I received my Colorblends box today of .......

100 Darwin Hybrid 'Big Ups' (mixed blend)
25 Darwin Hybrid 'Banja Luka'
25 Darwin Hybrid 'Orange Queen'

I saw at least one bulb in the bag of Big Ups that was noticeably smaller than the others. Hope it is only one bulb in my shipment.

The bad thing about getting bulbs early in October is that we're having near 80 degrees here, since Sunday and it is suppose to be that way through the week. I have them in the basement, as the garage would be too warm/hot for them.

I'm not even ready to plant them, since I'm still working on getting the beds ready.

I think next year I'll try and let companies know I don't want shipments until mid October, if I can.

It was my decision to have the Colorblends bulbs arrive this soon this year.

gemini_sage said: The digging was dividing Japanese Irises, and that is best done while they're good and moist. They're all in buckets of water now and will be re-planted today.

I too store many bulbous plants in water when I am transplanting and dividing. Have had good luck with several types of Iris, daylily, daffodils, and naked ladies. When I have far to many to do in one sitting, I have left them overnight. This Spring a lady gave me literally hundreds of Iris and there were far too many to get back in the ground and/or pots. So I left them overnight and no problems. Some were rebloomers and are reblooming now. I luv free plants

Marilyn said:

The bad thing about getting bulbs early in October is that we're having near 80 degrees here, since Sunday and it is suppose to be that way through the week. I have them in the basement, as the garage would be too warm/hot for them..

Many types of bulbs don't mind being in a fridge. But check specifics and house mates.

Marilyn, I think you should be okay with your tulip bulbs in the basement for such a short period.
At this stage the optimal storage temperature is from what I read 17ºC/62ºF and they will also need to be kept rather dry. After drying I store my own tulips in egg cartons in the boiler room over the summer and I store tulip bulbs I buy in the exact same way until I'm ready to plant. Higher temperatures for a long time at this late stage possibly could lead to bud abortion, but otherwise, there is really no reason whatsoever to stress. Your tulips will be much healthier out of the ground, than in it, until the temperature in the soil drops to around 10ºC/50ºF. I'd only plant them earlier if they would show tendencies to want to start growing or if your storage area isn't ideal. Best would however be to spread them out a bit and not to keep them in the bag if you plan to store them for a longer time. In the Netherlands they plant tulips in December.

Speaking of disappointing bulbs, I must say that the quality on the martagon lilies I recieved yesterday from Eurobulb was disappointing as they had been rough handled with some mold as a result that I needed to clean of, but worst was that they were very, very dry (martagons are very sensitive to that) so they will get a big thumbs down from me In this case I got what I paid for. The 'Claude Shride' looked a little better, probably because they were bigger (actually bigger than stated and most were 26-28cm and in the process of splitting) and therefore could tolerate drying out better. Time will tell how these will fare. Also the Corydalis solida 'Purple Beauty' had an aphid infestation on their emerging shoots. I have no idea how one manages to get aphids on a bulb, but these were rather easy to clean of. Eurobulb is a bit of a strange company as sometimes you get fantastic bulbs/roots, but sometimes they send things like this. They do have a great assortment and offer free freight over a certain order amount and also have always refunded me when I complained about something, but there is some things I hesitate to order from them.

I have my tulips in a small fridge that we have under the house. We only use that fridge for drinks,so it will be prechilling the bulbs until sometime in Dec. I hope I have good luck with them because I bought them with my husband in mind. Dec is iffy to have a good day to plant, but what the heck it starts warming up in Feb.

DavidLMO said:

I too store many bulbous plants in water when I am transplanting and dividing. Have had good luck with several types of Iris, daylily, daffodils, and naked ladies. When I have far to many to do in one sitting, I have left them overnight. This Spring a lady gave me literally hundreds of Iris and there were far too many to get back in the ground and/or pots. So I left them overnight and no problems. Some were rebloomers and are reblooming now. I luv free plants

Have you done that to daffodils?!

Have you done that to bearded irises?!

I would've thought that those two groups wouldn't like sitting in water for an extended length of time, much less than overnight.

I tend to keep daffs and bearded irises dry after digging, but Japanese irises don't like their roots to dry out and are big time water lovers. Speaking of which, anyone who'd like some JIs for postage tree mail me. 3 unregistered varieties, a violet self, a violet and white lined/striped, and a white with purple picotee edge.

Marilyn, I agree with William, your bulbs will be fine for this short time. I've brought the tulips from upstairs where I stored them to the foyer where I'm staging- I need to see everything together when I'm deciding where everything will go. That's where they will remain till I plant them. It remains on the cool side of "room temperature" there- I think the important thing is to keep them from getting too warm.

DavidLMO said:

Many types of bulbs don't mind being in a fridge. But check specifics and house mates. :-)

Can't have fruits and/or veggies and we don't have the space anyway.

@Marilyn,

I have stored my bulbs on my cool, shaded back veranda for several weeks until I can get them planted, and they have done fine. I turned the bags of bulbs every few days to aerate them, to prevent the bulbs from getting moldy. Although I'm fortunate enough to have a 3rd fridge, I sometimes have hundred of bulbs to plant, and they can't all fit in the fridge.

My bulbs shoul be coming in the next 2 weeks, I'm looking forward them arriving.

Annette

You are fortunate to have three fridges. We just have one. But you need extra fridges for all those fall bulbs. Thanks for the tip about turning the bulb bags every few days. I keep mine in those nifty bulb crates that I got from Brent and Becky when I ordered bags of 'soil' from them the past few years. (each 'soil' bag was shipped in its own crate)

https://brentandbeckysbulbs.co...

I have several of those crates from Colorblends over the years. I find them very useful for storage. Hopefully, your bulbs will be fine until you can get them planted.

Received my box of 100 bulbs from Living Gardens today.

The Vibrant Tulip Mixture invoice listed the tulips from their site:

10 Darwin Hybrid 'Apeldoorn's Elite'
10 Single Late 'Blushing Girl' (see below)
10 Darwin Hybrid 'Daydream'
10 Triumph 'Dynasty'
10 Fringed 'Fringed Rhapsody'
10 Triumph 'Frohnleiten'
10 Darwin Hybrid 'Golden Parade'
10 Darwin Hybrid 'Parade'
10 Darwin Hybrid 'Russian Princess'
10 Darwin Hybrid 'Van Eijk'

When I checked and counted all the bulbs in the ten bags to the invoice, there wasn't one that was labeled 'Blushing Girl'. There was a tenth tulip bag that was strangely labeled: Daffodil Art Design and I emailed them and told them. They apologized and would ship out 10 bulbs of 'Blushing Girl' today, which they did.

I'll plant all 130 bulbs (the 'no-name' 20 in first shipment, which only labeled Vibrant Tulip Mixture, the correct 100 and the odd Daffodil Art Design bag) together. Dean said to put all the bulbs together in a garden tub/box, mix them up well and pick one out as I plant. I like that idea.

From looking at the Vibrant Tulip Mixture pic http://www.livinggardens.com/t... I thought there would be more solid colored pinks in the mix and that I'd get every color shown in the pic. Oh well, at least I have a bunch more tulips that will have many different colors to make it a "vibrant spring".

Cem9165 said:I have several of those crates from Colorblends over the years. I find them very useful for storage. Hopefully, your bulbs will be fine until you can get them planted.

I guess I should take the cardboard out at the bottom of the crates. They came with a section of cardboard cut the same size of the crate to help hold the 'soil' bag when they were shipped and I just left them in the crates. It would be better for the bulbs if it had open holes at the bottom of each one.

I guessed you Rita would both have some of those crates from Colorblends with the amount of bulbs ordered each time.

From OHG I ordered these bulbs to add to my forcing this winter stock:

daffodils (5 each)
Mrs. Roadhouse
Red Devon

hyacinths
3 Gen, Kohler
1 Menelik
(The last one is a very near black hyacinth)

Ooohh, Menelik will be wonderful forced! No harsh sun to fade it quickly. I don't know of 'Mrs. Roadhouse'...is that meant to be Mrs. Backhouse perhaps? (as in Mrs. R.O.Backhouse, which always makes me think Roadhouse, LOL)

You're right Neal, I got roadhouse meaning backhouse; sometimes coordination twix brain and eye yield weird results.

@jmorth

Have you gotten any Hyacinths from OHG before? The reason I ask is because I was wondering what size they send, unless it varies with each variety they offer.

Always daffodils before this order.

Thanks!

While I was in Kroger's today I decided to buy some bulbs. I'd been eyeing them for weeks and by now they were slim pickings, but I took the plunge and got some just to add more color next spring. I should've looked at all the boxed varieties when they first got them in.

15 Triumph tulip 'Prince Charles'
05 Triumph tulip 'Passionale'
05 Triumph tulip Flag Mix
10 Triumph tulip Mix
05 Triumph tulip Apple Blossom Mix
20 Allium azureum (aka caeruleum)
16 Crocus Mix