Preserving bulbs for the following year: here’s how to do it!

Indoor plants are often purchased before flowering or at the end of their life cycle. When a plant wilts, we might wonder if we did something wrong, but it’s likely just a perfectly natural physiological process. In this case, the wilting plant is usually a bulbous plant. So, what are bulbous plants?

Bulbous plants are a general term for all underground organs with storage functions, including true bulbils, tubers, bulbils, and rhizomes.

These vegetative bodies exist in many plant families, some of which I will mention below.

True bulbils are underground organs encased in modified leaves that serve a storage function. Daffodils, lilies, tulips, amaryllis, and hyacinths are examples of bulbous plants.

Rhizomes are more or less swollen modified stems that grow underground and can spread rapidly in the soil. Cannas and calla lilies develop from rhizomes.

Tubers. These are short, thick, round underground stems covered with small protrusions called «eyes.» Dahlias, climbing lilies, caladiums, anemones, tuberous begonias, and asters all form large tubers. Potatoes and nasturtiums are also tuberous plants.

Bulbotubers. They are underground, fleshy and enlarged parts of the stem of the plants, which have buds near what remains of the leaves of the previous season: the rustic crocus, the freesia and the gladiolus are formed from bulbtubers and the same happens for the cyclamen.

The more rustic bulbous plants are often used indoors as transitional plants: they repot daffodils And hyacinths when they flower in spring, they are forced to flower before the natural time, then they are discarded. Many of these species, purchased while in flower, are grown in a special bulb fiberpoor in nutritional elements: bulbs grown in bulb fiber (or in containers full of water) are exhausted without remedy: the only thing to do is throw them away.

The necessary additional nourishment

If you wish conservation and bulbs for the following year you must cultivate them in a growth compost: this ensures the correct nourishment for the flower embryo, which is forming in the bulb, for the following year. The nutritional elements contained in the soil must be integrated by administering fertilizer: the treatment must be started from the moment the shoots emerge and continued until the leaves die naturally.
Gradually reduce the amount of water given until the soil and bulb have dried: at this point turn the vase slightly upside down and give it a few taps to remove everything.
Keep yourself cool and witchy until autumn: remember that the «treated» bulbs will resume their natural cycle only if they are stored in the dark after repotting.

Shining beauties of summer

I lilies they adorn and beautify our gardens in summer: bulbs grown in pots should be buried outdoors, or kept in a cold greenhouse, and brought inside only when they are in flower: after flowering, return the pots to their environment, continuing to fertilize and water normally. They are repotted in autumn to have new flowers the following season

The smallest varieties of dahlias from flowerbeds they do not survive frost: it is necessary to dig up the tuberized roots, let them dry and keep them in a dry place, at a temperature of 4-7°C.

What bulbous plants require

THE bulbous which cannot tolerate frost can be considered as short-lived plants or almost like normal indoor plants that require nourishment, water and humidity, like other tropical or subtropical plants.
Many delicate bulbous plants are indistinguishable from other houseplants, as their reserve organs may be buried well below the surface of the soil.

Most bulbs need a rest period and for a certain part of the year it will have a miserable and bare appearance: only a true connoisseur of plants can bear the sight of a vase containing a quiescent nothingness in the middle of an arrangement of green plants… even if these vases are not very presentable, remember not to water them!

Here are some types of bulbs!

The hippopotamus they are one of the few genera that is planted like hyacinths: the bulbs are buried only up to the shoulders. They flower in spring, die naturally in late summer and must be potted in time for vegetative growth to begin towards the end of winter.

THE lachenali winter-spring flowering requires a rest period: avoid watering after the leaves begin to die naturally in summer.

The cyclamen it produces a mass of shoots from winter to spring, then gradually the stems and leaves die, leaving only the original bulbotuber: it then requires a period of rest without watering until repotting in late summer.

The climbing lily of the tuberized roots dies naturally in summer, to take a well-deserved rest after its splendid summer flowering: it must be kept warm and dry.

How to dry bulbs

Raw wooden boxes (available in fruit and vegetable shops), lined with newspaper are useful on which to arrange bulbs and tubers to dry; extract the bulbs from the soil (or the ground), shake to remove the excess soil, then arrange a single layer of bulbs on the newspaper: as they dry, the soil will come off.
Once most of the soil has come off, also remove old roots and any bulbilswhich can be preserved in the same way as the bulb that generated them.

At this point the bulbs can be grouped in a single box, dusted with a suitable fungicideand stored in a dry and cool place (protected from frost, at a temperature of 7-16°C) until the time comes to repot.
Check the bulbs occasionally: discard any that show signs of rotting and dust the remainder again with fungicide.
Those bulbs that require a light degree of humidity during storage should be kept in boxes containing slightly moist peat