(Atlantic, Iowa) – Bulbs bring spring color! The shorter days and more moderate temperatures make this fall a great time for gardening projects, including planting spring flowering bulbs.  The Cass County Master Gardeners are again selling bulbs for fall planting!  Preorders are open for the annual bulb sale, featuring tulip and daffodil bulbs in 2022. You can place your pre-order now to reserve your bulbs before they run out. Pay just $5 for a variety assortment of 5 colorful bulbs for your garden, with delivery by the end of October, in plenty of time for fall planting. Order forms with additional details are available at the Cass County Extension office, or online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

The bulbs will be freshly dug from the gardens of Van Engelen, Inc., in Connecticut, and shipped in bulk to the Cass County Master Gardeners.  The Master Gardeners have ordered 500 tulip and daffodil bulbs, which they hope to pre-sell by mid-October.  The bulbs are expected to arrive by the end of October, for packaging five bulbs to a bag, and each bag of tulip mixture or daffodil mixture will sell for only $5. Pre-payment is requested at the time of order to guarantee your bulbs.

The Master Gardeners carefully select mixtures each year that are unique to those sold in previous years.  The tulip mixture offered this year, A Rainbow of Triumph Tulips, will produce plant heights from 16 to 20 inches, flowering in late April, and includes:  Bastogne (blood-red), Don Quixote (deep rose), Michael (reddish-orange), Negrita (deep purple), Pays Bas (Meringue-white), and Strong Gold (Primrose-yellow).

The daffodil bulbs include a mixture of multi-flowering Fragrant Naturalizing Jonquilla Narcissi and Miniature Narcissus bulbs:  Baby Moon (canary yellow), Hillstar (lemon-yellow), Golden Echo (white with golden halo and cup), Sweet Love (ivory-white), Kokopelli (greenish-yellow), Minnow (white-to-ivory-to pale yellow), Sun Disc (ivory and yellow), Jetfire (golden-yellow), Tete-a-Tete (buttercup-yellow with dark yellow trumpet) and N. canaliculatus (white with yellow cup).  The daffodils should bloom from April to May, ranging from 6 to 16 inches in height.

The Master Gardeners will package your bulbs 5 bulbs to a bag, along with planting instructions. Please keep in mind we are unable to guarantee any specific color mix. Tulips and daffodils will be packaged separately. You will be notified when your bulbs are available for pickup at the Cass County Extension Office in mid-late October.

The goal of the Master Gardener program is to provide community service and education in horticulture.  The Cass County Master Gardeners utilize the funds raised from the bulb sale, along with their spring garden seminar, and annual spring and fall plant sales (held the second Saturdays of May and September) for local community horticultural projects. These projects include maintaining community garden spaces around the county, providing education programs to youth and adults, providing an annual scholarship, and making horticulture grants available to non-profit groups.

To order bulbs, or for more information about Master Gardener activities in Cass County, please call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.  You are also invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG to keep up with local events and tips for gardening!