Thanks to the several of you who responded. These have all been very helpful. When I decide to force the bare-root bulbs, I wait until I see the bud starting to emerge and then I repot. Seems to be working pretty well. Part of the reason I leave the bulbs bare-root until then is for space conservation. I must have close to 50 mature bulbs and I run out of space to store the non-hardy bulbs acquired through PBS through the winter. Since many of the Hippeastrum have formed offshoots, I will be able to experiment with the several methods suggested. In the meantime, I will begin digging the bulbs (frost predicted later this week here in Chicago) and I know there are already a lot of offsets. Instead of saving offshoots and sending the excess to PBS in the Spring, I will have to consider sending them this Fall before it gets to cold to ship. I have been pretty diligent in keeping the bulbs labeled so you will have named hybrids. So here is another one that I would appreciate suggestions on. Crinum! Should I be withholding water and let them go dormant during the winter or continue watering them? In the past I have kept them on the bench and let them grow through the winter, getting blooms starting in late Spring. They are also getting very crowded in the pots so they will need to be divided as well. Bob Hoel 630-240-0219 (cell) Bicycle safely. 4,000 pounds always wins. 🚴♀️ > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Bulb Storage (Judy Glattstein) > 2. Bulb storage (Johannes Ulrich Urban) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2018 10:06:41 -0400 > From: Judy Glattstein <jgglatt@gmail.com> > To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > Subject: [pbs] Bulb Storage > Message-ID: <6126292d-a4af-e396-95b9-bc2123c098ff@gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Question - are your hippeastrum stored "naked" under the greenhouse > benches or are they wrapped in newspaper or placed in a brown paper bag? > When I used to unpot mine for winter storage I would wrap them in > newspaper. Now I do it as follows: > > My hippeastrum are grown in pots. They go outdoors for the summer. At > about this time of year (early October) I bring the pots indoors, put > them in the basement, and ignore them. Do not cut the leaves but allow > them to wither. There are a couple that want to be evergreen - they go > into the greenhouse which is heated to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. When > growth begins in early spring they are brought upstairs to the > greenhouse, repotted, and given a good drink of water. Flowering then > happens in late spring. > > Ismene/Hymenocallis are unpotted and stored in the basement. They also > have permanent roots but do not seem to suffer any dehydration. > > Eucomis are left in their pots and stored in the basement. > > Amorphophallis are dog from the garden and stored unpotted - you guessed > it - in the basement. > > Sauromatum - which are more frost sensitive that amorphophallis - are > dug and stored in the basement although overlooked Sauromatum did > survive last winter. > > Canna are allowed to be knocked back by frost, cut back, evicted from > the half barrel sized pots,. Loose dirt shaken off but not washed. > Packed in peat moss in supermarket banana boxes and wedged into the > garage. (It would be so much easier if we did not keep cars in there.) > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2018 20:10:51 +0100 > From: Johannes Ulrich Urban <johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de> > To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > Subject: [pbs] Bulb storage > Message-ID: <0001f7dc-5cdb-297c-9de7-1693f942a87f@t-online.de> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Hello Bob, > > There is one thing I do not understand in your bulb storage problem. You > say you bring the bulbs into flower in winter. But you also say you > store them bare rooted in your heated greenhouse. > > I would assume that you pot them up before flowering? > > My suggestion would be to pot them straightaway after harvesting from > the garden. Hippeastrum /can/ survive bare root storage, but they do not > really like it. They have permanent roots that stay turgid even in very > dry compost in pots during dormancy. If you would pot them up directly > after harvesting the roots would remain intact, you would have to be > careful with your watering regime but I would think even without any > water at all potted bulbs would be much less stressed. And the workload > would be the same except that potting would occur at a different time of > the year. > > Does this help? > > > bye for today > > Uli > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…