Growing Bulbs in Baskets

[David Nicholson]

I know that there has been discussion on this in the Galanthus pages but I seem to have had problems with other species.

This year Crocus 'Ard Schenk', Narcissus 'Hawara' and Gladiolus communis ssp. byzantinus all failed to appear. All were grown in the garden and all were grown in baskets. They were originally planted in autumn 2008 and all flowered normally in spring 2009 and were not lifted. Further investigation of all three during last week showed the baskets contained no bulbs at all or just a few very small bulbils. Readers of the Iris Reticulata pages will have seen me express disappointment with some of my forms planted out in my bulb bed which have decreased markedly in quantity over the the couple of years they have been planted-all of these forms were in baskets too!

None of these bulbs were in the kind of mesh plastic basket that has been commented on in the Galanthus pages but were in a more substantial plastic kind, about 3-4 inches deep and 6-7 inches in diameter, a type that has been fairly widely available in the local garden centres I have used.

Any comments?

[Gerry Webster]

David - I suspect this has nothing to do with baskets & everything to do with the nature of imported bulbs. In the last few years I have had exactly the same experience  with narcissus & crocus cultivars. They flower & appear normal in the first year but by the second year have disappeared apart from some rotting remains. I have no explanation.
My latest experience of this is with the Narcissus calcicola cultivar 'Idol'. In contrast, seed-raised N. calcicola present no problems & grow well for me .   

[Lesley Cox]

If you both lived in the southern hemisphere, I would suggest that the answer is right there as our wholesale bulb firms import from Holland and we, poor mutts, buy, only to have the bulbs flower quite well the first spring but usually die thereafter. Or if they don't die completely, they leave only small pieces of material which performs poorly. Certainly it happens with reticulate irises and also, I'm now finding, with crocuses and narcissus. Narcissus are even rotting in their bags before I get them planted (bought them about 3 weeks previously. Maybe I should have planted them at once but things got in the way.)

I assumed this was all because the bulbs are from the wrong season and have been kept in cool storage for up to 6 months before being sold. I don't know whether this cold storing happens in Holland before export or in NZ after import. But maybe there are other causes as well. It's very disheartening - and expensive! I gather that bulb firms (of course I don't include firms such as Janis Ruksans') make the assumption that we will buy and replace all these things every year. This may be the case for a few people but not for proper gardeners who expect their PERENNIAL plants, to grow and increase yearly.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I agree with both Lesley and Gerry, David.
I wouldn't look at the baskets for the cause of the disappearing bulbs...

I had exactly the same experience with N. calcicola "Idol" a couple of years ago and also with some of the garden center bought "retics"  - they are cheap, but that's all.. 

[Gerry Webster]

A further thought on imported Narcissus bulbs. I have had no problems with species, only with cultivars. I wonder if the latter are micropropagated?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Definitely Gerry definitely !

[Michael J Campbell]

Same problem here, 90% of Narcissus cultivars bought from a well known source flowered the first year then vanished.

[Lesley Cox]

A further thought on imported Narcissus bulbs. I have had no problems with species, only with cultivars. I wonder if the latter are micropropagated?

Nothing would surprise me! When I bought half a dozen vars of Narcissus, I stupidly assumed they were locally grown as we have several daffodil farms here. But their subsequent growth and behaviour now tells me otherwise. Is there NOTHING we can trust from our usual plant suppliers? and lacking the likes of Janis and similar specialists, we are left with, basically, a heap of rubbish.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks for you views folks. All the bulbs I mentioned were indeed garden centre bought and were probably mass-produced Dutch stock. I did have one success though, a patch of Narcissus 'February Gold' came up well and was purchased at the sime time I purchased N. 'Hawara'.

[Lesley Cox]

It was 'February Gold' which rotted in the bag before I got it planted. The rotting was like that associated with Narcissus fly but I couldn't see any sign of those beasties, just the nasty, smelly rotting on what should have been clean, dry bulbs.