January Gardening

Not too much happens in central Ontario in mid- January, it's too cold to do anything.

But I did grow an amaryllis plant that I bought at Home Hardware sometime in November.

And look how it turned out!  two stalks, one has 3 flowers on it, the other is also producing 3 flowers and there are 2 shorter stalks coming from the bottom. Incredible amount of flowers from a single bulb.  I had grown white amaryllis before and found the smell quite unpleasant. These red blooms have no smell. The stalks are a good 22-24 inches tall. 

And while there isn't much to do, it is time to check on the dahlia tubers stored in the basement. On the advice of a neighbour who grows wonderful dahlias, I brushed these off and dried them for a few days, then stored them in plastic grocery bags loosely tied up.  She told me to check them after Christmas and open the bags so that they don't get too damp. 

I opened them today and found mold on quite a few. So a google search found a site where a woman said she save 700 tubers from mold by dunking them in a solution of bleach and water, drying them off, and then re-storing them in peat moss.  I have no peat moss, so I did dip them into a bleach solution and then air-dried them on a towel. Once dry, I wrapped them individually in newspaper (loosely) and put them back into the cardboard boxes and back into the basement storeroom.  

                                          

I figure I have nothing to lose by doing this and I would actually lose them if I did nothing. I will check them again in a month to see what's up.  On some of the larger tubers, I noticed there are already sprouts coming up from the roots. Exciting!  I have 13 dahlias stored this way, and I just ordered another dozen dahlias from The Dahlia Expert.  It's going to be a summer of flowers!