Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's
Nan Sterman via pbs (Tue, 01 Apr 2025 22:33:58 PDT)

I'm another Southern Californian who has bought those bulbs at TJ's and tried to grow them after bloom. I planted mine in my very sandy, well draining soil, both with a bit of summer irrigation and wiht no summer irrigation. They just don't last. One day I'd like to plant dormant bulbs and see if they do better but those Trader bulbs are best to just enjoy as potted plants while they bloom and then add to the compost heap, unfortunately.

On Apr 1, 2025, at 10:05 PM, Lee Poulsen via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

Since I live in Southern California, I supposedly have the type of climate, completely dry and warm in the summer and somewhat rainy and cool during the winter. The regular orange Ornithogalum species that the Trader Joe’s hybrid was probably bred from grows just fine here. But in a high drainage mix I make with pumice, perlite, and some sphagnum peat moss (or shredded coir) and some organic matter. I’ve tried to carry the TJ hybrids over to a second year. But I discovered that the mix they come in gets too wet even in my conditions and the bulbs rot. Every time. They must control the watering for them incredibly carefully. The last batch I bought, I let dry as soon as all the flowers bloomed and the leaves started to go yellow. Once they were dry and dormant, I unpotted them that summer and completely removed them from the mix they came in, and re-potted them in the mix above that I use for many mediterranean climate bulbs. They didn’t grow all that well the following year, but nevertheless grew but without flowering. I also fertilized them with time-release fertilizer. This year, right now actually, they finally bloomed, although not as big as they are when you buy them at TJs. And they appear to be thriving finally. But I must have bought a pot for three years in a row and lost them each time the following year until I finally did this two years ago.

--Lee Poulsen
San Gabriel Valley, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 340 ft/100 m

On Mar 30, 2025, at 08:30, Robert Lauf via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

OK, this is helpful. I can accommodate summer- and winter-growers as long as I know which is which! Sounds like the trick will be to let them keep growing and feeding the bulbs, but then as soon as they start to look tired, dry off and move to the dry bench until fall.
I wonder if they are potted in a mix that is great for forcing but less than ideal for the long term? Any advice there?

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