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Forcing bulbs is a process by which you trick spring flowering bulbs into blooming in the middle of winter. Forcing bulbs is an ancient tradition practiced by Europeans since the late 17th century. Anna Pavord, in her landmark book, Bulb, wrote, “Keen plantsmen soon discovered that it was possible to force hyacinths into bloom earlier than Nature intended. Nehemiah Grew, secretary of the Royal Society (Britain) and a pioneer in the painstaking business of finding out how plants are made, had already in 1682 observed that the hyacinth’s flower buds were formed in the bulb the previous season and that it might be possible to tickle them into bloom ‘by keeping the Plants warm, and thereby enticing the young lurking Flowers to come abroad.’ We need to
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N. Bulbocodium Conspicuous Golden Bells BUY NOW FOR FALL PLANTING All you have to do is whisper the word, narcissus, and visions of meadows of sunshine yellow flowers come to mind. In today’s world, with critters like deer, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, moles and voles feasting on many of our spring blooming bulbs, the narcissus has become the most popular spring garden flower because most critters avoid these bulbs. Narcissus is the name given to a vast family of plants. Jonquils are included in that family, and daffodils are a common name for narcissus. Narcissus are part of the Amaryllis family and are native to many parts of our planet, but not North and South America. All of the narcissus grown in the United States were brought here from
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There are very few North American Native spring flowering bulbs. I know of only 5: Erythronium tuolumnense, Camassia cusicki, Camassia quamash, Allium cernuum and Allium amplectens. These five bulbs are rarely found in the gardens of Americans even though they represent our bulb heritage. Erythronium tuolumnense BUY NOW FOR FALL PLANTING Erythronium tuolumnense, AKA The Dogtooth Violet, is native to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Central California where it grows in the pine and evergreen oak woods at an elevation of 1650 feet. Its name comes from the place where it was first found – Tuolumne County, California. The plant is hardy from Hardiness Zones 3-9. Each plant has green leaves that are slightly crinkled at the edges and a flower stem that produces as many as
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SPECIES TULIP - SYLVERSTRIS IN BUD For those of you who have deer, squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks and other critters that like to decimate the spring garden before it even sprouts, there are actually many bulbs that are critter resistant, in fact, there are tulips that are critter resistant. These tulips are known as Species Tulips. These are the original wild tulips collected from Persia, the Caucasus, Africa, Southern Europe, etc. Even today, wild species are still being discovered and cultivated for commercial sale. Understand, that after these wild species are collected and nurtured through professional cultivation, they often change dramatically. They can become taller, their blossoms can become larger, and their colors may be more vivid. That is OK, because even if you found them
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Rarely Seen – Allium Karativiense For those of you who know me personally, you know that I have several gardening books that I treasure. The authors are researchers whose horticultural knowledge and experience can be trusted, and their books are a glorious visual celebration of the topics detailed within. When the topic of bulbs arises, my all-time favorite book is BULB, written by Anna Pavord and published in 2009. Anna’s section on Alliums in this book is one of the most enchanting pieces I have ever read. In this newsletter, I am going to quote from BULB several
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Basket of Shallots Many of our winter hardy vegetables – onion and elephant garlic sets, parsnips, salsify, etc. - can be planted in both the spring or the fall, but to be really successful with shallots, you should try to plant them in the fall. Shallots are sold as sets, but unlike onion sets where each ‘set’ is a baby onion and will produce a single mature onion, a shallot ‘set’ can be a nearly mature single shallot and this shallot will produce 4-6 mature shallots. From a single sack of 6 shallots you should expect to get 25-40 shallots. Shallot Sets BUY NOW FOR FALL PLANTING Shallots benefit greatly from being planted in soil that has been amended with Rock Phosphate and Potash. You can dust the
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Species Tulips Before we start into this newsletter, I must issue the following disclaimer: I am about to describe for you 4 species tulips that I will tell you deer don’t eat, BUT all of you need to know that when deer are stressed enough, they will eat anything and everything. This includes thorny holly leaves, cactus and the lovely tulips I am about to describe. In my garden, where there are plenty of deer every day, these tulips are not touched, but even I know that at some future date they may be consumed. For those of us in 21st century America, the species tulips are a wonder. These are the original wild tulips collected from Persia, the Caucasus, Africa, Southern Europe, etc. Even today, wild species
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A Garden of Heirlooms for Your Organization’s Volunteer Projects For more than a decade now, members of the Harvesting History management team have traveled this country visiting libraries, museums, arboretums, parks, 'pop-up' urban gardens and participating in hundreds of flower shows, harvest festivals, plant sales, state fairs, county fairs and community festivals. We have marveled at the thousands of magnificent container gardens, children’s gardens, native plant gardens, shade gardens, serenity gardens, gardens of hope, gardens of peace, gardens of healing, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, flower gardens, etc. that are daily, weekly and seasonally nourished and maintained by the tireless volunteers associated with America’s horticultural organizations. We believe that the volunteers from America’s horticultural organizations like the National Garden Clubs, Federated Garden Clubs of America, Men’s Garden Clubs, the
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THE MARBLED PURPLE STRIPE GARLIC - PSKEM Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About GARLIC!! On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, we began a newsletter series on garlic which will span 8 newsletters in total, and by the end of this series you will have learned all you ever wanted to know (and then some) about garlic. For those of you who are about to click on the Unsubscribe Button, please don’t! The reason we are dedicating so much writing to garlic is that it can be grown almost anywhere in the US, it is easy, dependable and fascinating to grow, and it is one of the healthiest vegetables you can consume. In grocery stores and health food markets, you can only find a few different kinds of
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Harvesting History welcomes its newest newsletter recipients - the folks whom we met at the New Jersey State Fair and Sussex County Horse Show and the folks we met at The Dutchess County Fair. We hope you will enjoy our newsletters. They are created from many years of gardening experience and with an abundance of love from the team at Harvesting History. The Silverskin Garlic – Nootka Rose Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About GARLIC!! This is the final installment of our series on garlic. If you missed any of the garlic newsletters, you can read them on our website, www.harvesting-history.com in our blog section. Our goal with this series was to teach you all you ever would want to know (and then some) about garlic. The
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