Ready to plant an Amaryllis bulb for the Holidays? by Vicky Spelman

Courtesy: University of Minnesota Extension

Have you tried growing an amaryllis bulb for the Holidays?  Whether it’s your first bulb or your tenth, there is always lots of anticipation waiting for the beefy bulb to produce a flower - easy and fun to do.

Forcing Paperwhites to Bloom by Vicky Spelman

Photo:  FreeImages

 Blooming houseplants are the best during the Winter months!  Gardeners and bulb lovers like to force bulbs to bloom during the winter holidays to brighten the days. 

Paperwhite narcissus bulbs are one of the easiest to force for cut flowers or ornamental displays in the home during the Holidays as they don’t need a chilling period to bloom, unlike tulips and hyacinths.  

Do you know the 5 types of bulbs? by Vicky Spelman

Pixabay: Anemones 

Bulb is defined as any plant that stores its complete life cycle in an underground storage structure.  The primary purpose and function of bulbs is to store nutrient reserves to ensure the plants’ survival.  Bulbs are usually perennials.  They have a time for growing and flowering that is followed by a period of dormancy when they will die back to ground level at the end of the growing season.

Spring Planted 'Bulbs' for Summer Color by Barb Kett

SPRING PLANTED “BULBS” FOR SUMMER COLOR

“Bulb” generally covers true bulbs and other structures such as corms, tubers, tuberous roots and stems, and rhizomes that store food for the plants.  Buy bulbs early to get the biggest selection and healthiest bulbs - usually, the bigger, firmer the bulb, the better the flowers.

There are many spring planted bulbs that provide great color, foliage, and flowers for the summer season.  Dahlias, caladium, canna, gladiolus, allium, tuberous begonia, and lilies are some of the easiest to find summer blooming bulbs.

Spring Bulbs for Pollinators by Vicky Spelman

Hiliary Halliwell - Pexels

All those bulbs you planted last Fall should be starting to pop up.  In March and April, we will still have some colder weather but the anticipation of Spring is here. As temperatures warm up pollinators will emerge from hibernation needing food sources.  Some of the earliest flowers to bloom are bulbs helping to provide the necessary nectar for hungry bees and pollinators.

Fall Gardening Tips Video

Colorado State University Horticulture faculty and graduate students share their best inside information you can use in your garden.
 

Variegated Tulips: Beauty From a Virus By Olivia Tracy

Variegated Tulip (Tulipa), likely “Tulip Yellow Spring Green.” Photo courtesy of Olivia Tracy.

Have you ever seen tulips like these, tulips that look like they’ve been ‘painted’ with multiple colors? Many people love the look of these variegated tulips, and they’ve been popular since the 1600s, when Holland went mad for variegated tulip varieties and tulip speculation (and tulip prices) skyrocketed.¹ While we don’t have this mania today, we can still buy varieties like Rembrandt, Princess Irene, Kaufmanniana and many others that promise beautifully variegated tulips. 

Crocus already? Too early?

Crocus leaves in Lakewood, 1/17/18

It’s early February and some crocus are already emerging. In fact, crocus leaves appeared in my yard in mid-January. What’s going on?

An early bloom certainly isn’t unprecedented in Denver and Jefferson County. The National Phenology Network (NPN) collects reports on the status of plants around the country and combines them with weather data to create models of where spring has sprung. Just last year, data from the NPN indicated that Denver’s plants were blooming up to three weeks ahead of the average for 1981-2010.