What in the world is a flower bulb?

Flower bulbs are neatly bundled packages uniquely programmed with everything they need to grow on their own. They can be planted in your favorite window boxes, garden borders, containers, around trees and some can even be forced to bloom indoors. Flower bulbs are self-sufficient which makes them super easy to grow.

---

This morning, Mother Nature took some time to remind us that spring is just around the corner.

When you hold the bulbs you are planting in the fall, they might feel very solid, a kind of oversized golf ball. If you were to cut them open, you would find overlapping stems pressed together very tightly. Once you’ve planted your bulbs, they will anchor themselves in hiding into the ground by growing strong, deep roots, which they will use to get nutrients and water from the soil.

When your tulips or ranunculus are seen, you’re mainly looking at the beautiful bloom you’ve been waiting all winter for. But so much goes on inside that little onion looking thing before any plant is even visible.

During the cold winter months, the bulbs are half-asleep. In this dormant period the bulbs quietly work away at growing an ever larger and deeper root system. When it starts freezing above ground the soil itself protects them from any kind of frost damage, while the cold temperature in the ground below brings on chemical changes that prepare the bulbs for the growing season ahead of them.

What exactly happens to your bulb underground to transform it? Well, it turns out that carbs and sugar are a key. The changes I mentioned before, together with the lengthening days and rising temperatures, start a process that turns the carbs that were stored in the bulb into sugar. The sugar, causes the leaves and the flower to gradually push their way out of the bulb upward towards the sun.

In the pictures, you can see these beauties beginning to come out of hiding. Bulbs like Tulips, Daffodils, and Ranunculus are usually some of the first signs that the frost is starting to ease.

Halcyon Yard Solutions LLC mike@halcyonyardsolutions.com (925)914-5258 www.halcyonyardsolutions.com Instagram @halcyonyardsolutionsllc

#workingindanville #danvillecalifornia #californialiving #halcyonyardsolutions #gardening #landscaping #landscapemaintenance #bayareacalifornia #eastbay #contracostacounty #yardwork #gardener #walnutcreekca #concordca #danvilleca #alamoca #bestinthebay #25yearsexperience #smallbusiness #familyownedandoperated #supportsmallbusiness #hirelocal