Leucojum vernum; was RE: Narcissus 'February Gold'
totototo@telus.net (Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:33:34 PST)
On 10 Jan 07, at 10:29, Jim McKenney wrote:
...be aware of one peculiarity of Leucojum vernum: its
bulbs respond to drying very poorly.
Decades ago this species appeared infrequently in local retail nursery
autumnal bulb displays. I tried them several years in a row, always
with the same results: not one bulb grew.
A time-honored treatment for overly desiccated bulbs, one mentioned
by E B Anderson in his books, is to pot up the invalids in pure sand
and keep it barely moist. When desiccated, they are horribly prone to
rot, so damp sand allows them to plump up in a nearly sterile
environment.
This works even better if you have a sand-filled coldframe or plunge
bed so that the surrounding soil can wick away excess moisture; in
pots there is considerable risk of both excessive moisture and drying
out.
I've been through the same exercise with flabby L. vernum from a
garden center. I soaked mine in water for days, just like seeds,
changing it daily, until they'd imbibed enough water to have firmed
up, then put them into sand and left them there for a season. IIRC
(if I recall correctly), most of them came to life in the spring, but
it took another season or two for them to start growing strongly
enough to be planted out.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island