So, these were disappointing in various ways. My dahlias from last year have basically all rotted; I tried to store them in pots in the fridge, and that just didn’t work — about half of them had rotted by the time I pulled them out a month or so ago, and the rest seem to have rotted now — no signs of green growth.
Bah and humbug. I can’t remember what my thinking was for leaving them in the pots, but I think it was a big mistake — I should have pulled them, cleaned them off, and stored them in boxes in shredded paper the way I usually do. Well, I’ve bought two new dahlias, so I’ll plant those today, and I’ll probably go pick up some more, because there’s nothing to beat dahlias for late autumn flower power. Sigh. Dahlias break my heart about 3 years out of 4, it feels like, but I’ll keep trying. Someday, I’m going to get them down.
As for the little bulbs that I picked up for forcing on Etsy, well, they were a mixed bag, literally. The muscari mostly worked fine, but *none* of the little daffodils or crocuses bloomed. Lots of green shoots, and that’s it. I’m not sure if I did something wrong — the website didn’t indicate whether they were pre-chilled, so I chilled them for 6-8 weeks before planting them. Maybe I should’ve just planted them, I don’t know. But am frustrated and disappointed, and disinclined to order from that site again.
Sigh. Ah well. You have to become comfortable with a fair bit of failure (and death!) as a gardener, especially if you keep experimenting with new things. So it goes. I’ll dig a trench and throw these bulbs into beds, and maybe some of them will come up next spring.
