All the Dirt on Gardening

Spring almost requires that gardeners have a few blooming bulbs in front door flower beds, in outdoor pots and on windowsills. Now that cooler weather and soil are settling in, it is a perfect time to get started on bulb projects. In our area we can plant garlic, allium, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, fritillaria, crocus, squill, snowdrops and others, as late as December and January, as long as the ground is not frozen by then. The prettiest displays are planted in groups rather than in rows. To plant an entire bed, the bulbs can be tossed and planted where they land so there will be clusters of flowers with spaces in between. Plant bulbs twice their length. For example a 1.5-inch tall bulb is planted in a 3-inch deep hole. Plant Oriental and Asiatic lilies 3-times their depth because they root along the stems. Madonna lily is planted with the top of the bulb at the top of the hole. Be sure that the fat end of the bulb is actually sitting on soil. A planting hole dug with a trowel or...

All these photos are Tulipa Fosteriana 'Pirand' - starting four days ago - the last one is today after an overnight rain. The bulbs are from Brent and Becky's Bulbs The wildflower version of tulips were first cultivated in the year 1,000 by the Turks. The word tulip is Turkish for turban. Tulips were introduced to Europeans in the late 1500s. When the working class saw how much money the wealthy were making on tulip bulbs, they went into the business, creating a bubble economy. People hocked their farms, homes and businesses to invest - no one wanted to lose out or be left behind. By 1636 a tulip bulb sold for as much as a home cost in Amsterdam Holland at the time. The tulip crash followed. People had worked, bought farms and homes and then sold them to invest in tulip futures, then called a wind trade. The government, then, after so many people had lost everything, instituted regulations on the trade of tulips. This Tulipa Pirand in the photos is a member of the Fosterian...