Beautiful New York winter
It's been quiet on the gardening front but last week New York got slammed by a snow storm and it turned into a winter wonderland. We took advantage of the fresh snow and went skiing at the Catskills for the weekend. Catskills is about 2 hours north of NYC. Up in the Catskills, they had over 7 feet of snow in 4 days. I've never seen anything like it. Many people are still out of electricity and there were a lot of down trees. We have a little bamboo forest at my work campus and it was destroyed by the snowstorm, I kinda felt bad because it's been there for a long time and it really isn't something you can rebuild. I wonder if this is an indication of a really warm summer?
My deck.
Skiing at Hunter Mountain.
Near Kaaterskill Falls.
Ice climbing.
Forcing bulbs- Paperwhites (Narcissus)
Woo-hoo! Winter Solstice is here, longer days of sun here we come! Today is the shortest day of the year, which means we have the shortest daylight and the longest night of the year. On the bright side this means after today the days will gradually be longer. I'm counting down to the longest day of the year (15 hours of sunlight!) which arrives on June 21, 2010.
Previous post I talked about forcing Amaryllis bulb in container. BJ's sells this gift pack which includes one Amaryllis bulb and five Narcissus bulbs for under US$20. The bulbs look healthy but don't expect these to be high quality bulbs from nurseries but if you just want to have some blooms for the holidays this might be the cost-effective way to go.
Box comes with a nice green ceramic pot, one dehydrated coco peat, and five paperwhites 'Ziva' bulbs.
Follow the instructions from the previous to hydrate the coco peat and fill half of the pot.
Paperwhites don't mind to be in a small pot and the bulbs can touch each other. Just remember to keep the soil moist and not wet. Oh and they like bright light too!
Did you know you can add vodka or gin when you water to stunt their growth? Now that's something I want to try! Take a look at the gorgeous paperwhites from Flat Bottom Flowers.
Forcing bulbs–Amaryllis
Last year I was unsuccessful in overwintering Hyacinth bulbs. The bulbs were all rotten when I dug them up in Spring, I think the culprit was wet soil. Soil should be moist but never wet. I'm giving bulbs another chance. While shopping at BJ's I saw several bulbs gift pack for sale. Prior to this I've been eyeing on some rather expensive bulbs on the internet but I was debating because I feel they are too expensive. So when I saw these for sale at BJ's for $18.99 for one Amaryllis bulb and five Narcissus bulbs (more on these later), I didn't think twice and brought them home. I don't expect these to be as high quality as the ones I saw on the internet but I think I can risk $18.99.
Box comes with planting instructions, a nice ceramic green pot, hydrated coco peat disk, and one Amaryllis bulb.
To rehydrate the disk, add 3 cups of warm water. Here I put the disk in the bottom of the pot but I think it's easier to do this step in a separate container and then transfer the coco peat back to the pot after it expands. At one point the coco peat expanded so much that it overflowed the pot. Let the coco peat absorb water for about 15 minutes. Drain excess water.
Fill half of the pot with coco peat and place the bulb in the center. Continue filling the pot with coco peat until one third of the top of the bulb is exposed.
Place pot in bright indirect light and keep the coco peat moist but not wet. Flower should appear in a few weeks. I'm keeping my fingers cross.
We're getting 14 inches of snow tonight. Just in time for Christmas! Happy Holidays everyone!
