Making Things Grow
A Practical Guide for the Indoor Gardener by Thalassa Cruso (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1969)
from Chapter 5: Winter and Spring Bulbs
If you would like a particularly lavish potful of daffodils, try a planting trick that does not seem to be very well known in the U.S. Use a deep pot, not a bulb pan, and crock this as usual. Then fill in with soil about one third of the way up. At this level, set in three double-nosed bulbs, which you may have to crowd together a bit. Put bamboo stakes into the soil beside each bulb, tall enough to rise above the rim of the pot. Cover the bulbs and put in enough soil to bring the surface up to normal planting level. Then plant more daffodils, using the stakes as guides to prevent you from setting the basal plates of the top layer right over the noses of the lower bulbs. Finish off the operation in the usual way, with a tattoo of thumps and a thorough soaking of the pots; then pull out the stakes. The double layer will root and grow successfully in and around each other, putting out a tremendous show of bloom. The lower bulb shoots will take a little longer to thrust out through the surface layer of the soil; they have, after all, had to grow a greater distance. Once above ground they seem to catch up easily with the upper row and the buds appear at very much the same time. If, as occasionally occurs, the upper row of bulbs comes into bloom a little in advance of the lower threesome, you will still have a wonderful show of flowers and a succession of bloom. Double potting is a very common practice among commercial growers who price their work at so much per bud. But do try it yourself sometime. There is no reason at all why you should have any difficulty, and it may have the desirable side effect of bringing you the slightly unwarranted reputation of being a superlative horticulturalist. If you can once get that idea into the heads of your friends, many other shortcomings are often overlooked.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Basic Care
2. Display
3. Control
4. Neglectable Plants
5. Winter and Spring Bulbs
6. Winter and Early Spring
7. Rain-Forest Plants
8. Late Spring and Early Summer
9. Hanging Plants
10. Using a Light Unit
11. Increasing Your Collection
12. Getting Outdoors
13. Pests and Problems
Appendix: Recommended Plants
and Growing Conditions
If you would like a particularly lavish potful of daffodils, try a planting trick that does not seem to be very well known in the U.S. Use a deep pot, not a bulb pan, and crock this as usual. Then fill in with soil about one third of the way up. At this level, set in three double-nosed bulbs, which you may have to crowd together a bit. Put bamboo stakes into the soil beside each bulb, tall enough to rise above the rim of the pot. Cover the bulbs and put in enough soil to bring the surface up to normal planting level. Then plant more daffodils, using the stakes as guides to prevent you from setting the basal plates of the top layer right over the noses of the lower bulbs. Finish off the operation in the usual way, with a tattoo of thumps and a thorough soaking of the pots; then pull out the stakes. The double layer will root and grow successfully in and around each other, putting out a tremendous show of bloom. The lower bulb shoots will take a little longer to thrust out through the surface layer of the soil; they have, after all, had to grow a greater distance. Once above ground they seem to catch up easily with the upper row and the buds appear at very much the same time. If, as occasionally occurs, the upper row of bulbs comes into bloom a little in advance of the lower threesome, you will still have a wonderful show of flowers and a succession of bloom. Double potting is a very common practice among commercial growers who price their work at so much per bud. But do try it yourself sometime. There is no reason at all why you should have any difficulty, and it may have the desirable side effect of bringing you the slightly unwarranted reputation of being a superlative horticulturalist. If you can once get that idea into the heads of your friends, many other shortcomings are often overlooked.