Indoor tulips in water: In bloom and safe from deer

The indoor tulips I've been growing in water opened today, bringing the effect of a wild-looking spring garden into my living room.

Unlike the grape hyacinths and amaryllis, the tulips didn't get weekly photo updates. (Did anyone miss them?) They were sort of like the second child: you love the kid, of course, but having already experienced all the "firsts" you forget (or are too exhausted) to record every milestone the second time around.

Like the grape hyacinths I grew previously, I was concerned the 'Suncatcher' tulips in water would not bloom. They had lived in my basement garage since December to get the chilling required to replicate winter in the ground. In early February, I filled three glass vases of different sizes with smooth stones and water and carefully set the bulbs on top. I brought them all up from the basement on April 3. They were tall, pale shoots that looked surprisingly healthy despite weeks without sun. I set them outside for a day hoping to green them up. It worked, but the stems and the leaves that grew from them still don't have the deep green color of tulips grown in the ground.

From memory, here's how they developed. The bulbs had already sprouted when I arranged them in the vases with the water level just touching their bottoms. After a few weeks, full, cream-colored roots that resemble miniature ramen noodles began to emerge. The sprouts grew thicker and taller, the wavy roots grew down between the rocks to get water.

Blue mold, a type common to tulips and other plants, attacked while the bulbs were in the basement. I swabbed it off one of them with a weak bleach solution on a cotton swab, but didn't have time to do the others.

One of the bulbs that produced a bright yellow flower edged in orange has a severe case, but apparently wasn't affected by the mold it is hosting. It's actually the same mold that is used to make penicillin. I'll be removing it, however, because it's probably not a good idea to risk having the mold spores released into my living room.

The plants are also exceptionally tall. When I brought them up from the basement, most were about 10 inches in height. Undoubtedly, it's from stretching to get some of the sun coming through a distant window. In the two weeks they've been near a sunny window, the tallest has grown to 18 inches. Not ideal, but still a pleasure to see. 

Beyond the happy feeling of success, the best thing is being able to enjoy my tulips without worry about the neighbohood deer making a meal of them.

Forcing amaryllis and muscari bulbs: An At Home Journal (Week 14)

My favorite arrangement of hydroponic grape hyacinths grown in water from their bulbs.Feb. 27: A Grape Hyacinth Cocktail:

This is the favorite of all my water-grown muscari bulb arrangements.

Grown from bulbs in a decorative cocktail glass filled with clear flat marbles and water, it made a very pretty gift, especially since these decided to bloom in these days when the ground is still covered with a thick blanket of snow.

While I don't really like the idea planting bulbs in pots of dirt to force them to bloom indoors, I like the ease of the water-only forcing technique.

As with my muscari arrangement in the larger blue bowl, their growth was attractive even before flowers formed. It took a bit longer for these bulbs to present flowers, probably because they were in a chilly area near a sliding glass door.

For me, part of the appeal for this arrangement is the way the roots formed a thick web through the marbles in the bowl of the glass. Some roots have even grown down into the base.

In the case of this arrangement and the larger blue bowl arrangement, the excitement of seeing the first blossom was multiplied when I checked a day or two later and there were five or six more.

HOW TO 'PLANT' THEM

A single muscari bulb blossomed in a glass bottle cap filled with four flat marbles and water.  Fill the bowl of a large decorative cocktail glass (or any clear glass vessel) with clear glass marbles and add enough water to come to the top of the marbles. With pointed side up, place as many grape hyacinth (muscari) bulbs on top as will fit. You can basically forget about them until they need more water. In about two weeks, the first green shoots should show, my flowers appeared after about three months.

The 'planting' technique, which also works with large amaryllis bulbs, can be found in detail  here. All the journal entries covering the previous weeks of growing can be found in the Gardening section of the site.

Thanks to Longfield Gardens in Lakewood, NJ for providing the bulbs that made my testing possible.  I'm especially grateful to co-owner Hans Langeveld who patiently answered all my questions on how to grow bulbs in water without one speck of dirt. The company did not pay me for these posts.

This will likely be my last entry about forcing bulbs until the end of March when it's time to bring up the tulip bulbs that are now chilling in my basement.

Forcing amaryllis and muscari bulbs: An At Home Journal (Weeks 12 - 13)

Amaryllis 'Splash' flowers open day by day. Smaller buds are developing at the center. Appropriately, the red and white flowers began to open on Valentine's Day.

 Feb 25:

Amaryllis 'Splash' opening. In the rush of activity, I am only now getting to the amaryllis photos, which I shot over several days starting Feb. 14. The first bloom was fully open by Feb. 18, and the second opened Feb. 23. 'Splash' is the largest, and was first to open of three amaryllis bulbs I grew in vases of water, starting all on Dec. 4 along with the indoor-blooming, water-grown grape hyacinth bulbs that have added so much beauty and excitement to my home over these last few cold and snowy weeks.

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Forcing amaryllis and muscari bulbs: An At Home Journal (Weeks 10 - 11)

Grape hyacinth blooms on bulbs grown indoors in water. Marbles kept the bulbs dry.Feb. 12:

Grape hyacinths (muscari) have bloomed in my living room, grown hydroponically from bulbs set atop marbles in water within a wide glass vase. I count 14 blossoms, with three more just starting to form. A few weeks back, I feared the bulbs wouldn't produce flowers at all.

Another cool thing? They actually have a sweet fragrance, too.

In a smaller glass vessel, three more grape hyacinth bulbs are also at various stages of bloom.

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Forcing muscari bulbs: An At Home journal (Week 9)

Muscari bulbs, all placed in a water-filled vase with marbles on Dec. 18, are at different stages of growth. The tallest has just formed a bud. Even a baby bulb that divided from a larger bulb during the previous growing season (foreground) is sprouting a thin stem. Can muscari bulbs be forced indoors in water? Happily, the answer appears to be yes.

Jan 28:

More excitement: A hydroponic arrangement of water-grown muscari bulbs that has not been shown previously has a flower bud, known properly as a florette. And, in the south-facing window of a warm room, it appeared in just six weeks.

I admit I went a little crazy with the muscari bulbs, but I have been growing them in varied hydroponic conditions because I wanted this to seem as much like a real experiment as possible.

Here's the back story: On Dec. 18 when I first noticed stems growing from the bulbs sprouting in the blue vase, I plucked out all that had not grown stems. I did not want to throw them away, so I put the four of them in a smaller, squarish glass vase (shown right) and tucked them in the window of a room I use frequently. Despite being placed on the same day and subjected to the same conditions, the four bulbs in the vase are all at different stages of growth, but all have grown roots. The bulb that has the florette sprouted within a week or two of being placed in the new vase, but unlike the bulbs in the larger blue vase, it remained relatively compact, with the tallest of its six stems measuring only 4 inches tall compared to the 11- to 12-inch stems on the bulbs in the blue vase.

It was a delight to discover the flower bud on this small plant after having wondered if the indoor grape hyacinths would flower at all in the water "planting."

A bonus: The glass vase arrangement, using flattish green marbles, has an interesting look with the visible beige roots swirling around in contrast to the stacked marbles.