Note 1: IRIS RETICULATA - a late discovery

I’ve done it.  You’ve done it.  I suspect everyone has done it at some point.  Searching through the shed, the garage, or the boot of the car you come across a brown paper package.  Upon opening you discover lost treasure.  Bulbs!  Ordered with great enthusiasm last autumn, they are still there.  Unplanted.  Unloved. T heir optimistic buds reaching out for light and their skins starting to show signs of dessication.

Thankfully, I know from experience that all is not lost.  The desire to grow and survive is strong, and it is almost never too late to plant a geriatric bulb.  An extreme example of mine will give you hope when you discover a similarly crinkled brown bag.  I came across forty Narcissi.  It wasn't January, it was February and the bulbs hadn’t just been hidden away for a few months, they’d been sitting in the garage for over a year!  Out of the sun, and in the cool environment they’d been kept in a state of stasis. 

With the attitude of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ I planted the bulbs in a number of troughs.  They may have been a bit later than expected, but up they came. I was not able to boast the earliest Narcissi of the year, but they were certainly the latest.  

In the same vein, a large Amaryllis bulb had been placed in the back of the fridge where it became completely forgotten.  This wonderful indoor flowering bulb is normally associated with Christmas but come June I discovered it loitering amongst the shrivelled carrots and crusty mustard pots.  I took it up to the green house and laid it on its side within a bed of moss.  No soil.  No water.  Within a few weeks, a bud had formed and within a month the stem had curved vertically and the wonderful red flower opened fully, blinking its eyes in the bright July sunlight.  It went into the big house where it lasted for another three weeks.