Taking the bulb by the horns
(Filed: 12/01/2002)
Carol Klein guides you through
propogating with bulbs
| How to do it |
THE more plants I have, the more I want. If you are a keen gardener you are almost certainly a greedy one, too. Most of us propagate our own plants - usually by dividing what we already have. Some of us produce new plants from cuttings or from seed to supplement our stock and to increase the possibilities open to us. But there is one exception - bulbs.
Somehow, when it comes to bulbs, we feel the only way to have more is to buy them. Yet there are three simple methods, used in the trade for centuries, to increase some of the most useful and garden-worthy bulbs.
Many lilies and fritillaries have bulbs that are composed of large scales. These thick, waxy scales are actually modified leaves. In effect, these bulbs can be increased by leaf cuttings, making a new bulb from a single scale. If you are treating yourself to new bulbs, why not steal a few scales before you plant them and make a whole lot more.
Scaling
| |
1 Gently push the scale away from the bulb so that it snaps off close to the base plate of the bulb (where the roots come from). If it has become shrivelled, you may need to use a sharp knife to cut the scale as close to the base plate as possible; some experts recommend detaching a slither of the base plate with the scale. Care must be taken not to damage the base plate since the object of bulb scaling is to create a few new bulbs without impairing the ability of the donor plant to grow and flower.
Take only a few scales from each bulb. If you are propagating from lilies already growing they need not be lifted - you can dig down into the soil and detach a few scales without disturbing the bulbs.
2 It is usually recommended that, at this stage, the detached scales are coated in fungicide - unless, like me, you garden organically. If the cut edge is allowed to callous over slightly, and the medium into which they are placed is damp rather than wet, there should be few problems.
| |
3 Take a handful of pre-mixed medium (half-and-half grit and peat, peat substitute or vermiculite) and combine this with the scales in a clean polythene bag. Blow into the bag and tie up.
4 Place the whole bag in the airing cupboard or another equally warm place. My family is used to finding seeds in the fridge, roots in the sink and tender plants warming by the Aga on frosty nights.
 | |
5 After several weeks (depending on which bulbs you are propagating and how high a temperature is maintained) small bulbs will have developed at the base of each scale.
They can be potted individually or in rows in a deep seed tray, preferably using loam-based compost. The scales should be pushed firmly in to the compost, upright, so that the bulblet tipss have their noses just poking out. A covering of grit will deter moss, liverworts and weeds and retain moisture.
Keep the tray in a warm place in full light. During the spring the bulblets will produce leaves. When these die down at the end of the summer, pot the bulbs individually or line them out in the garden.
You can't practise this method with bulbs such as hyacinths, where the scales encircle the bulbs - it is impossible to detach one scale - but there are two other methods which work well and are particularly useful for increasing special bulbs of this form, such as named snowdrops or narcissi.
Scooping
The first is scooping, which is self-descriptive.
| |
1 Sharpen your teaspoon. You can use a sharp knife or an apple corer although neither is as satisfactory as a teaspoon sharpened along one edge on a grindstone.
2 Always select solid, dormant bulbs. Holding the bulb tightly, scoop out the whole base plate leaving a shallow crater.
| |
3 Here, the chemical fiends would reach for the fungicide and coat the cut surface with it. I don't. Push the bulb, cut-surface upwards, into a pot full of dry sand to keep it upright, and place somewhere warm.
4 Eventually, small bulblets will form over the cut surface. At this stage, plant the bulb upside down in a pot of compost so the bases of the tiny bulbs are just submerged. In spring the pot can be put outside where the bulbs will produce leaves. In the autumn, they should be gently separated and replanted individually.
Scoring
A similar process, that will produce fewer, though bigger bulbs, is scoring. Two incisions are cut a quarter of an inch into the base of the bulb at right angles. These will open in the warmth to form a star. From then, follow the scooping process.
-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002
Moderation questions? read the FAQ