Flower bulbs
There are five purposes for writing this special post:
First, now is the stage when bulbous flowers, such as tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils, are beginning to wither. Everyone should hurry up to raise the bulbs and strive to make them bloom again next year, and completely eliminate the misunderstanding that these flowers are "disposable".
Second, while these bulbous flowers are about to fade out of the flower market, flower lovers who like to raise flowers and experiment with re-flowering can quickly go to the flower market to buy some valuable varieties that have passed their flowering period for collection and planting (usually they are cheaper at this time).
Third, you can seize the last time to plant some imported lily bulbs, hoping that the most representative bulbous flower lily will soon bloom gorgeous flowers.
Fourth, I will share with you some of the experiences and lessons I have learned from the bulbous flowers I have raised (such as irises, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, Chinese narcissus, amaryllis, lilies, calla lilies, gladiolus, amaryllis, etc.), especially the problem of re-flowering, as well as the problems and solutions that everyone usually encounters during the planting process.
Fifth, for those who are new to flower growing, I strongly recommend that you start with bulbous flowers, and follow the gradual approach from bulbs - herbs - woody plants - orchids to improve your flower growing skills (I have ignored balcony vegetables, succulents and aquatic plants, so please forgive me for those who like these).
The tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in Taiziwan Park every year, the irises, callas and gladiolus by the river on Nanshan Road, and the patches of Lycoris in Hangzhou Flower Garden and Huagang Guanyu every year in late summer and early autumn are really dazzling. Including every late autumn, the streams and cracks in the rocks around Jiuxi Yanshu and Yanxialing are all popped up by the wild red Lycoris, which always makes people shine. No wonder they have become the natural protagonists of home gardening.
Friends who have just started to grow flowers ask me, what kind of flowers are good to grow, both easy to grow and beautiful? I usually ask them whether they like green plants or flowers. For those who like green plants, I usually recommend spider plants, and for those who like flowers, I usually recommend bulbous flowers, such as amaryllis. The native amaryllis is not afraid of heat or cold, dryness or wetness in Hangzhou's four distinct seasons. It will not die from freezing or heat, drought or flooding. You can plant a bulb and ignore it. From germination to flowering, it only takes about a month, without a long wait. The problem is that the flowers of this amaryllis are comparable to those of Clivia, so the enthusiasm for growing flowers has increased greatly.
Bulbous flowers are a large category in horticulture. The most common ones are irises, daffodils, amaryllis, lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, callas, gladiolus, amaryllis, etc. They belong to many families such as Liliaceae and Amaryllis. We are not plant taxonomists, so we don't need to know so much. We just need to remember that they have a common feature, that is, "ball". These bulbous flowers have some commonalities. Knowing a few of them can actually be applied to other things.
First: they all have a ball. If the ball is good, everything is good. It doesn't matter if there are no roots, no leaves, no flowers, and no buds. With this "ball", you have everything.
Second: They all grow for half a year and dormant for half a year. They are all very lazy. Most of them start to sprout in autumn, accumulate for a winter, and bloom in spring.
Third: They can be cultured completely in water to observe the growth of white roots. Of course, they can also be cultured in soil.
Fourth: The most difficult problem is that the ball usually gets smaller and smaller as it grows longer, and then the ball is gone, and you often have to buy it again.
The formation of flower buds requires many factors to stimulate them. In addition to their own strength, the most important stimulation methods are light stimulation and temperature difference stimulation. The formation of flower buds of bulbous flowers is mostly stimulated by temperature difference. In fact, Hangzhou has such a good climate with four distinct seasons. Without any stimulation, bulbous flowers can bloom again. In other words, as long as you take good care of the bulbs, it is only a matter of time before they bloom again. I have experienced the blooming of more than 10 kinds of bulbous flowers mentioned above. So the conclusion is to take good care of the bulbs.
Before talking about bulb cultivation, let's talk about the two major systems of plants, namely the nutritional organs and reproductive organs. Roots, stems, and leaves are nutritional organs, which accumulate nutrients; flowers, fruits, and seeds are reproductive organs, which consume nutrients. The bulb is nothing, it is a perversion of storing nutrients. To grow bulbs, you have to make the roots, stems, and leaves develop, and flowering and fruiting consume the nutrients accumulated by the bulbs.
Therefore, people who like bulbous flowers have a hard time! To bloom, you have to consume the nutrients of the bulbs. If you consume all the nutrients, they will not bloom next year. To grow bulbs, you have to grow more leaves, but we are not here to appreciate leaves. It's difficult---
Here are some tips I have found to make bulbous flowers bloom every year and to grow bulbs to the maximum extent.
Experience 1: Choose fertile and loose soil. The most important thing for growing bulbous flowers is the choice of soil. Choosing fertile and loose soil, the root system is well-developed and vigorous, and the ability to breathe and absorb nutrients is strong, which is naturally conducive to growing bulbs. It is recommended to add peat and rich decomposed organic fertilizer to the soil. The planting container is large and the soil layer is thick, which is naturally good for growing bulbs.
Experience 2: Separate your flowers from the mother plant as soon as possible. For example, for lilies, I always cut them off when the first flower is about to bloom and make cut flowers, and keep the stems and leaves to continue growing the bulbs. For bulbous flowers like lilies and gladiolus, which are naturally suitable for cut flowers, cutting them when they first bloom can make the flowers bloom longer. Leaving them on the plants will make them wither faster. In addition, cutting off the mother plant of the flower stalk reduces nutrient consumption and is more conducive to growing bulbs. For bulbous flowers such as daffodils and tulips, the flower stalks should also be cut off in time after the flowers bloom.
Experience 3: Create a cool climate to extend the growth time of leaves and stems, and seize the time to grow bulbs. Bulbous flowers usually like coolness and fear heat. The weather in Hangzhou feels like summer as soon as May arrives. When the weather is hot, they begin to hibernate and stop growing. The leaves turn yellow and then slowly wither, creating the illusion of death. People who grow bulbous flowers for the first time usually think that they are so cute. Therefore, only warm and cool climates are suitable for their growth. Therefore, remember to let them "stay where it is cool" after flowering. Be sure to let them stay in the soil for as long as possible. The yellow leaves are the nutrients gradually shrinking and transported to the bulbs. The leaves wither, but the roots are still absorbing nutrients in the soil!
Experience 4: Don't rashly pill the bulbs. The pilling problem among bulbous flowers is the biggest and most controversial. I think everyone has a point, but one thing to remember is that experience cannot be copied. The experience of raising and pilling bulbs in Beijing and the Netherlands is invalid in Hangzhou because the climate is different. Before talking about the topic of pilling, let's talk about the purpose. Why do we need to pill? There are two purposes for pilling. The first is that Hangzhou has a plum rain season, and the bulbs are prone to rot during the plum rain season. The second is that after a year of raising bulbs, the nutrients in the surrounding soil are exhausted, and they need to be moved to another place to supplement nutrients. So I think that potted bulbs do not need to be pilled at all. Leaving the bulbs in the soil is worry-free and trouble-free, not to mention that the soil is the warmest mother body for flowers. Just pay attention to controlling the moisture of the pot soil, especially during the plum rain season, move it to the corner of the eaves to prevent rain, keep it dry, and when the weather turns cool and the bulbs are about to sprout, dig out the bulbs and plant them separately. As for bulbs planted in the ground, they must be pilled before the plum rain season to prevent rot.
An extreme example is that by mastering the above four key points to grow bulbs, one of my Asian lily bulbs actually grew to the size of an egg, and one flower stalk produced 6 lilies, which was a bit jaw-dropping!
Bulbous flowers have a characteristic that they can usually be hydroponically grown and can bloom with only clean water, such as hyacinths, daffodils, Chinese daffodils, amaryllis, etc. So is it better to grow bulbous flowers in water or soil?
Hydroponics is a modern planting technology that changes the growth pattern of plants. Hydroponics and water culture are completely different concepts. The real hydroponic technology changes the growth characteristics of plants. It adds appropriate nutrients to the water so that the roots can grow normally in the water. However, there is no accumulation of nutrients when using clear water for cultivation. It completely consumes the nutrients accumulated by the bulbs, so it is impossible to grow bulbs. The bulbs are getting smaller and smaller, and the nutrients are exhausted. Naturally, they will not bloom in the second year.
However, mastering hydroponic technology is not a one-time thing, and the domestication process is not easy. Therefore, I think that friends who like to grow bulbous flowers in water can only treat bulbous flowers as one-time cultivation. Every year, they buy bulbs, and after the flowers bloom, they either throw away the bulbs or plant them in the soil. Maybe they can still bloom after 3-4 years of rejuvenation. The way to save trouble and labor is to plant all daffodils in the soil like me, so that they can bloom every year.
Daffodils planted in the soil can bloom every year
There is a misunderstanding. Everyone knows that Dutch tulips are the most famous. In fact, tulips are native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After being introduced to Europe, they are particularly suitable for the temperate marine climate and Mediterranean climate there, and they are enthusiastically sought after and finally developed by the Dutch. The degradation of tulip bulbs is mainly a climate problem. The climate in Hangzhou is cold and dry in winter, hot and humid in summer, which is completely different from the climate in the Netherlands. The climate there is warm and humid in winter and hot and dry in summer. After the tulips bloom in the Netherlands, there is a cool and dry climate to grow the bulbs, while we are in the hot and humid rainy season. When the weather is hot, the tulips stop growing, and when it is wet, the bulbs are easy to rot. For us, it is good enough if the bulbs do not rot. How can we expect to keep them well?
Even though the climate in the Netherlands is so suitable, it is said that the Dutch still use the most advanced greenhouse control system to cultivate bulbs of tulips and other bulbous flowers. If the cultivation technology of orchids represents the top biotechnology level of flower cultivation, then the production technology of tulip bulbs represents the most modern and commercialized flower production technology. I have tried to grow tulip bulbs in Hangzhou so that they bloom every year, but I have never been able to grow them bigger.
Instead of spending too much energy to grow tulip bulbs, it is better to buy bulbs every year and let the Dutch gardening companies make some money! After all, the cost of buying flower bulbs is much cheaper than buying other decorations and shopping in shopping malls! Instead of spending too much energy to build a fully automatic greenhouse to grow bulbs, it is better to buy bulbs and save a lot of trouble. As for last year's second-generation bulbs, it is better to grow them as a smaller version of flowers. Although they are smaller, they can bloom every year and are also quite fun.
Once the bulb rot occurs, it usually spreads quickly. It is almost rotten, and there is nothing the gods can do. If you find a rotten bulb, you must rescue it in time. Here are some of my rescue operations for rotten bulbs. What kind of rotten bulbs can be saved? You have to look at the structural diagram of the bulb first. I have to use one of my bulbs to introduce it to you, haha.
Buy a bulb and observe the structure of the bulb carefully. The most critical part is the base part of the germination root and the center of the bulb, the central bud part. See Figure 3. The rest is the pseudobulb part that provides nutrition, which does not play a big role in growth.
If the bulb unfortunately rots, then you have to quickly dig the bulb out of the planting medium, rinse it with clean water, and carefully observe the degree of rot.
If the base and central bud, that is, the center, rots, then unfortunately, even gods can't help.
If you are lucky enough that the bulb rots from the edge, which is usually very common, then please perform a small operation on the bulb like peeling apples and potatoes. It is completely possible to let it continue to grow healthily and bloom after the operation.
For example, in Figure 4, if part B of the bulb rots, cut it off, and part A retains the central bud and part of the rooting base, and it can still grow healthily and bloom.
Next, I will briefly introduce to you how to save rotten bulbs and perform a small operation on them.
A typical bulb
The base of the bulb is where the roots sprout.
The center bud and base are the two most critical parts of the bulb.
If the bulb rots, cut off part B and keep part A, and the plant will continue to grow and bloom.
I think the best way to improve flower-growing skills is to follow the four steps of bulbs-herbs-woody-orchids.
Why grow bulb flowers first? Bulb flowers are beautiful and easy to grow. Usually, if you buy a commercial bulb flower bulb, such as gladiolus or lily, it will only take 1-2 months from the time the bulb is planted to the time it blooms. Moreover, the flower buds of commercial bulbs have already formed, and almost 100% of them will bloom after being planted. There is no need to consider insecticide, the "wet when dry" principle of watering, and the light problem. Moreover, the time from the germination of the bulb to the flowering is not long. From a psychological point of view, friends who are new to flower cultivation can get great psychological satisfaction, so I recommend that you start to grow bulb flowers.
After the bulb flowers bloom, you should grow herb flowers. The herb flowers currently on the market are all grown in greenhouses and bloom luxuriantly. Friends who are new to flower cultivation often love them, and most of them get worse and worse after they are brought back. For beginners, if they don't pay attention to light or don't know how to control watering, they are more likely to die, which is a great blow to the confidence of flower cultivation. Therefore, we should start from seedlings, learn to sow seeds, and grow them until they bloom. For grass flowers to bloom, we will have personal experience in light issues, watering principles, and fertilizer control.
Woody flowers are actually a further improvement of the technology of growing grass flowers. More importantly, by growing woody flowers, we can learn a lot of flower propagation techniques, such as how to make your flowers more easily in addition to sowing seeds. For example, how to take cuttings, how to layer, how to graft, etc. Grasses and trees know spring, and know in which season of the year to fertilize, prune, and how to promote flowering. Except for a few woody flowers such as roses, most of them only bloom once a year, which also hones the patience and confidence of flower cultivation. Learn how to prune branches and leaves to shape. People who have raised roses know the saying "prune hard, bloom steadily", and people who have raised peonies know "peonies at the spring equinox will never bloom until they die".
Orchids are usually the final choice of senior flower lovers. Orchids are not difficult to grow, but they have unique characteristics and grow very slowly. For the Paphiopedilum among foreign orchids, only 2 leaves grow in a year, and the Chinese orchids only grow 1-2 buds in a year under natural conditions. Some flowers will bloom once every 2-3 years. How can people who are just starting to grow flowers bear this temper? Orchids are not good when they are too dry or too wet. They cannot be without light, and too strong light is not good either. Although orchids do not need to be taken care of once their habits are mastered, they are completely flowers for lazy people to grow. The problem is that mastering the habits of orchids is a bit laborious. Some people say that "it takes three years to water orchids", so it is better to wait until you have some experience in growing bulbs, herbs and woody flowers before growing orchids. Moreover, orchids, especially Chinese orchids, have the most monographs and the most detailed evaluations. They have always been a hot spot for scholars and scholars to show off their elegance, and for businessmen and speculators to speculate.
Therefore, bulb flowers are most suitable for beginners. For flower growers, how to bloom again, how to grow bulbs bigger and bigger, how to use the natural environment to regulate the flowering period, and how to use hydroponics to grow bulbs and bloom again are all interesting things.
For species with obvious bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils, one bulb is one plant. Just break it apart and it's done. It's very EASY. But for tubers like calla lilies, it's not obvious to divide the plant. How to divide the roots is a problem.
The calla lilies I planted increase at a rate of about 1 plant to 3-4 plants per year. Here I will introduce the key points of division propagation using calla lilies as an example.
After the summer, the leaves of calla lilies will slowly turn yellow due to the heat, which indicates that they have begun to slowly enter the dormant period. Many novices think that the leaves are yellow and the condition is not good, so they water them desperately. As a result, when the temperature is high, hot and humid, the tubers are steamed and naturally Q. At this time, you need to control the water so that it can safely enter the dormant period and spend the summer.
When the weather is cool and autumn comes, you can dig out the tubers and divide them.
You can see that after a year of growth, the soil near the tubers has almost no nutrients, and it is even a little hardened.
Generally speaking, rinse with clean water, hang to dry until half dry, and then you can divide the plant.
When dividing the tubers, be careful to use knives and scissors to cut and force them into pieces. Because cutting the tubers directly with knives and scissors will damage the cell wall, causing a large amount of cell fluid to flow out, which is easy to get infected and easy to rot when planted again.
Therefore, it is better to break it apart directly with your hands as much as possible, so that the tubers that are broken along the texture and the road are separated along the cell wall, and not much juice will flow out, and the degree of damage can be minimized. 4-5 buds per cluster, with a bulb the size of half an egg planted in a pot is enough.
After breaking the tubers, stick them with plant ash, methyl thiophanate or carbendazim, which can make the wound heal better. It doesn't matter if you don't have these things. Put them in a ventilated place to dry until they are half dry. Dry them in the shade for 1-3 days according to different climates. When the wound is healed, it will grow well again.
After dividing the plant, do not plant it immediately. The wound of the division is in direct contact with the pot soil and water, which is easy to get infected and rot.
In this way, the "feat" of turning one calla lily into four is completed.
Digging out calla lily roots
Rinse with clean water
Divide into 4-5 buds per cluster
Gardening
Flower Gardening
First, now is the stage when bulbous flowers, such as tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils, are beginning to wither. Everyone should hurry up to raise the bulbs and strive to make them bloom again next year, and completely eliminate the misunderstanding that these flowers are "disposable".
Second, while these bulbous flowers are about to fade out of the flower market, flower lovers who like to raise flowers and experiment with re-flowering can quickly go to the flower market to buy some valuable varieties that have passed their flowering period for collection and planting (usually they are cheaper at this time).
Third, you can seize the last time to plant some imported lily bulbs, hoping that the most representative bulbous flower lily will soon bloom gorgeous flowers.
Fourth, I will share with you some of the experiences and lessons I have learned from the bulbous flowers I have raised (such as irises, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, Chinese narcissus, amaryllis, lilies, calla lilies, gladiolus, amaryllis, etc.), especially the problem of re-flowering, as well as the problems and solutions that everyone usually encounters during the planting process.
Fifth, for those who are new to flower growing, I strongly recommend that you start with bulbous flowers, and follow the gradual approach from bulbs - herbs - woody plants - orchids to improve your flower growing skills (I have ignored balcony vegetables, succulents and aquatic plants, so please forgive me for those who like these).
Bulbous flowers - the natural protagonist of home gardening
Before I started to grow Chinese and foreign orchids, I always preferred bulbous flowers. Bulbous flowers have beautiful flower shapes, long flowering periods, and usually strong fragrance. Whether it is leaves, bulbs or roots, they are all beautiful. The plant size is suitable, whether it is an outdoor patio, a closed balcony, or even indoors, they can be well maintained. The biggest advantage is that you don’t have to worry about it. If you forget to water them for a few days, they will not die. You don’t even need to fertilize them, and they won’t get bugs. Anyway, they are the kind of flowers that are both beautiful and easy to grow. They really concentrate too many perfect advantages.The tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in Taiziwan Park every year, the irises, callas and gladiolus by the river on Nanshan Road, and the patches of Lycoris in Hangzhou Flower Garden and Huagang Guanyu every year in late summer and early autumn are really dazzling. Including every late autumn, the streams and cracks in the rocks around Jiuxi Yanshu and Yanxialing are all popped up by the wild red Lycoris, which always makes people shine. No wonder they have become the natural protagonists of home gardening.
Friends who have just started to grow flowers ask me, what kind of flowers are good to grow, both easy to grow and beautiful? I usually ask them whether they like green plants or flowers. For those who like green plants, I usually recommend spider plants, and for those who like flowers, I usually recommend bulbous flowers, such as amaryllis. The native amaryllis is not afraid of heat or cold, dryness or wetness in Hangzhou's four distinct seasons. It will not die from freezing or heat, drought or flooding. You can plant a bulb and ignore it. From germination to flowering, it only takes about a month, without a long wait. The problem is that the flowers of this amaryllis are comparable to those of Clivia, so the enthusiasm for growing flowers has increased greatly.
Bulbous flowers are a large category in horticulture. The most common ones are irises, daffodils, amaryllis, lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, callas, gladiolus, amaryllis, etc. They belong to many families such as Liliaceae and Amaryllis. We are not plant taxonomists, so we don't need to know so much. We just need to remember that they have a common feature, that is, "ball". These bulbous flowers have some commonalities. Knowing a few of them can actually be applied to other things.
First: they all have a ball. If the ball is good, everything is good. It doesn't matter if there are no roots, no leaves, no flowers, and no buds. With this "ball", you have everything.
Second: They all grow for half a year and dormant for half a year. They are all very lazy. Most of them start to sprout in autumn, accumulate for a winter, and bloom in spring.
Third: They can be cultured completely in water to observe the growth of white roots. Of course, they can also be cultured in soil.
Fourth: The most difficult problem is that the ball usually gets smaller and smaller as it grows longer, and then the ball is gone, and you often have to buy it again.
It is important to maintain the bulbs before re-flowering - my opinion on maintaining bulbs
I wonder if you have noticed an interesting phenomenon. No matter when you plant the green vegetables, they will always bloom in spring. Whether you plant them in summer, winter or spring, they will bloom in spring. Plants are actually very smart. They can sense the seasons and bloom according to the seasons.The formation of flower buds requires many factors to stimulate them. In addition to their own strength, the most important stimulation methods are light stimulation and temperature difference stimulation. The formation of flower buds of bulbous flowers is mostly stimulated by temperature difference. In fact, Hangzhou has such a good climate with four distinct seasons. Without any stimulation, bulbous flowers can bloom again. In other words, as long as you take good care of the bulbs, it is only a matter of time before they bloom again. I have experienced the blooming of more than 10 kinds of bulbous flowers mentioned above. So the conclusion is to take good care of the bulbs.
Before talking about bulb cultivation, let's talk about the two major systems of plants, namely the nutritional organs and reproductive organs. Roots, stems, and leaves are nutritional organs, which accumulate nutrients; flowers, fruits, and seeds are reproductive organs, which consume nutrients. The bulb is nothing, it is a perversion of storing nutrients. To grow bulbs, you have to make the roots, stems, and leaves develop, and flowering and fruiting consume the nutrients accumulated by the bulbs.
Therefore, people who like bulbous flowers have a hard time! To bloom, you have to consume the nutrients of the bulbs. If you consume all the nutrients, they will not bloom next year. To grow bulbs, you have to grow more leaves, but we are not here to appreciate leaves. It's difficult---
Here are some tips I have found to make bulbous flowers bloom every year and to grow bulbs to the maximum extent.
Experience 1: Choose fertile and loose soil. The most important thing for growing bulbous flowers is the choice of soil. Choosing fertile and loose soil, the root system is well-developed and vigorous, and the ability to breathe and absorb nutrients is strong, which is naturally conducive to growing bulbs. It is recommended to add peat and rich decomposed organic fertilizer to the soil. The planting container is large and the soil layer is thick, which is naturally good for growing bulbs.
Experience 2: Separate your flowers from the mother plant as soon as possible. For example, for lilies, I always cut them off when the first flower is about to bloom and make cut flowers, and keep the stems and leaves to continue growing the bulbs. For bulbous flowers like lilies and gladiolus, which are naturally suitable for cut flowers, cutting them when they first bloom can make the flowers bloom longer. Leaving them on the plants will make them wither faster. In addition, cutting off the mother plant of the flower stalk reduces nutrient consumption and is more conducive to growing bulbs. For bulbous flowers such as daffodils and tulips, the flower stalks should also be cut off in time after the flowers bloom.
Experience 3: Create a cool climate to extend the growth time of leaves and stems, and seize the time to grow bulbs. Bulbous flowers usually like coolness and fear heat. The weather in Hangzhou feels like summer as soon as May arrives. When the weather is hot, they begin to hibernate and stop growing. The leaves turn yellow and then slowly wither, creating the illusion of death. People who grow bulbous flowers for the first time usually think that they are so cute. Therefore, only warm and cool climates are suitable for their growth. Therefore, remember to let them "stay where it is cool" after flowering. Be sure to let them stay in the soil for as long as possible. The yellow leaves are the nutrients gradually shrinking and transported to the bulbs. The leaves wither, but the roots are still absorbing nutrients in the soil!
Experience 4: Don't rashly pill the bulbs. The pilling problem among bulbous flowers is the biggest and most controversial. I think everyone has a point, but one thing to remember is that experience cannot be copied. The experience of raising and pilling bulbs in Beijing and the Netherlands is invalid in Hangzhou because the climate is different. Before talking about the topic of pilling, let's talk about the purpose. Why do we need to pill? There are two purposes for pilling. The first is that Hangzhou has a plum rain season, and the bulbs are prone to rot during the plum rain season. The second is that after a year of raising bulbs, the nutrients in the surrounding soil are exhausted, and they need to be moved to another place to supplement nutrients. So I think that potted bulbs do not need to be pilled at all. Leaving the bulbs in the soil is worry-free and trouble-free, not to mention that the soil is the warmest mother body for flowers. Just pay attention to controlling the moisture of the pot soil, especially during the plum rain season, move it to the corner of the eaves to prevent rain, keep it dry, and when the weather turns cool and the bulbs are about to sprout, dig out the bulbs and plant them separately. As for bulbs planted in the ground, they must be pilled before the plum rain season to prevent rot.
An extreme example is that by mastering the above four key points to grow bulbs, one of my Asian lily bulbs actually grew to the size of an egg, and one flower stalk produced 6 lilies, which was a bit jaw-dropping!
Do daffodils have to be planted in water? -- The debate between hydroponics and soil cultivation of bulbous flowers
Let me tell you a little story. My daffodils have always been grown in the soil. Many people who think they know a little about growing flowers see me growing daffodils in the soil, and they will enthusiastically teach me, "How can daffodils be grown in the soil? Daffodils must be grown in water and grown with clean water!" I smile and usually ask them, you planted daffodils in water this year? What about next year? Will it bloom next year? The other party usually has nothing to say about flowers, or says to buy them next year, because daffodils are useless after blooming once! Haha, then I tell him that if daffodils are planted in water, of course they will only bloom once, but if they are planted in the soil like me, they can bloom every year!Bulbous flowers have a characteristic that they can usually be hydroponically grown and can bloom with only clean water, such as hyacinths, daffodils, Chinese daffodils, amaryllis, etc. So is it better to grow bulbous flowers in water or soil?
Hydroponics is a modern planting technology that changes the growth pattern of plants. Hydroponics and water culture are completely different concepts. The real hydroponic technology changes the growth characteristics of plants. It adds appropriate nutrients to the water so that the roots can grow normally in the water. However, there is no accumulation of nutrients when using clear water for cultivation. It completely consumes the nutrients accumulated by the bulbs, so it is impossible to grow bulbs. The bulbs are getting smaller and smaller, and the nutrients are exhausted. Naturally, they will not bloom in the second year.
However, mastering hydroponic technology is not a one-time thing, and the domestication process is not easy. Therefore, I think that friends who like to grow bulbous flowers in water can only treat bulbous flowers as one-time cultivation. Every year, they buy bulbs, and after the flowers bloom, they either throw away the bulbs or plant them in the soil. Maybe they can still bloom after 3-4 years of rejuvenation. The way to save trouble and labor is to plant all daffodils in the soil like me, so that they can bloom every year.
Daffodils planted in the soil can bloom every year
Buying bulbs or re-blooming tulips -- let the Dutch horticultural companies make some money
Everyone likes tulips very much. After buying imported Dutch tulip bulbs and planting them for 1-2 months, attractive flowers will soon bloom. However, usually after blooming, they will not bloom again the next year. Even if they can bloom, the flowers are very small. This is the problem of bulb degradation. I also encountered the same problem. Although the tulip bulbs I planted can bloom every year, the bulbs are getting smaller and smaller, and the flowers are getting smaller and smaller. There is no way out. Or it is not that there is no way out, but the cost of this way is too high.There is a misunderstanding. Everyone knows that Dutch tulips are the most famous. In fact, tulips are native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After being introduced to Europe, they are particularly suitable for the temperate marine climate and Mediterranean climate there, and they are enthusiastically sought after and finally developed by the Dutch. The degradation of tulip bulbs is mainly a climate problem. The climate in Hangzhou is cold and dry in winter, hot and humid in summer, which is completely different from the climate in the Netherlands. The climate there is warm and humid in winter and hot and dry in summer. After the tulips bloom in the Netherlands, there is a cool and dry climate to grow the bulbs, while we are in the hot and humid rainy season. When the weather is hot, the tulips stop growing, and when it is wet, the bulbs are easy to rot. For us, it is good enough if the bulbs do not rot. How can we expect to keep them well?
Even though the climate in the Netherlands is so suitable, it is said that the Dutch still use the most advanced greenhouse control system to cultivate bulbs of tulips and other bulbous flowers. If the cultivation technology of orchids represents the top biotechnology level of flower cultivation, then the production technology of tulip bulbs represents the most modern and commercialized flower production technology. I have tried to grow tulip bulbs in Hangzhou so that they bloom every year, but I have never been able to grow them bigger.
Instead of spending too much energy to grow tulip bulbs, it is better to buy bulbs every year and let the Dutch gardening companies make some money! After all, the cost of buying flower bulbs is much cheaper than buying other decorations and shopping in shopping malls! Instead of spending too much energy to build a fully automatic greenhouse to grow bulbs, it is better to buy bulbs and save a lot of trouble. As for last year's second-generation bulbs, it is better to grow them as a smaller version of flowers. Although they are smaller, they can bloom every year and are also quite fun.
Frostbite and bulb rot: Learn some emergency surgery for flower bulbs
Bulbous flowers are not afraid of dryness. As long as there is fertile and loose soil, they can grow well. They are usually not afraid of waterlogging. Moreover, many bulbous flowers will secrete protective substances by themselves, and usually will not have insects, so there is almost no need to consider the problem of insecticide. But the biggest problem is that they are prone to frostbite and rot. It is easy to prevent frostbite. There is usually less snow in Hangzhou in winter. As long as you remember to put it in the corner of the balcony or indoors during the coldest time, there will be no problem, but sometimes it is inevitable that the bulb will rot.Once the bulb rot occurs, it usually spreads quickly. It is almost rotten, and there is nothing the gods can do. If you find a rotten bulb, you must rescue it in time. Here are some of my rescue operations for rotten bulbs. What kind of rotten bulbs can be saved? You have to look at the structural diagram of the bulb first. I have to use one of my bulbs to introduce it to you, haha.
Buy a bulb and observe the structure of the bulb carefully. The most critical part is the base part of the germination root and the center of the bulb, the central bud part. See Figure 3. The rest is the pseudobulb part that provides nutrition, which does not play a big role in growth.
If the bulb unfortunately rots, then you have to quickly dig the bulb out of the planting medium, rinse it with clean water, and carefully observe the degree of rot.
If the base and central bud, that is, the center, rots, then unfortunately, even gods can't help.
If you are lucky enough that the bulb rots from the edge, which is usually very common, then please perform a small operation on the bulb like peeling apples and potatoes. It is completely possible to let it continue to grow healthily and bloom after the operation.
For example, in Figure 4, if part B of the bulb rots, cut it off, and part A retains the central bud and part of the rooting base, and it can still grow healthily and bloom.
Next, I will briefly introduce to you how to save rotten bulbs and perform a small operation on them.
A typical bulb
The base of the bulb is where the roots sprout.
The center bud and base are the two most critical parts of the bulb.
If the bulb rots, cut off part B and keep part A, and the plant will continue to grow and bloom.
From bulbs to herbs to woody plants to orchids, four steps for flower and plant lovers
- According to this order, it seems that the maintenance of bulbous plants belongs to the primary stage?
I think the best way to improve flower-growing skills is to follow the four steps of bulbs-herbs-woody-orchids.
Why grow bulb flowers first? Bulb flowers are beautiful and easy to grow. Usually, if you buy a commercial bulb flower bulb, such as gladiolus or lily, it will only take 1-2 months from the time the bulb is planted to the time it blooms. Moreover, the flower buds of commercial bulbs have already formed, and almost 100% of them will bloom after being planted. There is no need to consider insecticide, the "wet when dry" principle of watering, and the light problem. Moreover, the time from the germination of the bulb to the flowering is not long. From a psychological point of view, friends who are new to flower cultivation can get great psychological satisfaction, so I recommend that you start to grow bulb flowers.
After the bulb flowers bloom, you should grow herb flowers. The herb flowers currently on the market are all grown in greenhouses and bloom luxuriantly. Friends who are new to flower cultivation often love them, and most of them get worse and worse after they are brought back. For beginners, if they don't pay attention to light or don't know how to control watering, they are more likely to die, which is a great blow to the confidence of flower cultivation. Therefore, we should start from seedlings, learn to sow seeds, and grow them until they bloom. For grass flowers to bloom, we will have personal experience in light issues, watering principles, and fertilizer control.
Woody flowers are actually a further improvement of the technology of growing grass flowers. More importantly, by growing woody flowers, we can learn a lot of flower propagation techniques, such as how to make your flowers more easily in addition to sowing seeds. For example, how to take cuttings, how to layer, how to graft, etc. Grasses and trees know spring, and know in which season of the year to fertilize, prune, and how to promote flowering. Except for a few woody flowers such as roses, most of them only bloom once a year, which also hones the patience and confidence of flower cultivation. Learn how to prune branches and leaves to shape. People who have raised roses know the saying "prune hard, bloom steadily", and people who have raised peonies know "peonies at the spring equinox will never bloom until they die".
Orchids are usually the final choice of senior flower lovers. Orchids are not difficult to grow, but they have unique characteristics and grow very slowly. For the Paphiopedilum among foreign orchids, only 2 leaves grow in a year, and the Chinese orchids only grow 1-2 buds in a year under natural conditions. Some flowers will bloom once every 2-3 years. How can people who are just starting to grow flowers bear this temper? Orchids are not good when they are too dry or too wet. They cannot be without light, and too strong light is not good either. Although orchids do not need to be taken care of once their habits are mastered, they are completely flowers for lazy people to grow. The problem is that mastering the habits of orchids is a bit laborious. Some people say that "it takes three years to water orchids", so it is better to wait until you have some experience in growing bulbs, herbs and woody flowers before growing orchids. Moreover, orchids, especially Chinese orchids, have the most monographs and the most detailed evaluations. They have always been a hot spot for scholars and scholars to show off their elegance, and for businessmen and speculators to speculate.
Therefore, bulb flowers are most suitable for beginners. For flower growers, how to bloom again, how to grow bulbs bigger and bigger, how to use the natural environment to regulate the flowering period, and how to use hydroponics to grow bulbs and bloom again are all interesting things.
Bulb division propagation: Show mercy - Taking calla lily tuber division propagation as an example
I finally found time to finish writing this post. Suddenly I thought of the last point. I have to introduce the key points of bulb and root division.For species with obvious bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils, one bulb is one plant. Just break it apart and it's done. It's very EASY. But for tubers like calla lilies, it's not obvious to divide the plant. How to divide the roots is a problem.
The calla lilies I planted increase at a rate of about 1 plant to 3-4 plants per year. Here I will introduce the key points of division propagation using calla lilies as an example.
After the summer, the leaves of calla lilies will slowly turn yellow due to the heat, which indicates that they have begun to slowly enter the dormant period. Many novices think that the leaves are yellow and the condition is not good, so they water them desperately. As a result, when the temperature is high, hot and humid, the tubers are steamed and naturally Q. At this time, you need to control the water so that it can safely enter the dormant period and spend the summer.
When the weather is cool and autumn comes, you can dig out the tubers and divide them.
You can see that after a year of growth, the soil near the tubers has almost no nutrients, and it is even a little hardened.
Generally speaking, rinse with clean water, hang to dry until half dry, and then you can divide the plant.
When dividing the tubers, be careful to use knives and scissors to cut and force them into pieces. Because cutting the tubers directly with knives and scissors will damage the cell wall, causing a large amount of cell fluid to flow out, which is easy to get infected and easy to rot when planted again.
Therefore, it is better to break it apart directly with your hands as much as possible, so that the tubers that are broken along the texture and the road are separated along the cell wall, and not much juice will flow out, and the degree of damage can be minimized. 4-5 buds per cluster, with a bulb the size of half an egg planted in a pot is enough.
After breaking the tubers, stick them with plant ash, methyl thiophanate or carbendazim, which can make the wound heal better. It doesn't matter if you don't have these things. Put them in a ventilated place to dry until they are half dry. Dry them in the shade for 1-3 days according to different climates. When the wound is healed, it will grow well again.
After dividing the plant, do not plant it immediately. The wound of the division is in direct contact with the pot soil and water, which is easy to get infected and rot.
In this way, the "feat" of turning one calla lily into four is completed.
Digging out calla lily roots
Rinse with clean water
Divide into 4-5 buds per cluster