DIGGING AND STORING BULBS By Peter and Steven J. Welcenbach

The digging and storing of glad bulbs at Calumet Hill Farm is a long and tedious task since it involves approximately six thousand bulbs numbering over one hundred varieties. Even so, this is relatively small in comparison to the operations of James B. Martin (Ohio), Carl Kluty (Indiana) and Mike Wagner (Missouri) all of whose glad gardens my wife and I visited this past summer.

To those of you beginners who were exposed to and accepted with joy the Glad 'Habits' of Caneye B. Wong - congratulations! Just dig up those glad plants and discard them for rubbish collection, if you have not already done so. Next spring plant your newly purchased bulbs and enjoy your summer as you did this year.

To those of you beginners unfortunate enough to come across Gene F. Bartelt's article in the summer NAGC Bulletin titled 'From The Beginning, Etc." - my sincere congratulations. You people are in 'storage" for a good part of your free time for years to come if you have become "hooked" on glads as Gene appears to be. He already speaks of bulblets, seeds and so forth. And he’s just a beginner! Gene's program for this Fall and Winter will be something like that indicated in the following paragraphs.

Since glads are not "winter hardy" in most of the temperate growing areas, the bulbs must be "lifted" before the weather freezes the ground. After six weeks from blooming time the bulbs are ready to be "lifted" by means of a spade or digging fork. The plants, however, seem to have a built-in calendar and will mature the bulb in less time.

At Calumet Hill Farm we never wait until the foliage has died down or until after frost unless something else prevents us from digging sooner. The later the digging the more likely there will be damage and disease to the bulbs. That has been our experience. Six weeks allows ample maturing and avoids the risk of bad weather. Digging begins in September and f-finishes in mid October.

When digging, we use a garden fork in preference to a spade because it is easier to handle. We place the points of the fork several inches from the spot where we think the bulb should be and press the fork into the ground with our feet. It is usually sufficient to merely loosen the soil around the plant and then 'lift' the plant with the hands. At this point we take note of plants with yellow or brown leaves - anything not green. These plants most likely are diseased and we place them in a separate container and dispose of them. The healthy plants are separated from the bulb as close to the bulb as possible by cutting with a sharp pair of pruning shears or knife. At times we break them off by hand with a sharp twisting mot 'ion depending on the varieties.

The bulbs are placed in one gallon plastic milk containers with its upper one fourth removed and the handle remaining in place. A two by two inch card with the name of the variety and the date of digging is inserted in each container as filled. When poor weather conditions persist, the plants are lifted and placed in the containers without cutting off the bulbs. In this way the effort of digging is concentrated and bulb removal is done indoors at a later time - usually that same night or a few days later with seemingly no harmful effects. The date of digging and the variety identification at this point is a must if you want to easily remove the old (mother) bulb two or three weeks later after curing has taken place. That favorite you loved this past summer will be "lost" without proper identification at digging time. So take care.

Those pea-like things at the base of the mother bulb are called bulblets and are the means of producing a bulb of the same variety as lifted. That favorite you discovered and now love so dearly can be reproduced by growing bulbs next year from the planting of these bulblets. That, too, is an undertaking in itself to challenge any beginner.

FALL 1983 15