Well, Marta, these bulbus plants, you know, they're so slow to propagate, no matter what, from seed to offsets, but you've produced, well actually, you've found a way of producing them in a much shorter time so let's start with first, before we get into that, talking about these wonderful flowers that I'm smelling, so tell me about these.

>>Well, these are some of the flowers that are currently in bloom at Culpepper Garden and some of them are actually unique to Charles Culpepper, which is the Snow Gem, which is the one right over there with the little red face and we've identified that as one of his originals so that is actually over 80 years old and we are looking to replicate that within the garden.

Yes, I could see why.

>>Cause it's not available anywhere as far as we know.

>>Oh, this is beautiful.

>>It is.

>>Absolutely beautiful.

Well, you know, traditionally there's very slow methods to propagate plants and that's usually by seed.

Can you show us where those seeds are in a daffodil?

>>Well, you'll find it in this little pod and if we just cut it right open, you can see.

>>The seed starting to form.

>>The seeds starting to form, so there they are.

But that's kind of the hard way.

>>Yes, that is kind of the hard way.

>>So there are other ways to go.

>>What's another way that nature provides for?

>>Well, one of the ways that nature provides is you can actually find a bulb that's actually split and then now you've got two, so this is the handy way to do it and we've got a couple examples of that that we have found from our bulb collection that we haven't planted yet so you can see that that's pretty easy.

But another way to do it is to actually take bulbs and split them and then there's a whole process that we'll go through that we can show and you can actually create multiple bulbs from one.

>>Oh, that sounds so great and so easy.

So what's our first step?

>>Well, I'm gonna snip the top up here and then you can peel the layers off so that it's almost like garlic, but you don't have to.

And here's your basal plate and that's really the key.

You wanna make sure when you divide it, and I'm just gonna cut it top to bottom here, that you have part of that basal plate so that you're sure.

>>Right here.

>>Exactly.

>>Okay, how much can we divide this basal plate up?

>>Well, we're gonna do it in quarters because that's what we think is good.

You could actually do it more, but to ensure success, I prefer a hardier cut, so this is what you're left with is these pieces and you've got part of the basal plate here and then the interior of the bulb.

>>And you've actually, you can see the blossom that's in that bulb and all those scales are what becomes the leaves, which is why it's so important to allow your daffodil bulbs and all your other bulbs to die back into the bulb.

Don't braid 'em, don't cut 'em.

>>I know we've talked about that, Peggy.

>>Yes, we have.

>>I'm waiting for them to get yellow and droop, but it's painful, I have to say.

>>It's so painful, I know, but you've gotta allow all of that energy to go back into that bulb so next year they'll just be equally as beautiful.

>>Yes and fertilize.

>>Yes.

>>So we're gonna fertilize this year too.

>>Excellent, excellent.

>>So now we move on.

>>Okay, what do we do now with these?

>>Well, normally what you would do is put them in a fungicide, which we have done here, and they need to be in about 12 to 15 minutes, would you say?

>>Yes.

>>And that just ensures their strength gets any of the garden cooties out.

That would be my technical term, but you're the gardener.

>>So what it does is the fungicide inhibits the growth of fungus and disease.

>>That's why it's your show Peggy and not mine.

Okay, and we're gonna take these out and then we're gonna actually put them in about halfway so their little noses are up.

>>Okay.

>>And kind of let them drain a bit.

>>So we're gonna plant them.

>>We're gonna actually plant them.

>>Okay, you wanna plant two or three real quick?

>>I'll do a few more.

>>Okay.

>>And we'll get them going.

>>And I notice you're putting them halfway down and I also notice that we're using vermiculite.

We're not using a peat moss-based putting mix.

>>Goodness, no.

>>No, we wanna preserve our peat moss bogs up in the hinterlands and so we are trying our best to avoid using soilless mixes or any of our potting mixes that contain peat moss.

Vermiculite's a good substitute.

Perlite's a good substitute.

Even coconut coir is a good substitute.

All of these are excellent for propagating and growing plants in.

>>There we go.

>>All righty.

>>So now we're set.

>>So we got them in our pot and then we've got it pretty easy.

I'm gonna make a lot of noise here.

But what we've got is we've put them on a piece of cardboard and we are going to make a little greenhouse for them, right?

>>Right.

>>But I have learned that it's a lot easier to take barbecue steaks and put them here so that when we put the bag up and around, it stays supported above our plants and it will not fall onto them a lot.

(cellophane crinkling) So we wanna take it, the bag, crunch it up, and I'm sorry for the noise, and we wanna twist tie it.

Can you help me here, ma'am?

>>Of course.

>>Yeah, thank you.

So we wanna create a little greenhouse >>And that gives you some nice humidity.

It kind of gives that moist environment, especially having a bit of the tenting over it.

>>Exactly, and how long do we wanna leave these in about?

>>What would you say?

13 weeks, something like that.

>>Yeah, I would check 'em at 10 weeks very carefully.

I'd put 'em in a nice warm place and keep 'em where there's some light and just keep checking on 'em because we already moistened that vermiculite, so mother nature will do its thing.

The sun will come in and create a nice little ecosystem in there and we'll have beautiful rooted cuttings, and they'll root right from the basal plate so we'll be able to plant them out this fall.

>>It just seems so easy.

>>Yes, it is.

(Peggy laughing) >>If you know how.

>>But it is fantastic, especially with some of the flowers that we have that are not available anymore.

>>Yes, exactly, and Marta, this is a great demonstration.

It's something that everybody can do at home if they have their favorite daffodil or even their other types of bulbs, tulips, hyacinths, you can use all of these and this method will work just fine, so thank you for showing us.

>>Thank you.