We are in East Texas harvesting today with one of our biggest supporters. It is an honor to receive the responsibility to continue the growth of these treasured heirlooms. However, with our trucks and people we also managed to bring rain. That puts a hold on some of our plans, but when you are surrounded by a wealth of horticulture literature, there really isn't too much room to complain. If you are in San Antonio, we hope you tuned in to Eliza Sonneland on AM1310 around 11:30 this morning for a wonderful visit about the bulbs we are growing. Pictured on this posting is a photo of Grant Cox harvesting our favorite Byzantine gladiolus.

It is another day in the life of a Texas flower bulb company. Right now that means hot. We are all drinking a lot of water, harvesting in the mornings, and working in the office during the heat of the day. With the long nights and early mornings, we are managing a short nap somewhere in the afternoon. We did enjoy a visitor. Our UPS representative Laina came out and bought us pizza. Thank you for the visit. I know our customers will like to know that we have a good relationship with our couriers!

Many have inquired into the now infamous cabin. So, we gathered some pics to share as well details describing our humble abode. It is much akin to an old man-o-war. It’s cramped, made of wood, almost seems to be floating when it rains too much, is hot and humid in the summer, and cold and drafty in the winter. It forces all to be impersonal with their belongings, food and life, but allows us to dream of prizes to come as we drift off to sleep at night under it’s sturdy little roof.

It’s not always bad though…at night sometimes we press forward with our guitars and bad voices, we lay in awe of a passing thunderstorm, or battle the cold of winter with a large stout oak wood fire. Frequently it’s port wine and Patrick O’Brian novels, and in the summer it’s making sure that the bass and crappie don’t forget who is boss (Mr. Ben Arcuni of course!).

The humble little cabin in many respects is just an extension of the dream, the company and all that it represents. We seem to be a tiny little cabin tucked away in the midst of life’s landscape, but we have a big story to tell – a story in progress! Every night we sail away into our dreams and awake the next day ready to work to bring the company to as many homes as possible. We hope you enjoy the pics and look forward to your visits in person soon!

Well, we ran across this brief photo opportunity the other day and could not resist. Everyone’s recent response to the “New York Times” article has been overwhelming, and we love it. We are trying to respond to everyone’s emails and will in time. However for the time being, when we look at our email inbox, we feel as if we are the lizard staring directly into our next big project. It’s almost more than we can chew. We will manage however and personally respond to all of your kind words of encouragement. As we have all done too much lately, we just ask for continued patience. Thank you and talk to you soon!

Well, as promised we are striving to bring you some very exciting products here at the Southern Bulb Co. Over the next two weeks you can expect several large announcements on products which will start to march their way onto our product pages. We have spent months paving the roads for these new packages to arrive and they are finally receiving their long awaited finishing touches. Stay tuned and keep checking in. We promise you will find these ideas so innovative that you will not be able but to indulge yourselves with the gifts. They will further the goal that Southern Bulb vigorously pursues to help preserve the heritage that these bulbs encompass.
Cheerio and cheers!

As many of you know, harvest is occurring as we speak. Next week we have much help coming to the farm to help us finally complete the task in our field. Today I wanted to quickly highlight one of our favorite bulbs, Narcisuss tazetta 'Grand Primo' which we often refer to simply as Grand Primos. These bulbs are fun because they are large, healthy bulbs that are rapid multipliers. As you can see, they polish up into a golden brown and are just as pretty out of the ground as they are in it. However, when blooming in late February and March, they make an impressive display of large clumps of white flowers. There is really no need to divide the clumps, unless you want to share the bulbs with your friends try to make a nice long line to decorate your house, sidewalk, or fence line. Cattle, deer, and other rodents won't touch them and all they need is natural rainfall. You will do great with them and I hope you give them a try!

Now that my computer is back up and full loaded, I look forward to sharing some more of the last week in pictures. Let me start by saying that there was no fishing trip, and there was no visit with my brother on the 4th, and there was almost no fourth of July Holiday at all. In the upper left is the plane next to the one that left without me at 6 in the morning. That's o.k. though because I ended up spending more time with my dad in Houston and I was able to make it to Granbury and help Grant out. Before heading to Granbury though, I was able to spend time in Houston. It is along these types of backroads with the large city skylines in the background that you often stumble upon some real urban treasures. These bulbs are tough, growing next to city streets, dumpsters, or at the corner of old houses. Look at this Hyemenocalis next to a light post, or this Crinum at the corner of the house (never mind the Shiner Bock on the porch--for some reason Shiner Bock keeps popping into all of our pictures). Amanda might not have made this journey though. As many of you know, there is bad blood between her and the birds, and this was definitely the birds territory.

While in Houston, I was able to visit one of the areas (if not the worlds) most renowned Crinum experts, Marcelle Sheppard. She was very friendly and shared seeds while showing me all of her crinum collection. It was a lovely tour with beautiful flowers, but I think the mosquitoes liked me more than I liked them. If somebody who is from an area tells you to apply insect repellant, then listen to them. Marcelle not only has Crinums, but Amarcrinums, Cannas, and daylilies also. Her mother used to grow many different varieties of daylilies, some of which still bloom nicely in her garden.

After Houston I headed up to Granbury to help Grant out. Ben worked the show the first couple of days with Grant, and I helped out on the 4th. To the people of Granbury: thank you for a wonderful fireworks show and being such friendly people. Here are a couple more shots of Grant with the "Bocce Ball Extraordinaire" and of the fireworks. You can never get enough fireworks.

And Mr. Sam Cox, this picture goes out to you. Thank you for all of your hard work and time you have given the company. We all appreciated having you out here.

The past week has been a great one for festivals. The frenzy started in Granbury with the Old Fashioned Fourth of July festivities. The parade through downtown was magnificent and it was well attended by citizens lining the sidewalks three-deep in most places.






Denizens of Granbury and the surrounding area really took to the Snowflakes and Spider Lilies, as many people recognized them but had no idea what they were or how to obtain them.

On Tuesday the fourth Chris and I closed up shop at 6:00 and headed to the lake for fireworks. We were joined by my family, cousins, aunt and uncle, and my friend Courtney. We passed the time until the light show after dusk by eating chicken and listening to music. Chris and I challenged my sister Emily and Courtney to bocce ball and were promptly destroyed 15-4.


On Saturday I was able to attend my hometown Parker County Peach Festival in Weatherford. Both the Granbury and Weatherford shows took place in the shadows of what I think are two of the most beautiful courthouses in the state. It was good to see old friends and show them my new love of flower bulbs.

As bright as the fireworks on the fourth that we all had the chance to view, our summer bloomers continue to steal the show. It never ceases to amaze me as to how resilient these bulbs are. I know firsthand how all of us here on the farm look after spending hours in the summer heat , and it is far less flattering than any of these champs. They are in their element in the heat, and bless them for it. Our Texas summers can be so colorless. The grass turns brown and the flowers not fortunate enough to find healthy doses of shade wither away. But there, tucked confidently away in some southern landscapes, the summer weary eye brightens at the sight of hymenocallis and the crinum (“milk and wine” crinum photo on the left). Their dark forest green foliage contrasts the ever present brown, and their pure blooms transfer life into their surroundings, defying the summer’s oppressive heat. They are just a few gardening gems that seem to laugh at drought and ill-care. For the moment, they are not on our product list, but that beckons back to our lack of time. There are only so many hours in the day for us at Southern Bulb Co., and with so many bulbs to tend to now, we tirelessly work through the night trying to bring all these products to you via our website. So we beg for your patience. Because, while at times we lack the hardiness our bulbs so eloquently display, we are trying. The next few days will find these bulbs propagating their way onto our homepage and then into your gardens.

Many people have asked about summer blooming bulbs or bulbs that are blooming now. That is a great question, and unfortunately the photos of Habranthus robustus, Crinums, Hymenocalis, and others from earlier blog posts have all been lost. Not to fear though, not only will those photos be added over the next few days, we will also begin to feature them on our website (www.southernbulbs.com).

We hope everybody enjoys their orders of fall planted bulbs. Remember, those bulbs will be shipped when it is time to plant in your area. We have a busy next couple weeks, as some of the last harvesting at the field needs to take place. Our office goes into sleep mode, as we put on our grungy clothes and go get dirty. The trick is to stay out of the sun or at least find some way to shade your self as you work.

I wanted talk about one of our favorite spring bloomers, the Twin Sisters or April Beauty (Narcissus x medioluteus). We do work with many treasures and this is one of them. It is one of the last blooming daffodils (Narcissus) and as the name implies it waits until April to send up a bloom. Thomas Jefferson reportedly grew it at Monticello, and we now have the wonderful opportunity to grow it here and present it to you. They are not the largest bulbs in the batch, but they have a wonderful round, white appearance that is somewhat unique for a Narcissus. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

We are honored to be in the New York Times today and hope that all the readers are enjoying the blog (a.k.a. Bulb Boy Adventures) and our website southernbulbs.com. My name is Chris Wiesinger and although I am 25, I am still called the bulb boy. Maybe one day I will be promoted, but until then I'll just have to be a “boy”.

Ms. Bellafante with the New York Times did a wonderful job of introducing readers to the idea of what we do. I will start off by saying that around here, it is not always a good idea just to go knocking on any old door asking for bulbs. As you can see, I skip some places and just keep driving.

Something is blooming at any given point in the year, and sometimes they are small bulbs like this historic Hoop Petticoat (Narcissus bulbocodium) on the left,

and sometimes they are larger like the Grand Primos (Narcissus tazetta 'Grand Primo') above. Whatever the size, all of our bulbs form nice clumps in the right environments, such as the Giant Jonquils or Campernelles (Narcissus x odorus ‘Campernelli’) on the right.

We dig individual bulbs from old sites, and grow them out in our field. We have nice sandy loam soil with good amounts of natural rainfall, and the result is large bulbs that propagate fast. To the left are the bulbs of the Oxblood Lily (Rhodophiala bifida) and the true triploid Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata). The far right picture is of the Oxbloods in bloom and on the immediate right is a picture of the Red Spider Lily. These two are fall bloomers.

This is the cabin where we all reside. We do catch bass and enjoy fresh fish when we can. Other times we catch and clean them, throwing them in the freezer for future dates. On the right is Amanda and Zac getting dirty sorting bulbs. This is a good picture of all of the guys on the left.

We are obviously experiencing higher volumes of traffic and phone calls (866)406-BULB (2852) and have an answering service set up to handle the increased traffic. My speaking calendar should be on the web soon also, and it is filling up rapidly. There were some prints listed in the article of bulbs we do not carry, but we always love to try and help people find the bulbs they are looking for, so please feel free to contact us about those items.

Over the next few weeks and months we have some very exciting new products and features that will be making their way onto our site bit by bit…honestly, they are coming up so fast that we just do not have time to implement all at once! But we cannot tell you how eager we are to share them with you. As the summer fades away and the fall temperatures start to cool, our adventures for bulbs will just be heating up. So don’t be a stranger, slide us into your favorites and check up on us. We promise not to be bashful about our sagas and we know you’ll enjoy the journey!

As the wife and sister-in-law of a family of bulb enthusiasts, I’ve become acclimated with the pursuit of “the green thumb.” Driving back from giving Ivan (our horse) a cool bath at the stables, John and I stumbled upon Tigers…Tiger Lilies of course. They were eloquently placed in the front yard of Mr. and Mrs. Harris, native Georgians, who kindly invited us to view them. Mrs. Harris was gracious enough to tell us stories of her Tiger Lilies which were passed down from her grandmother. In fact, every house she’s moved to, she’s taken her Tiger Lilies and their history’s with her. She told us that when it comes to flowers, she loves to share their blooms just to see a smile put on another’s face. As the hot breath of summer stretches from Texas to Georgia, so does the bloom of the Tiger Lily. While fading in the Lone Star State, they are just now at their pinnacle here. It was a privilege to be outside as the sky dimmed and a southern storm made its way in. Fortunately we managed to capture a few pretty pictures of this classy southern lily before rain drops tumbled from above. Enjoy!