan to take them out in sun after a couple of weeks.

[AhmadIrfan]

I,ve got some hyacinth bulbs in the fridge for a while but cant find the glass vases to plant them in, Sunny view seed shop along with chanan din and arain seed shop are stocked out. Just planted the liliums yesterday had them in the fridge for about 2 weeks, do let me know where'd you got the allium globe master bulbs from havent seen them in lahore , its to nice to plant something different other than the usual.

Doesn't anyone has a purple coloured daylilly?? saw one a few years back in a government nursery cant seem to get my hands on one.

[tweedle2009]

Most of the species you mentioned get enough winter chill even without refridgeration.Allium do require more chill hours than we get here in Dec and Jan so it's optimum to chill a couple of months before you plant them out. I am in love with daylilies. They just keep doing well even in neglect for me ... the flowers are out of the world, especially the ruffled ones.

[khabbab]

I,ve got some hyacinth bulbs in the fridge for a while but cant find the glass vases to plant them in, Sunny view seed shop along with chanan din and arain seed shop are stocked out. Just planted the liliums yesterday had them in the fridge for about 2 weeks, do let me know where'd you got the allium globe master bulbs from havent seen them in lahore , its to nice to plant something different other than the usual.

Doesn't anyone has a purple coloured daylilly?? saw one a few years back in a government nursery cant seem to get my hands on one.

You can force hyacinth in normal Jam bottle or even in fish jar. In fact you can grow them in normal plain drinking glass

Purple day lily is available at Pride seeds lahore but it is single one.

[AhmadIrfan]

You can force hyacinth in normal Jam bottle or even in fish jar. In fact you can grow them in normal plain drinking glass





I know but they dont look nice in jam bottles, presentation counts i'v got 5 glass vases left from last year need 7 more.

Can anyone recommend a nursery for buying cheap japanese chrysanthum ( gul-e- doudi)?

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Hello,
I live in Lahore
I am going to plant 10 bulbs of Allium Globe master for the first time.
I understand they bloom in May like Haemanthus multiflorus.
I plant my stored bulbs of Haemanthus in early spring and the blooms appear in early May before the foliage. The timing remains the same even when the bulbs are left in the ground.
SHOULD I treat the Globe master the same way? Or should I plant it now?
If planted now, when should I expect it to sprout?
Some say the bulbs must be chilled before planting if so for how long?
From the net I gather that they should be planted in fall, and they bloom in May (perhaps to get a natural chilling).
I have a feeling that it will be a failure, if I am lucky I might get blooms the first year.
If they are a failure in south USA they stand no chance in Lahore

[khabbab]

Hello,
I live in Lahore
I am going to plant 10 bulbs of Allium Globe master for the first time.
I understand they bloom in May like Haemanthus multiflorus.
I plant my stored bulbs of Haemanthus in early spring and the blooms appear in early May before the foliage. The timing remains the same even when the bulbs are left in the ground.
SHOULD I treat the Globe master the same way? Or should I plant it now?
If planted now, when should I expect it to sprout?
Some say the bulbs must be chilled before planting if so for how long?
From the net I gather that they should be planted in fall, and they bloom in May (perhaps to get a natural chilling).
I have a feeling that it will be a failure, if I am lucky I might get blooms the first year.
If they are a failure in south USA they stand no chance in Lahore

They are a failure in south USA so slim chances of their success in lahore. But i suggest you chill at least half of them. Start planting them from Nov 1st. Then plant remaining on Nov 15th. Alliums flower in summer i know but not in the summer of lahore. If chilling is what is required for producing buds then how come the buds will form in extreme summer heat of May?? In my opinion think of them like clematis. Large flowering clematis have less chances of success in lahore. Small flowering clematis can grow good in lahore. Beautiful large flowering alliums less chances, while small flowering alliums with less beauty have greater chances. Examples are molly and tuberosum.

I think if the bulbs are sprouted in some cool area like murree and then they are planted in lahore then they might bloom here. If they sprout during chilling period in fridge then there are chances otherwise very few chances of bloom. They did sprout for me in lahore and strangely they grew next year as well but no flowering. I discarded them along with agapanthus. Although my allium bulbs were of poor quality and i did not chill them as well.

But unless some veteran gardeners like you will experiment with these difficult bulbs, how come the novices like me will learn

[tweedle2009]

The allium bulbs we get in Lahore from local vendors include allium gladiator and gigantea.They come from Islamabad where they donot get enough chill.Alliums need more winter chill than other bulbs ... around 500-600 chill hours.If they needed like 200-300 hours then winter chill in the months of december and january would suffice.But since this is not the case, we need to provide them extra couple of months of chill by placing them in refridgerator.I have mine in refridgerator for the past one and a half month and I'll continue to do so for another 15-20 days untill night temps come down to 10C.I'll start planting them from Nov 5 to Nov 25.They should flower in March or april.

@ Khabbab

Now you can say large flowering clematis also survive and flower in Lahore.I imported 15 varieties including Gypsy Queen, Blue Crystal, Florida Sieboldii etc and they are all doing well.They were imported in April as roots and started sprouting during the transit.They started flowering in June and kept flowering until September.A couple of varieties didn't make it but 13 did.Montanas, Florida, viticellas and others did.