flower bulbs lupins, red hot pokers, dahlia, lilies

[astraman1]

picked some of these up from b and m today all bulbs

it just says plant January to May

do i have to wait till all frost has gone or can i just put them in when the ground is not frozen ie soon as

never really done flowers but just want to add some colour to my plot

[astraman1]

[Tee Gee]

They all should have been planted out last autumn apart from Dahlias.

But all is not lost pot them up in suitable sized pots and keep them in a frost free place  and they might catch up, then you can plant them out after the frosts have passed.

Look in on my website ( see my signature) and you will get more information on each of them.

[astraman1]

thanks for your reply i shall have a look

what size pots would you say suitable for each variety

[astraman1]

also makes me wonder why they would say plant out january to may when they should be out last autumn

[Tee Gee]

what size pots would you say suitable for each variety

Difficult to say not knowing the size of your bulbs and tubers,

You might get away with 4" pots for your lilies but I think you will need 5"/6" pots for the others.

Because you are basically storing them and starting them off I would say as a rule of thumb you should aim for at least one inch of compost all around the bulb/tuber.

So say a bulb is 2" diameter you would want a minimum of a 4" diameter pot. (1"+2"+1")

Dahlia tubers can be any shape and size and my guess is the ones you have  will be quite small, so you might get away with a 4"-6" diameter pot.

When I was a member of the Dahlia Society we would refer to them as 'Chicken Legs' simply because this is what a split tuber usually ended up as.

Because of their shape in this case you would need a deep pot as opposed to a wide pot, so yes stick to the 1" of compost all around!

I hope this helps!

By the way do not subject them to very high temperatures or else they will cook and  rot to mush! 8-10°C (40-50 °F) would be ample.

A steady lower temperature is much better than short bursts of high then low temperatures  like you get when the heating is on and off.

[astraman1]

brilliant i shall get on that tomorrow then thanks alot