bulb bowl

squirrels attack!

I've had a disaster with the small bulbs. The squirrels got into the cellar and decimated them. Here are the vases from October 19th  and most of them are empty.

crocus and tulip vases

The bulbs that survived do have decent roots on them.

roots of small bulbs

I had a few spare small bulbs which I was going to plant in these rose bowls, maybe with glass nuggets, but now I will put them in the now empty vases.

rose bowls

An update on the hyacinth bulbs in the bulb bowls, there are masses of roots. If I try to lift the bulbs to check on them they are immovable as there are so many roots. One bulb has some roots growing above the lid. I tried pushing them into the bowl but they just break off. Hyacinth roots can be quite brittle. Best to break off the errant roots so the bulb doesn't waste too much energy on them.

hyacinth bulbs on bulb bowl lid

Below are the empty flower troughs. The squirrels had a real feast. I may get some more bulbs to replace them. The boxes of small crocus and tulips from Sainsburys are quite reasonable. It will be too late to get them to bloom for Christmas but would hopefully have blooms sometime in January.

Shorter troughs

I seem to have a number of mouldy bulbs this year. I usually only have the odd one. I've turned this one over to show how mouldy it is. I rinsed the mould off and put it back. I did notice that it also has damage on the side. I was wondering if the damage caused the mould or vice versa.

damaged hyacinth bulb

mouldy hyacinth bulb

bulb bowls, pots and vases

I have two new bulb bowls this year. They are much bigger than the only one I had last year which is too small for hyacinths but just right for large crocus bulbs.

bulb bowls with hyacinth bulbs

I have filled these with water, placed the hyacinth bulbs over the large holes and put them in the cellar with the rest of the pots and vases (some pictured below). I think if I used bulb fibre the roots would push the bulbs up and off the lids.

hyacinth vases in cellar

I'm still not sure what to do with these flower bricks. I think they are just for cut flowers but I'm not sure what type of flowers would work best. I guess tulips were very popular at the time they were first produced. I did think before of putting a bulb in the large hole in the middle but I have since read that that hole was for pouring in water.

bulb pots and flower bricks

These pots are awaiting the  crocus bulbs that are still in the fridge being prepared. After 6 weeks in the fridge I will pot them up but still keep them in the cellar but not in the fridge.

crocus pots

I cut this hyacinth bulb open to show the flower already developed inside. When the bulge of that flower is out of the bulb it is ready to come out of the dark (about 1 December).

hyacinth bulb cut open

These are not hyacinth vases although I use them to grow hyacinths. Any vase that holds the bulb above water can work as a hyacinth vase.

non-hyacinth vases

flower bricks and bulb bowls

I'm interested in anything that can be used to grow bulbs indoors.

bulb bowls and flower bricks

The bulb bowls with lids with holes seem to be straightforward enough. The bulbs (crocus or hyacinth, depending on size of the holes) go in the holes on top. How does one use a flower brick? The large hole seems perfect for a crocus bulb but I'm not sure if they were made for that or were just made for cut flowers. I managed to find a few spent bulbs to show a comparison of the hole sizes.

bulb bowls and flower bricks

bulb bowls and flower bricks

The main question with the bulb bowls is whether to put the bulbs on top of the lid or underneath. I think they were made for the bulbs to go on top. Before I knew that I put them underneath. Both methods have their pros and cons.

The empty hole (below) was because the crocus bulb dropped down as it was a bit small. The largest bulbs are required to sit on top. Some roots can also be seen around the edge of the bulbs preventing them from sitting neatly in the holes.

crocus bowl

The bowl below looks quite neat with the bulbs beneath the lid but that isn't always the case as in the pic below that as it shows how multiple stems can be a tight fit in the holes and the roots push the bulbs up, dislodging the lid.

crocus bowl

crocus pots

I'd love to see how these ceramic items were actually used rather than my attempts. If anyone can direct me to paintings that feature them, it would be great, thanks (julie @ gardenwithindoors.org.uk).

I'm not sure if this was made for cuttings or bulbs or either. I'm going to use it for small bulbs.

bulb holder with bulbs

And of course one can use small pots for small bulbs indoors. Below are a couple purchased recently at the front and a couple of vases and the bulb bowls and flower bricks for size comparison.

bulb bowls and flower bricks

Florimania at Hampton Court

I saw this bulb bowl at the Florimania exhibit at Hampton Court. This should have bulbs on top on the holes but it's always nice to see hyacinths especially ones of such a great blue/purple colour.

bulb bowl with hyacinths

I was hoping to see more of Queen Mary's delftware but apparently William sold much of it after she died.

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