Gardening is an easy and joyous exercise, however while you dip into the science of horticulture, issues can grow to be a bit murky – just like the terminology used for flower bulbs!
Bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers are all thrown into the combo, and so they appear to serve the identical perform of anchoring vegetation and producing roots and shoots from underground storage organs.
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So is it actually necessary to know the distinction?
Effectively, when you’re keen on spectacular floral shows, it’s.
To not the purpose of needing a level in botany, however figuring out your fleshy tubers out of your corms is useful for a lot of causes.
As a result of whereas they may share widespread terminology, all of them have completely different planting necessities, cultivation wants, and differ in chilly hardiness.
And while you may give your underground rootstock the very best situations for planting and development, you’ll take pleasure in wholesome, vigorous vegetation with an abundance of flowers. And that’s necessary!
So when you’re prepared for somewhat terminology tutorial, let’s dig into flower bulb sorts and their traits.
Right here’s what’s forward:
Forms of Underground Storage Organs
“Bulbs” is a blanket time period used to explain a wide range of completely different geophytes – vegetation which have specialised underground organs for nutrient storage, produce development buds and roots, and permit them to outlive in difficult environments.
The time period usually covers true bulbs, corms, fleshy roots, rhizomes, tubers, and tuberous roots.
Collectively, they arrive in a variety of styles and sizes from small teardrops to hefty globes to gnarly stick-like constructions, and embody an array of plant sorts from crocuses to peonies.
These underground storage organs additionally include all of the genetic data wanted for development, producing foliage, flower scapes, and roots.
They usually assist vegetation to outlive in opposed or inclement situations, offering safety from grazing animals, bush fires, extreme warmth or chilly, and drought.
Many have contractile roots that increase and contract in response to moisture availability and temperature adjustments, transferring the host organs to extra applicable soil depths to maintain them wholesome.
Right here’s a quick define of the commonest and common kinds of underground rootstock – some profit from lifting and winter storage whereas others can safely overwinter in floor.
True Bulbs
True bulbs sometimes have a rounded or teardrop form and are largely made up of tailored leaf tissue known as scales.
Slicing a real bulb in half reveals that the scales develop in rings radiating from a central rising level – an onion is an effective instance of a real bulb’s fleshy scales.
Together with the fleshy scales, different notable traits embody a root-sprouting basal plate and a distinguished rising tip from which leaves and flowers emerge.
True bulbs are sometimes planted at a depth of two to 4 occasions their top, and the basal plate is at all times positioned on the backside of a planting gap, with roots rising downward.
In addition they propagate by producing lateral or aspect buds referred to as bulbils, bulblets, or offshoots.
Many true bulbs have a papery tunic that protects the fleshy scales and helps to retain moisture – these sorts are known as tunicate.
Tunicate species embody:
Varieties that lack a tunic are known as imbricate and have a scaly look.
Imbricate sorts are extra simply broken and so they must be saved frivolously moist whereas in storage and earlier than planting.
Imbricate varieties embody English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), fritillaries (Fritillaria spp.) and lilies (Lilium spp.).
Many kinds of true bulbs are spring-flowering and chilly hardy, going dormant in summer season’s warmth. Others, like lilies, are summer-flowering and have reasonable chilly hardiness.
Corms
Corms are small, rounded bulbs typically with a barely gnarly or squished look that encompass a modified stem base that shops sugars.
Corms lack the rings of fleshy scales that typify true bulbs, however many types, like crocus and gladiolus, have a protecting papery tunic, a basal plate that the roots develop from, and a pointed rising tip.
These sorts are planted like true bulbs, with the basal plate downwards and at the same depth of two to 4 occasions the corm’s top.
Different kinds of corm develop a skinny rind or pores and skin as an alternative of a tunic, and lack a basal plate or rising tip, like these of Grecian windflowers (Anemone blanda).
These are planted two to 4 inches deep and it doesn’t matter which means they go within the floor, the stems and foliage at all times develop in direction of the sunshine.
Corms could also be chilly hardy or chilly tender, relying on the variability.
Extra examples of flowering vegetation with corms embody liatris (Liatris spicata) and autumn crocus (Colchicum spp.).
Fleshy Roots
Fleshy roots are modified faucet roots which can be used for nutrient storage and sometimes have a swollen or elongated look that bulges within the center.
In addition they function a cap or thick prime part the place stems are connected to the roots, and effective roots on the backside or alongside the principle root’s size.
Fleshy roots are planted with the crown pretty near the floor and the roots spreading down and outwards, and so they produce new shoots that kind clumps.
They’ve neither a basal plate nor papery tunic however a skinny pores and skin that gives safety.
Vegetation with fleshy roots could be hardy or tender, relying on the species.
Some common flowering vegetation with fleshy roots embody Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale), peonies (Paeonia spp.) and ranunculus (Ranunculus spp.).
Rhizomes
Rhizomes are modified, swollen stems that develop horizontally alongside or simply under the soil floor.
Rhizomes don’t have a basal plate or tunic, however they do have a skinny pores and skin, and primarily function storage constructions for vegetative replica and spreading.
They’re planted near or on the soil floor, growing roots on the underside with foliage and buds sprouting from the topside.
Lateral shoots kind new rhizomes, enabling them to unfold and colonize readily.
Backyard favorites with rhizomes embody canna (Canna spp.), ginger (Zingiber spp.), hosta (Hosta spp.), iris (Iris spp.), lily of the valley (Convallaria spp.), and rhubarb (Rheum spp.).
Rhizomes could be tender or hardy.
Tubers and Tuberous Roots
Tubers and tuberous roots are each storage organs, plump fleshy constructions that maintain water and vitamins and neither have a basal plate or papery tunic, however typically have a skinny pores and skin for cover.
Nevertheless, tuberous vegetation are sometimes short-lived, like potatoes, whereas vegetation with tuberous roots are clumping and have an extended life, akin to dahlias (Dahlia spp.).
They’re additionally propagated in another way.
Tubers are reduce into sections with every part having development eyes that produce new vegetation, within the case of potatoes.
Tuberous roots are sometimes divided with every division having tubers and a bit of the crown.
The crown develops buds, or eyes, that include foliage and flower stems whereas roots kind on the distal or backside finish, like dahlias.
Some backyard requirements that produce tuberous roots like dahlias embody daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) and candy potatoes (Ipomoea spp.).
Examples of tubers embody potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) and caladiums (Caladium spp.).
Reduce tubers are sometimes planted at a depth of three to 5 inches, and clumps of tuberous roots are planted with the crown at the same depth, with variations based on plant sorts.
And like others within the collective, some tubers and tuberous roots are chilly tender whereas others are hardy.
Attractive Geophytes
Attractive geophytes like true bulbs, corms, and tubers have one other factor in widespread – all of them want a dormant interval to relaxation after flowering.
For some, like daffodils, summer season is the dormant season whereas others, like peonies, relaxation in winter.
For those who backyard in cooler climates, you will have to dig and retailer your bulbs for winter.
Others, like grape hyacinth, want a chilly interval to set flowers. When planting, make an observation in your backyard journal for ones which can be tender and must be lifted for winter.
You could be stunned at what number of “bulbs” you have already got!
And figuring out the traits of the several types of underground rootstock is the easiest way to make sure dependable, thriving vegetation with an abundance of flowers for years to come back.
What kinds of bulbs are rising in your backyard? Tell us within the feedback part under!
And when you’re in search of extra flowering bulb know-how, you’ll need to add these guides to your studying checklist subsequent.
Photographs by Lorna Kring © Ask the Specialists, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for extra particulars. Uncredited photographs: Shutterstock.
