Flowering Bulbs Indoors

Bring Your Natural Home Garden Inside

If you start in the fall, you can have lovely spring flowers by the middle of winter. Growing bulbs inside takes up little space, and it’s easy and fun.

The trick is to simulate a short winter. By placing the potted bulbs placed in the refrigerator, in a cool closet, or in a foam cooler on a patio or balcony, they will be fooled into thinking it’s winter. That causes them to grow sturdy roots and start sprouting in preparation for spring.

Organic Garden Soil

Any commercial organic potting mix is fine for bulbs, or you can make your own. It’s pretty simple, using 1 part sterilized potting soil (organic garden soil), one part perlite, and 2 parts peat moss. Mix these three components well. That gives you a clean, porous, moisture retaining, nutrient filled potting soil.

It’s better not to use unsterilized soil from your outside garden because it may contain bacterial or fungal pathogens that could infect the plant roots.

Finding A Pot To Plant In

Once you have your soil prepared, choose the pot you want to use.  Almost anything will work as long as there are holes for drainage, or you place a layer of gravel in the bottom to give excess water a place to go.  Use your imagination and try something a little different, like an old teapot for example.  Or find an old bucket or pot and punch holes in the bottom for drainage, and use that.

Whatever you decide to use, place a few pieces of broken pots or shells or rocks over the drainage holes.  The idea is to cover the hole enough to keep soil from falling out of the hole during planting, but still allow water to drain out from the hole.  This will also keep the hole from clogging up later.

Bulbs In The Pot!

Fill the pot half-full of soil mix, then place the bulbs in the container with pointed ends up. They should be planted as close together as possible, without actually letting the bulbs touch. Add enough soil mix to fill the pot, and water the bulbs thoroughly from the top or immerse in a tub of water – this will settle the soil around the bulbs.

Ideas For Garden Of Blooms Inside

Some of the following bulbs work well for indoor flowering:

• Daffodils: Plant 4 bulbs in an 8-inch pot. Place in a cooler or the refrigerator for 8 to 12 weeks, then move to a lighted area. After about 4 weeks, they should start to bloom.
• Hyacinth: Put 3 bulbs in an 8-inch pot and place in a cooler or closet for 7 weeks. Move to partial sunlight for a week, then into full sun for blooming.
• Tulips: Try 3 bulbs in a 6-inch pot. They should be kept in a cooler or refrigerator for 12 weeks, then moved to a dark closet for one week. After that, place the pot in the light and in about five weeks there should be blooms.

There are many places that carry good quality bulbs. One good place to get really high quality bulbs is Brecks. You can click here for Daffodils from Breck’s, plus all kinds of other beautiful bulbs.

Other bulbs like snowdrop and crocus take about 12 weeks. Longer cold storage will result in taller flowers, while a shorter storage time will result in smaller plants and sometimes flowers that start to bloom, then die.

Organic Garden Tips For Lovely Blooms

Label each pot with the name of the cultivars, date of planting and date to bring out of cold storage. This will give you some idea when to be checking the pots to see if the bulbs are sprouting, and what you have growing in each pot.

The best way to be sure is to check the pots now and then. When you see the shoots 2 to 3 inches above the soil and fine white roots emerging from the drainage holes, it’s time to bring the pots out of cold storage.

At this stage of development all bulbs should be placed in indirect lighting for a while before moving them to direct sunlight. Do not be allow the soil to dry out.

It also works better to first move bulbs to a fairly cool location if possible, such as an unheated entryway or closed off back bedroom, where the temperatures are in the ’50s, before moving them on to the heated areas of the house, and into more direct sunlight.

From Inside To Outside

If you wish to reuse the bulbs, after the bulbs quite blooming cut the flower stems off.  Make sure the remaining foliage has plenty of sunlight to continue to grow, as this is how the bulb gathers nutrients for next year’s blooms.

After the foliage withers, don’t pull the leaves off. Just leave them on the plant.  Store the bulbs in the pots in a cool, dry place until they can be planted outside. Don’t try to make the same bulbs bloom inside again, as the bulb is weakened from being forced to bloom. Even if the bulb blooms again, it would be small.

Placing the bulbs back in the garden setting allows them to return to a natural schedule, and after a year or two, they will again produce a beautiful display of flowers.

Indoor blooms are a great way to cheer up the home!

Related posts:

1. Gardening Tips for Planting Bulbs