Video: How to Refrigerate Bulbs

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Refrigerating bulbs is sometimes necessary in climates that do not experience a cold enough winter to provide the dormant period necessary for a bulb's development. Place bulbs in a paper bag, and leave them in the refrigerator for eight weeks in the winter, with advice from a sustainable gardener in this free video on gardening.

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Video Transcript

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen from vanveenbulbs.com and in this section we are going to talk about how to refrigerate bulbs. Now flower bulbs come in many shapes and sizes and there is many different reasons why you would refrigerate them. If you live in a mild climate or a climate where you have a Winter you generally you don't need to refrigerate them because they are getting a change between the Summer and the Winter months and there is a change of temperatures so they're getting a dormant period. But if you live in a climate that is really warm year round it is hard to get tulips and daffodils and lilies to bloom the next year without refrigerating them. So the easiest way to refrigerate them is to just put them in the refrigerator and there is a couple rules that I like to follow. So for bulbs like tulips or daffodils or a little bit harder bulbs I have found the best way to refrigerate them is right into a paper bag and then leave the paper bag in the refrigerator for about eight weeks and then take them back out and then plant them right into the ground again and then usually eight weeks is enough of a cooling period for them to think that they have had Winter and they will come up and bloom in the Spring. And I have found with bulbs like lilies like if you live in San Diego and you want them to bloom from year to year you actually have to dig them up in the Fall and I found lilies will dry out in a paper bag so I actually put them in a paper bag with some soil because you want to keep them moist. If they get too dry you'll lose them and so I just mix the soil with the bulb and just leave that in a plastic bag in the refrigerator and they're air tight. There are many people that say if you mix your vegetables and fruits with their flower bulbs that the ethylene gas will do damage and there is something to that but it is really hard to separate them so if you can put them in a crisper or put them in the bag separate from everything else that always helps too and then that way they won't get damaged. But I have found in the end they still will grow and it is better than losing them and if you do lose them then you can just treat them as an annual and then replace them every year and also if you've got tulips or daffodils that you want to force inside or paper whites by Christmas just by throwing them into the refrigerator in a paper bag for about six weeks from September until the beginning of November and then taking them back out then you can force them indoors and they'll bloom in the Winter for you. So you don't have to refrigerate them. If you live in a cold climate you want to leave them outside and if you live in a warm climate you want to give them a Winter and all you do is just refrigerate them.

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How to Refrigerate Bulbs

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