Bulbs bloom for Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. If we are to believe the advertising hype that surrounds the day, all of us women expect to receive roses. Sorry, guys, but not all of us want to wait until a day in the middle of winter to receive flowers.
Perhaps that is why my husband long ago figured out that an investment of hyacinth and paperwhite narcissus bulbs at Christmas time will also cover any subsequent holiday that traditionally requires flowers. I pop the potential blossoms into the refrigerator to give them an artificial winter then bring them out one at a time starting in the middle of January. I put them by a window and in a few weeks I am treated to fresh flowers at no additional effort from my husband. Plus the aroma is so much better than what is found in overpriced roses that smell like a stale refrigerator.
I currently have snowdrops popping up in the lawn. The weather has confused them this year. They don’t usually make an appearance for at least another month or two.
So what tells the plant when to send up leaves and flowers? Is it the dirt, as my mother believes? Is it the temperature, as I believe? Is it some unknown inner programming?
Actually, a lot of things affect bloom time. The first is genetics. Each plant is preprogrammed to bloom at a specific time of the year and in specific conditions. Tulips and daffodils naturally bloom in the spring. They won’t bloom in the fall unless the plant thinks it is spring.
Some plants need to go through a period of cold weather before they will bloom. Many of the spring bulbs fall into this category. That is why I put my hyacinths in the refrigerator. If I didn’t then they either would not bloom, would have stunted blossoms if they did bloom or would have some other problem that would prevent them from achieving their full potential.
It has been the unseasonably warm weather that has coaxed the snowdrops out of hiding so early this year.
Each plant also has its own unique requirements for water, too much and the plant rots; too little and it will either die or sulk until there is enough water for the plant to grow. Water is the life blood of flora. It carries nutrients from the soil to the rest of the plant and transports the sugars produced in the leaves to where they are needed.
The amount of sunlight affects the bloom time. It also affects the shape of the plant. Too little and the plant gets pale and scraggly. Too much and the leaves burn and turn crispy. Interestingly enough, one of the things I learned in a long-ago botany class is that it is the lack of sunlight, specifically the far red portion, that is often crucial. The length of the night seems to be more important than the length of the day although I’m not sure how you can adjust one without adjusting the other. Each plant needs a certain number of hours of sunlight each day before it will unfurl its petals.
One of the last things that affects when the blossoms appear is the amount of nutrients in the soil. Different plants require different nutrients, just like different animals require different foods. A cat can’t live on hay any more than an azalea can grow in my yard. Azaleas require an acid soil and mine is slightly alkaline. The pH of the soil affects the availability of the nutrients in the soil. So if the pH is off, the plant can’t use the available food, not that I would feed it anyway.
Now that you know a few of the factors that tell a plant when to bloom, you can plan ahead and have fresh flowers for a reasonable cost in the middle of winter. Or you can spring for overpriced roses that smell like a refrigerator, it’s your choice.[[In-content Ad]]