Nature’s Surprise Packages
Colchicum, a crocus-like bulb native around the Mediterranean, will flower on a counter top. Needing no soil or even water, it will bloom in the fall simply sitting there. Eventually you must toss or plant the corms, preferably in a pot, because snails will peel them like an onion when grown in the ground.
Chinese sacred lilies are small-flowered daffodils that the Chinese have been growing indoors for years to celebrate the New Year. Those lilies and paperwhites can flower sitting on pebbles and water.
Or try Dutch hyacinths. Because they have a delicious fragrance and many more individual blooms per spike, they are a good candidate for what is called “forcing,” said Frank Burkard of Burkard Nurseries in Pasadena. There are even special vases for hyacinth forcing.
Burkard said you should put a pinch of aquarium charcoal in the bottom of the vase, then fill it with small stones or pebbles. “It’s really easy to crack or break an inexpensive vase, so do this carefully,” he added.
Leave room above the narrow part of the neck for one big hyacinth bulb. Set it on top of the pebbles, and wedge a few next to the bulb to keep it upright and steady.
Fill the vase with water so it covers only the bottom quarter inch of the bulb. It’s very important not to cover more of the bulb or it will rot, but it is equally important--at least at first--to always keep that quarter inch covered. Let it go dry for a day and the bulb will slip back into dormancy.
“So that’s why mine never grew,” said one nursery customer after overhearing this explanation.
As soon as roots can reach the water, it’s no longer so critical to constantly watch the water level.
Keep bulb and vase in a cool, low-light area (a closet is OK, but it doesn’t have to be that dark) for six to eight weeks while roots form, and check regularly to make sure they have water. Then move them out into bright light and let flowers and foliage form.
This planting process is called forcing because bringing the bulbs from dark to light “forces” them to bloom. The process works equally well for Chinese sacred lilies and paperwhites.
