Summer Bulb Timing
Google fu is failing me! I've been all over the internet trying to figure out exactly what is meant when you are instructed to plant a summer bulb in "spring". Late spring, after the last frost date? Which here in Chicago might as well be called early summer? Or much earlier, when you start seeing crocuses and it still might snow? Somewhere in between?
I was really hoping I could find some sort of marker, either temperatures or an idea of what else will be going on in the plant world at the appropriate time. Or maybe it doesn't matter that much? I'm trying to decide whether to wait to plant my ismene and sparaxis bulbs outdoors or whether I should go ahead and do so indoors now or maybe wait a little longer, say, 6 weeks before the last frost date. I never seem to have much luck with bulbs. It seems like it should be easy, but somehow something always goes wrong.
Maybe I'll just have to be scientific. Plant some now, wait a bit, plant some more later, do some inside, some out and just observe what happens. But it irks me that I can't find a straight-forward answer to what seems to be a basic question after a half hour of search. Surely there was something more productive I could have been doing with this time!
I was really hoping I could find some sort of marker, either temperatures or an idea of what else will be going on in the plant world at the appropriate time. Or maybe it doesn't matter that much? I'm trying to decide whether to wait to plant my ismene and sparaxis bulbs outdoors or whether I should go ahead and do so indoors now or maybe wait a little longer, say, 6 weeks before the last frost date. I never seem to have much luck with bulbs. It seems like it should be easy, but somehow something always goes wrong.
Maybe I'll just have to be scientific. Plant some now, wait a bit, plant some more later, do some inside, some out and just observe what happens. But it irks me that I can't find a straight-forward answer to what seems to be a basic question after a half hour of search. Surely there was something more productive I could have been doing with this time!