@Blue Onion that hassle is exactly why I only do a couple of small dishes. I do love daffs though, and even a couple of them in the middle of winter is a joy.
Do you mean inside a heated house, or in a cold conservatory? Daffs will work fine thrown in a pot in a cold conservatory, I have a pot that sits in the conservatory all year, untouched and unwatered during summer.
It won't work if they are permanently in a warm house though, daffs need the cold vernalization period to come up and flower. You could pot up a few, leave them outside for a few months then bring it inside in Jan?
Thanks @strelitzia32 , I have an attached garage that stays frost free but cold. I think the black garbage sack was to keep in moisture and darkness.. but I had to go ventilate it every few days, and even then it was a bit moldy on the compost. Do you keep yours covered or just cold?
@Blue Onion for my forced ones, or for my conservatory ones?
The forced ones are in the fridge lightly wrapped in newspaper, I'll take them out at the start of December (10 weeks ish after they went in) and pot up, water, then they go on a windowsill.
The conservatory ones stay in their pot all year, it's regular MPC and a layer of grit over the top. I start watering them now (actually 2 weeks ago) to replicate weather change, and they stay in the conservatory all through the winter. They'll pop up a little earlier than their March flowering time (because of the protection, I assume). I change the mpc and split the bulbs every few years, and feed them after flowering in the years I don't.
@strelitzia32 I thought for paperwhites they won’t need the cold period?
I don’t have a conservatory or garage (I live in a flat) but I do have a spare room that’s unheated most of the time.. should I leave my daffs in there? I also have two balconies (one sunny one shady) - which would offer pretty cool environments in the weeks to come..
@celcius_kkw sorry this is my fault for taking your topic er, off-topic! Paperwhites don't need vernalization, you are absolutely correct. I've inadvertently confused the discussion by posting about "regular" falconet and Laurens non-paperwhite tazettas.
Paperwhites: put them in a pot, cover the bulbs with MPC. I put a thin layer of grit over the top for appearance and reduce drying. Put them anywhere you want, the unheated room is fine and the shady balcony just as good. They should flower in about 10 weeks.
For anyone reading this in future, regular daffs are different: As a point of note, a spare room or garage won't do the trick for forcing regular daffs. They need proper cold temps under 5 degrees for at least 10 weeks, so just placed indoors won't work and you need to fridge them. Depending on where you live, a garage is also unlikely to be cool enough, early enough that you can get flowers in mid-winter - garage temps will be the same or warmer than outdoors, so vernalization will happen at the same time as the bulbs in the ground. For example my local temp today is 15 C , nowhere near cold enough, and it's only 12 weeks to Xmas (my apologies for pointing that out, I dislike Xmas creep as well).
Sorry about that interruption, ignore me . Normal service resumes in 3....
@strelitzia32 So for my grand Soleil d’or and Earlycheer - would I have to subject those ones to cold temperature (around 5C)? I’ve already planted them in MPC in a container so they won’t be able to go into the fridge at this stage.. the coldest place would probably be my shady balcony but it may not get down to 5C for a few more weeks..
The instructions from crocus.com where I bought them from just says leave them in a cold and dark room.. surely most people won’t have a spare room that’s at freezing temperature...?
I think the daffodils that are sold specially for indoor use have been grown differently and they’ve already been through a period of vernalisation before they’ve reached the shelf.
@celcius_kkw those are both paperwhites, so don't need a vernalization period. Won't do them any harm, but won't be of any benefit.
The cool room instruction is probably to stop them getting leggy. The dark instruction is if you're trying to do the "visible bulb" display thing (like hyacinths always seem to be) until you get leaves shooting - covering them with MPC does the trick.
Out of interest I took a look at Crocus and then J Parker, and Peter Nyssen, there's conflicting and unclear information on all of them for your bulbs, not ideal...
Like I said, I'm not an expert at all but regular daffs go in the fridge, paperwhites go straight in a pot, it's always worked for me...
@pitter-patter that's exactly what a "prepared" bulb is. Unfortunately it seems like some suppliers say their paperwhites are "prepared", which I suspect is a mistake or oversight to lump them in with other daffs.
@strelitzia32 That’s good to know.. so I guess I could just leave all of them inside and wait.
I did email crocus to ask if these indoor bulbs (as they’re advertised as on the website) were ‘prepared’ or pre-chilled and ended up getting a non-descript generic answer that really did not address my question at all.. that didn’t instill much confidence in me..
@celcius_kkw, My first year of gardening, i grew lots and lots of fragrant daffodils outside. Don't remember if any were paper white or not. Thalia was definitely one of those and it was fragrant. Anyway, some were nice and some were strongly odd smelling and i didn't like the smell. I might have list somewhere but i don't have notes of which smelled how.
You may like to grow hyacinths. They always smell nice.
Posts
Do you mean inside a heated house, or in a cold conservatory? Daffs will work fine thrown in a pot in a cold conservatory, I have a pot that sits in the conservatory all year, untouched and unwatered during summer.
It won't work if they are permanently in a warm house though, daffs need the cold vernalization period to come up and flower. You could pot up a few, leave them outside for a few months then bring it inside in Jan?
The forced ones are in the fridge lightly wrapped in newspaper, I'll take them out at the start of December (10 weeks ish after they went in) and pot up, water, then they go on a windowsill.
The conservatory ones stay in their pot all year, it's regular MPC and a layer of grit over the top. I start watering them now (actually 2 weeks ago) to replicate weather change, and they stay in the conservatory all through the winter. They'll pop up a little earlier than their March flowering time (because of the protection, I assume). I change the mpc and split the bulbs every few years, and feed them after flowering in the years I don't.
Hope that helps?
Paperwhites: put them in a pot, cover the bulbs with MPC. I put a thin layer of grit over the top for appearance and reduce drying. Put them anywhere you want, the unheated room is fine and the shady balcony just as good. They should flower in about 10 weeks.
For anyone reading this in future, regular daffs are different: As a point of note, a spare room or garage won't do the trick for forcing regular daffs. They need proper cold temps under 5 degrees for at least 10 weeks, so just placed indoors won't work and you need to fridge them. Depending on where you live, a garage is also unlikely to be cool enough, early enough that you can get flowers in mid-winter - garage temps will be the same or warmer than outdoors, so vernalization will happen at the same time as the bulbs in the ground. For example my local temp today is 15 C , nowhere near cold enough, and it's only 12 weeks to Xmas (my apologies for pointing that out, I dislike Xmas creep as well).
Sorry about that interruption, ignore me
The instructions from crocus.com where I bought them from just says leave them in a cold and dark room.. surely most people won’t have a spare room that’s at freezing temperature...?
The cool room instruction is probably to stop them getting leggy. The dark instruction is if you're trying to do the "visible bulb" display thing (like hyacinths always seem to be) until you get leaves shooting - covering them with MPC does the trick.
Out of interest I took a look at Crocus and then J Parker, and Peter Nyssen, there's conflicting and unclear information on all of them for your bulbs, not ideal...
Like I said, I'm not an expert at all but regular daffs go in the fridge, paperwhites go straight in a pot, it's always worked for me...
@pitter-patter that's exactly what a "prepared" bulb is. Unfortunately it seems like some suppliers say their paperwhites are "prepared", which I suspect is a mistake or oversight to lump them in with other daffs.
Here’s a snapshot of their reply..
My first year of gardening, i grew lots and lots of fragrant daffodils outside. Don't remember if any were paper white or not. Thalia was definitely one of those and it was fragrant. Anyway, some were nice and some were strongly odd smelling and i didn't like the smell. I might have list somewhere but i don't have notes of which smelled how.
You may like to grow hyacinths. They always smell nice.