February 25, 2017 – UP?  DOWN?  Anemone De Caen bulbs

          I am ready for someone to solve this mystery for me.  Last night I prowled the internet and came up empty handed except for conflicting information.  Plant the claws up, plant the claws down, the rounded portion is up, the rounded portion is down, plant 4 inches deep, plant 1 inch deep.  Plant them on their side and they will all come up.

          I cannot believe that there is not a picture on the internet that shows the sprout of an Anemone De Caen bulb coming up.   It would be so simple as to dig one up and wash it off and take a picture.  Trust me – I will be doing so IF I can get one of the bulbs to actually sprout stems.

          ME THINKS:  The florist industry doesn’t want to let the secret out because then everyone would be growing their own beautiful Anemone De Caen bouquets.

          I then consulted my gardening library and it has the same conflicting information.

          My first experience with Anemones was with St. Bridget Mix – and “Bridget” is one of my nicknames that my husband gave me when we were dating.  It is also one of those nicknames that my mother used on me when I was a “bad girl”.  So, at the first meeting with my parents, of my now husband, then boyfriend, my husband turned to me at an exclusive Italian Restaurant and said, “Bridget, what are you having?”   My Mom sent dagger looks at him.  I am sure she felt it was her private name for me.  But, I guess I look like a “Bridget”. [Don’t get me wrong; Trust me, my Mom loves my husband.]

          But . . .  back to my story.  One fall I was in Greenwood, South Carolina, visiting a friend and she knows I love gardening stores and we bopped into one for an all-purpose-look-see. The proprietor had his summer bulbs on ½ price sale and I noticed a pretty picture of St. Bridget mix on a package and picked it up to inspect.  “Half price, you just soak them overnight, and plant them – they will come in the spring.” 

          At half price, I grabbed a package and later when I got home I hunted for cultural instructions.  I came up just about empty handed and planted every other one up or down.  I had a lean-to greenhouse made of two old glass windows from someone’s house [16 panes on each window as I affectionately recall].  A friend of my husband’s mentioned them to him and he brought them home and I staked them up in an A-Frame arrangement. I planted the Anemones in rows under them as my first “Southern Gardening experiment”.    The A-Frame lasted several years – and I even learned the ancient art of “glazing” – putting in new glass panes to fix it.  But, eventually the wood rotted and we had to toss the whole thing out.  At the end, I did obtain a huge slice into my left thumb from a broken piece of glass that needed a massive amount of stiches – again, another story. 

BUT, late winter, early spring – I had ample St. Bridget Anemones to cut.   I especially remember the dark blue ones were stunning and they did last a long time in the vase.

          Since then – thirty years have elapsed and I haven’t been able to get a row of them to stand and I am not sure why.  I’ll get one or two to come up and then I will get one or two flowers and that is the end of it.  I’ve tried them in the spring and in the fall and when I think back to that A-Frame I can’t remember if I amended the soil - but that garden was heavy mucky clay and all the horticulture tips I find indicate they don’t like heavy mucky clay.

          So, I am trying again.  I bought two packages.  One I intend on planting and the other one I am going to set aside for fall [as in ½ price sale] left over bulbs.  Maybe they need to “sit and wait” – that is one theory.

          I am going to put them in planters, and I am going to give them leaf mold and sharp sand.  Right now they are soaking and I will be able to get the planters ready for the planting later this afternoon.

          Am I going to plant them up or down?  AHHH – that is the question.  I am going to follow the horticultural instructions of the older of my two conflicting garden books that actually go into detail.  I am opting for the 1924 instructions.  Maybe “old” gardeners have the answer. And, when the bulbs break the surface – I will be digging one or two of the tubers up, washing them off and taking a picture so that I can post it on the internet for all to see.

Maybe I can solve this age-old mystery, [of “up” or “down”], as no one else on the internet seems to think in such a simplistic way.