| Buying flower bulbs to plant and grow is an exciting | | | | temperatures as cold as zero degrees F. The foliage |
| experience that begins in the fall and continues | | | | and the flowers are pleasantly aromatic. |
| through the spring. Dutch flowering bulbs are usually | | | | Daylilies are actually not bulbs but rhizomes, but are |
| delivered to American ports by the month of | | | | sold extensively as daylily bulbs. Thousands of named |
| September for fall planting. Major Dutch bulbs | | | | varieties of Daylily bulbs have been easily hybridized |
| offerings include Dutch Amaryllis and African | | | | by legions of backyard gardeners and the selection |
| Amaryllis; daffodil bulbs and the famous, Tulip bulbs. | | | | improvement and flower quality is absolutely |
| Amaryllis flower bulbs grow the showiest blooms and | | | | astonishing. The improvement has resulted in growing |
| are pre-cooled to force fast flowering in 3 weeks | | | | double flower daylily, miniature daylily, cold hardy |
| after containerizing. Dutch bulb importers of Amaryllis | | | | daylilies, and compact clumping or large clumping |
| offer a larger variety of selections and more bulbs to | | | | daylily plants. It is staggering to realize all these many |
| tempt the buyers. The African growers of Amaryllis | | | | colors - red, white, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and |
| bulbs appear to be enslaved to the Dutch Amaryllis | | | | bi-color originated from an original native plant -a |
| importers distribution network, however, the African | | | | seedy, yellow daylily growing wild on the forest edge. |
| flowers that emerge on the Amaryllis stems are | | | | Crinum Lily bulbs offer to an adventurous hobbiest or |
| superior in many respects to the Dutch Amaryllis. The | | | | gardener an antique garden bulb selection that has |
| African Amaryllis blooms appear to offer clearer | | | | been reintroduced as improved crinum clones by the |
| colors, more compact flower stalks, leaves that grow | | | | brilliant inductiveness of chemist, Lester Hannibal of |
| as the flowers appear, and more numerous flower | | | | Fair Oaks, California. Lester Hannibal back crossed and |
| stalks and grow from smaller bulbs. The large array | | | | intercrossed many native crinum lily species to offer |
| of bloom colors from amaryllis includes red, pink, | | | | the gardener an excellent, cold hardy crinum, an |
| lavender, orange, yellow, white, green, maroon, red | | | | "interspecific hybrid", that can be grown as far North |
| stripe, white stripe, pink stripe, and bi-color. Double | | | | as Philadelphia, PA, zone 6, and to survive intense |
| numbers of petals on Amaryllis flowers are fast | | | | freezes of below zero temperatures. Many of Lester |
| growing to be very popular choices to buy, since the | | | | Hannibal's crinum flower hybrids were a re-creation of |
| petal count is increased to 12, instead of 6 that grow | | | | obsolete but popular commercial crosses that were |
| on most Amaryllis bulb flower stems, looking very | | | | made by Cecil Houdyshel in the 1930's, but largely |
| similar to a huge carnation flower. | | | | improved upon from the original "Powellii" forms with |
| Daffodil flower bulbs are important Dutch bulbs for | | | | clear, white and pink colors, an increase in the number |
| fall planting, because of their reasonable market cost, | | | | of flowers in the umbel, extended flowering periods, |
| the ease of planting, and the growing of flower | | | | an eliminatio of drooping flowers, an intensification of |
| stalks in the Spring in various colors of yellow, white, | | | | fragrance and early flowering after sprouting from |
| orange, and the rare pink daffodil. Daffodil bulbs are | | | | the germination of the seed. The "milk and wine" |
| easy to naturalize to bloom again every year. | | | | crinum lilies were named, because the flowers were |
| Tulip bulbs are a native flowering plant of Turkey, but | | | | white (milk) and wine striped colors. Crinum colors are |
| long ago tulips were hybridized on a large commercial | | | | burgundy, red, pink, white, greenish-yellow, and |
| scale by Dutch bulb growers. The cost of Dutch tulips | | | | orange. Crinum bulbs increase by growing into clumps |
| has not always been inexpensive to buy, but tulip | | | | of multiple offsets from the central mother bulb, or |
| buyers today still love the spring flower colors of red, | | | | by planting the seed of some cultivars or species. |
| pink, orange, yellow, blue, purple, white, and bi-color. | | | | -Rare, Hard-To-Find Flower Bulbs of Merit- Many rare |
| Cities and government organizations anxiously buy | | | | minor flower bulbs are unavailable to buy anywhere, |
| tulip bulbs in huge numbers during winter seasons to | | | | except by possibly exchanging plants with collectors |
| grow in beautiful landscape displays for the Spring. | | | | and hobbiest. The Amazon lily, Encharist grandiflora, |
| The Canna lily rhizome has been long considered to | | | | blooms with six white, daffodil like petals, and a |
| be tropical in nature, with very little cold hardy | | | | green or glowing yellow cup radiating from the |
| resistance. The early American botanist and explorer, | | | | center. This delicate flower can be remembered from |
| William Bartram, wrote in his book, Travels, in 1773, | | | | days past for its wonderful charming fragrance. The |
| the discovery of Canna indica in Alabama near Mobile, | | | | Bird of Paradise is known for the two tropical forms, |
| "Canna indica is surprising in luxuriance, presenting a | | | | the Strelizia reginae, the most common: brilliantly |
| glorious show, the stem rises six, seven, and nine | | | | colored flowers with orange, red, and blue glaring |
| feet high, terminating upwards with spikes of scarlet | | | | blossoms; and the Strelizia nicholae that grows large, |
| flowers." Bartram also discovered the native Canna | | | | showy, white flowers. The Blood Lily, Scadoxus |
| flaccida, growing near Fort Frederica, Georgia, located | | | | mutliflorus, forms baby-head sized globular flowers |
| on the Island of St Simon's. Canna lily colors are | | | | with red filamented petals and radiate fragile threads |
| broad, red, white, pink, lavender, orange, yellow, | | | | of red that are affixed to the to the center of the |
| speckled, bi-color and others. Some Canna flower | | | | bloom, great for container culture. The Red Butterfly |
| growers plant cannas with variegated leaf forms that | | | | lily, Odontonema strictum, won the perennial plant |
| are striped with red, green, yellow, white, and pink. | | | | award of the year in Florida in the year 2000, and |
| Dutch distributors of canna rhizomes still flood retail | | | | butterflies and hummingbirds flock to visit the fiery |
| box store, garden centers with "Victorian-age" canna | | | | red spikes, beginning in mid-August and continuing until |
| bulbs of poor quality; varieties that had declined, "run | | | | the first hard freeze. The Calla lily, Calla palustrus, has |
| out", 50 years ago, and they should have been | | | | been hybridized with many other Calla lily species to |
| discontinued and not presented to buyers at a | | | | grow into many splendid colors, but the new hybrids |
| garden center nursery. | | | | are not as popular as the white, fragrant, |
| Ginger lily rhizomes grow flowers with fragile, delicate | | | | winter-blooming, Calla aethiopica; and the yellow calla, |
| blossoms - many looking like miniature orchid flowers. | | | | Calla aethiopica. Clivia lilies, Clivia minata, are choice |
| The foliage of Ginger lilies is interestingly variable, | | | | heavy shade-requiring plants that produce gigantic |
| growing in colors of green, yellow, maroon, and | | | | clusters of orange flowers, cup shaped, with a yellow |
| stripes of yellow or white. Interest in planting ginger | | | | throat, and often will re-bloom two or three times |
| lilies has surged in 20 years, because of the realization | | | | from large bulbs. |
| that many ginger lilies are cold hardy, surviving | | | | |