April 18, 2000
Recycling Easter Bulbs             

           By the time you read this, the 13” of snow we received on the 9^th will be just an unpleasant memory.  It was a wild ride.  On Saturday the 8^th we enjoyed 76 degrees with a strong south wind.  I spent part of that day finishing up my raking.  The wind was so strong that I had no choice by to rake along with it rather than try to fight it.  Later that day I put some soil and grass seed down in an area where a tree had been removed.  I figured that the heavy rain expected the next day would do a fine job soaking it in.  It sure did and the foot of snow that followed the rain made sure that the seed stayed soaked.  A lot of folks have the idea that grass seed is very tender and worry about applying it when it’s cold.  Actually, grass seed is pretty tough with regard to temperature; it’s dryness that causes problems.  The reason I like to get grass seed out early is that it needs to sit on the soil and be kept moist to sprout.  The grass seed I put out before the storm should do quite well since it’s been fairly moist since then.  When the soil temperatures warm, the grass seed will be moist, primed and ready to germinate.  If you wait, the days get longer and warmer and you’ll need to pay closer attention to make sure that the grass seed doesn’t ever dry out.  I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to work with Mother Nature than against.

                In a few days we’ll be celebrating Easter once again.  Included in our Easter celebrations are a multitude of flowering plants.  Lilies, hyacinths, daffodils and a host of others are enticed into bloom to help us celebrate.  I find it interesting that many of these plants are hardy flower bulbs.  They are the perfect symbol of rebirth.  What a shame that so many are discarded after the holidays have passed.  If you can spare a little effort, many of these Easter plants can make a lovely addition to our flowerbeds and become a living reminder of past Easter celebrations.

                Most of the Easter lilies sold are not winter hardy but, if you cut them back about 1/3 after they finish flowering and feed them with Miracle-Gro then plant them in a semi-sunny location in June, you should be rewarded with a second round of flowers in late summer.

                The best choices for reusable Easter plants are tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinths.  The “forced” bulbs that you buy at Easter are the same varieties that you find offered at the garden center for planting in the fall.  They’ve simply been potted up, chilled over winter, and then heated to bring then into flower for Easter.  The growers that produce these crops deserve a lot of credit for a tricky job.  Your job is to help these spunky little bulbs get back into synch with the natural world after their big adventure as an Easter plant.  It’s really quite simple.  Enjoy the flowers as long as possible. One way to do this is to put them in your refrigerator at night and other times when you’re not there to enjoy them.  The cold won’t hurt them but will prolong the flowering period.  When the flowers finally do go by, cut off the flower and its stem.  Leave all the leaves.  With Easter as late as it is this year, you can then plant the bulbs, with the leaves intact, right into your flowerbed.  Make sure you add some bone meal to the bottom of your planting hole to provide phosphorus to strengthen it for next year’s flowering cycle.  To strengthen the bulbs even more, you might want to soak it with Miracle-Gro about once a week as well.

                After the leaves turn brown (and not before; they’re collecting strength from the sun and sending it down to the bulb for storage) trim them right off.  That’s it! You won’t see them again this year but next spring you’ll be rewarded when your bulbs burst forth from the soil in a flowering celebration of another season…a true symbol of rebirth.  

                A little reminder to those in charge of the lawn: make sure you get out there and apply your crabgrass preventer right away.  The forsythia are flowering and this is the time that crabgrass seeds are sprouting.  If you let this opportunity slip by, you’ll find that it’s a lot harder to kill crabgrass after it’s already growing than it is to simply prevent the seed from germinating with a timely application RIGHT AWAY.  Like so many gardening projects, timing is everything.