Title:
Grow It Yourself: Turning Bulbs Into Beautiful
Blooms
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Bulbs are underground plant stems that provide food
for a shoot. Some bulbs produce flowers year after
year. Gardening experts say tulips, daffodils and
other bulbs are not very difficult to grow.Bulbs do
well in climates with a cold season. They are placed
in the ground about the time of the first frost.
But, with the right preparation, they can also grow
well in places where the ground never freezes. Mike
Lizotte of American Meadows, an online store, says
before you start, you need know whether to plant
tender bulbs or hardy bulbs. If you live in a cold
area, a tender bulb will need special care when the
growing season is over. "If you want that bulb to
survive or come back, you would need to literally
dig it out of the ground and bring it inside to a
warm area." But Mike Lizotte says a hardy bulb like
a daffodil or tulip prefers cold temperatures so it
can be left in the ground.Sandra Mason from the
University of Illinois Extension service has some
suggestions to get a good start on planting bulbs.
The most important thing is to choose a place with
soil that drains well. "For certain areas, if you
have a lot of clay in your soil, you may find that
bulbs do not last a long time for you, as in just a
couple years. Or you may find they just do not do
very well at all, and they actually rot in the
soil." Sandra Mason suggests planting most big bulbs
like tulips or daffodils about fifteen to twenty
centimeters deep. Smaller bulbs can be planted about
seven to ten centimeters deep. She says she enjoys
planting smaller ones like snowdrop bulbs because
you do not need to dig a very deep hole.Bulbs should
be planted with their pointed end up, toward the
surface. But some bulbs do not seem to have a pointy
end. In that case, Ms. Mason says, look for an "eye"
that might have a stem, but don't worry if you
cannot find one. Bulbs will need water right after
planting unless it has been raining regularly. And
they will continue to need water as they grow. Do
not use fertilizer for the first year. After that,
if you do fertilize the bulbs, do not mix the
fertilizer in the planting hole. It could burn the
roots. There is a trick people can use to grow bulbs
in places where the ground never freezes. Keep the
bulbs cold in a refrigerator for about three months,
then take them out and let them get used to the
warmth. Now the bulbs will be ready to develop
normally, colorful blooms and all.For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
