Bulb Hunter Blog

Cookies and Crinums

Bulb Hunter — Thu, 23 May 2013 03:51:53 +0000

Rebecca and I made it to College Station and had some delightful cookies waiting for us. We devoured them next to a simple arrangement of a crinum with Confederate jasmine as the base. The fragrance is wonderful and the brevity of the design is even more refreshing. The crinum is ‘Diane Welch’ selected/bred by Greg Grant. I need to get more details on the crinum and then I will post those on the blog.

Will full stomachs and a sweet fragrance that fills the air, the eyelids are getting heavy. Bulb dig tomorrow. Will post pics.

Easter Lilies…in May?

Bulb Hunter — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:42:02 +0000

The pure white throats of Easter lilies.

My good friend and co-author of an upcoming book this fall, Dr. Bill Welch, took some pictures of his blooming Easter lilies in College Station today. They are from Pam Puryear, an original “Texas Rose Rustler” among many other things and you can read her biography here. She passed away in 2005. Dr. Welch has kept these lilies going from her garden ever since he received some from her many years ago. What many people don’t realize is that Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) where actually grown commercially in the South. They grow great down here, but once they get in a rhythm they actually bloom around Mother’s Day, not Easter. The relationship shared between marketing and actual garden bloom times is very similar to an amaryllis–market them for Christmas but they bloom in our gardens in April. This year the Easter lilies are in full bloom on May 21st. Thank you for sharing Dr. Welch!

Easter lilies facing the sun.

A prolific set of Easter lilies.

Also blooming were some crinums with an amazing nasturtium backdrop, however these crinum were growing in Washington County, close to Independence.

A nice stalk of an old fashioned milk and wine crinum.

A nice crinum bloom with a nasturtium backdrop.

Robots on the Farm

Bulb Hunter — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:27:43 +0000

I’ve heard about the robots for awhile now, and I was amazed to finally see what they were doing at Flowerwood Nursery down in Alabama. One of the biggest expenses in a nursery is consolidating the plants after they’ve been picked through. For example, out of 1,000 plants, not all of them are great plants. Lets say 100 of them are bad. That 100 plants don’t all grow at one end of the block. They’re scattered through the entire block randomly. When filling orders, that block is picked through for the best plants. As a result, there is a lot of empty space in the middle that is wasting water, wasting fertilizer, and clogging up space that could otherwise be used to grow more plants. One can imagine how this might look at the end of a busy spring; there are wholes everywhere! Therefore, a major labor expense is actually consolidating plants. Look at how these robots are performing this task nicely. We work with Flowerwood Nursery on the Southern Living Plant Collection, under which we market some of our bulbs, most notably the red spider lily.

Harvest Time!

Bulb Hunter — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:11:09 +0000

We’ve begun to harvest our main rows of oxblood lilies and the crop is really looking great. Most of them were up by the morning. It’s getting to be the time of year where a bulb exposed in the direct sun for more than an hour can cook it right away. Oxbloods can be especially sensitive to this.

The Crinum ‘Burbank’s White Queen’ continues to impress me! It was blooming in full force this morning.

The Office and The New York Times

Bulb Hunter — Sat, 18 May 2013 02:52:15 +0000

Rebecca and I watched the final episode of “The Office” tonight. It’s been a show we watched on again off again for the last several years, and for the most part we’ve enjoyed it. It really made me think sentimentally about the times we all had in the beginning of The Southern Bulb Company in 2004-2006., especially when we were all crammed into out little office trailer on the farm. Brad and I would watch The Office a lot after the end of a long day. Back then you had to buy the DVD, and later you could watch it online with NO COMMERCIALS! Wow, how have things have changed.

We were so excited when the New York Times article came out about the business. That is when “The Bulb Hunter” officially began…before that I was just the bulb guy or worse, the bulb boy. It’s amazing how one small business can direct your life. Tomorrow I will spend all day on the tractor working the rows of bulbs, shredding fields, digging bulbs for orders, etc. In the past 9 years I can’t think of a time that I’ve had a “normal” Saturday. But in the end I love it, and Rebecca and I are thankful for all of the opportunities Southern Bulb has given us.

Stolen Bulbs…Police Called

Bulb Hunter — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:47:13 +0000

Let this be a reminder to all of you bulb hunters out there….always ask for permission! For years I had eyed a particular group of hardy amaryllis in a garden in Mineola, TX. When I saw an estate sale go up for the house, I thought that it would be a perfect time to buy these bulbs! As I walked up to the front door, I saw some strange warning signs stuck in the clumps of bulbs. There were also some blank spots with turned up with dirt where bulbs used to have been. When no one answers I tracked down the owners phone number and called him that evening.

I told him I’d like to buy some of his bulbs, but it looked like someone had already dug some. He was cordial to me but livid about what had happened: “I called the police! Those bulbs are at least worth $10 a piece and they probably took 100 bulbs. As far as I’m concerned they’ve stolen $1,000.”

He offered me some but mentioned the woman buying his house had particularly eyed them and mentioned them when she put her contract down.

I decided to pass on the bulbs. Probably best for those bulbs just to stay where they are–they’ve caused enough trouble for one week.

Birds and Blueberries

Bulb Hunter — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:22:04 +0000

Don’t you hate it when the berries or fruit you’ve been babying all year long is just about to ripen, and the impatient birds come in there and start pecking at the fruit before you even have a chance to taste it? Well, that’s about to start happening to a lot of folks around the South. I visited this garden a couple days ago where she was taken preemptive action against the birds! The netting wasn’t perfect, but it was serving as enough of a deterrent to keep them away. Underneath the netting was a nice grouping of rabbiteye blueberries. Rabbiteye refers to a group of blueberries–Texas A&M has some good information posted about them here. They include the most popular selections many of us know about such as ‘Premiere’ and ‘Climax.’

Putting a net over the blueberries to keep out the birds!

These rabbiteye blueberries are what the net is protecting.

Rebecca placed our magnolia bloom on the dining room table. I haven’t noticed any brown spots on the bloom, so that must mean I haven’t touched it anywhere. Does anyone know if that is actually true? The statement goes “Anywhere you touch a magnolia blossom it will turn brown/fade.” Well, they turn brown pretty darn quick without touching the petals, so I don’t know if I completely buy it!

Rebecca decorated our dining room table with a nice magnolia bloom!

Pass-a-Long Flowers

Bulb Hunter — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:47:39 +0000

Well, pass-a-long magnolia blooms to clarify my blog title. We were given one by some friends in the Azalea District in Tyler, TX. The Azalea District has old homes and brick streets from the early 1930′s. It’s a charming part of town, especially on nice evenings like this. The bloom was high in the tree, so they had to use clippers on a long pole. I was going to catch it with my hands but was quickly informed that the milky white petals would turn brown wherever I touched them. Quickly I tucking my shirt, I created a safety net instead for the falling flower. The strong fragrance hit my nose right away. Rebecca and I were thrilled to have such a beautiful addition to our home for the next week.