A cold front has moved in and it has become chilly. It is 54 degrees right now. I wish the cold weather could have come a little earlier so the glad blooms would have held on.
The past two days have been catch up days for me. After moving into the office here on the land, I still had not had the opportunity to file away my loose papers. For someone with so much German blood, it nearly killed me. But not much time to write, as they need me in the field. So much to do all the time. It is so hard to tell people no (I want to help and do it all) but Brad is offering some encouragement for better use of my time.
Out to the field on this COLD April morning...
The past two days have been catch up days for me. After moving into the office here on the land, I still had not had the opportunity to file away my loose papers. For someone with so much German blood, it nearly killed me. But not much time to write, as they need me in the field. So much to do all the time. It is so hard to tell people no (I want to help and do it all) but Brad is offering some encouragement for better use of my time.
Out to the field on this COLD April morning...
Another day is wrapped up. The harvester is complete, receipts sorted for labeling, and papers filed. We have some really busy weeks ahead and there is a lot of legwork to complete. All of the first crinums have begun to open up. You wont find any for sale on our website, as the only bulbs we are currently featuring are for fall planting. We know it is 10:30PM already, but I must go for we have so much more to do tonight!
Wow! The 90 degree days and dry weather really jumped out at us. Our bulbs are going dormant all over the place and we have to harvest in many areas two to three weeks before we planned. Our morning meetings are cut short and food is brought to us by Amanda as we all work around the clock to catch up on a task that could easily get away from us.
Since we are harvesting bulbs, let me mention a bit about the depth of bulbs when planting them. As many of you know, the general rule is that bulbs should be planted at a depth of about three times the height of the bulb. Another HUGE bulb farmer in the northwest answered my ignorant question with the answer his bulb growing father gave him, making a gesture by turning his hand sideways with fingers out and saying that was a good depth. Those rules seem to work well with daffodils, tulips, hyacinths etc. With amaryllis, one generally leaves a little bit of the neck showing, like in our Hardy Amaryllis (Hippeastrum x johnsonii). When it comes to gladiolus, the 3X rule would work, but sometimes people plant glads at deeper depths to ensure heavy flowers have more support above the ground and don't tip over. Our Byzantine glads (Gladiolus x byzantinus) don't really have that problem and we use no stakes, no support, and no special planting depth, yet they stay up perfectly. Another trick with spring planted gladiolus is to plant them at different depths in the same area, giving a longer time period to bloom.
We are all very tired. Off to shower and sleep...my bulb friend and I talked too late last night. Had to check into a hotel at around 1AM in the morning to get back home safe. Looking forward to more sleep tonight.
Since we are harvesting bulbs, let me mention a bit about the depth of bulbs when planting them. As many of you know, the general rule is that bulbs should be planted at a depth of about three times the height of the bulb. Another HUGE bulb farmer in the northwest answered my ignorant question with the answer his bulb growing father gave him, making a gesture by turning his hand sideways with fingers out and saying that was a good depth. Those rules seem to work well with daffodils, tulips, hyacinths etc. With amaryllis, one generally leaves a little bit of the neck showing, like in our Hardy Amaryllis (Hippeastrum x johnsonii). When it comes to gladiolus, the 3X rule would work, but sometimes people plant glads at deeper depths to ensure heavy flowers have more support above the ground and don't tip over. Our Byzantine glads (Gladiolus x byzantinus) don't really have that problem and we use no stakes, no support, and no special planting depth, yet they stay up perfectly. Another trick with spring planted gladiolus is to plant them at different depths in the same area, giving a longer time period to bloom.
We are all very tired. Off to shower and sleep...my bulb friend and I talked too late last night. Had to check into a hotel at around 1AM in the morning to get back home safe. Looking forward to more sleep tonight.
Summer really hit us fast and hard. We are scrambling to put up our shade on the cold frame, and we can feel how close harvest is. I hope our propagation rates continue to perform well for us. We want you all to have as many of these great treasures as possible.
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