Dear Helen: As a gardening beginner, I need some basic bulb information. I鈥檝e bought a few tulips, daffodils and crocuses and am wondering what sort of site and soil they need. Some tips on planting would be helpful.
L.B.
Dear L.B.: Your bulbs will do best in sunny sites. A well-drained soil is important to keep the bulbs from rotting in wet conditions. Mixing compost or/and well composted manure into the planting sites will enrich the soil鈥檚 fertility and enhance its texture.
The bulb packaging will indicate appropriate planting depths. As a general rule, the larger the bulb, the deeper the planting. Crocuses need only about five centimetres (two inches) of soil over their tops. Most tulips should have a 15 cm soil cover.
Plant the bulbs with their pointed ends up. Discerning the tops will be no problem with the daffodils and tulips. Crocuses will usually show little protrusions that are points of top growth around their upper, rounded surfaces. The bottoms will be flattish, with a small indentation or vestiges of old roots at the centre.
Locations along edges of vegetable plots are sometimes used for bulbs, most commonly when the flowers are grown for cutting. Plot corners are ideal for small bulbs like crocuses, dwarf daffodils and miniature irises.
Spaces between plants in perennial and small shrub gardens can be planted with groupings of bulbs for added spring colour in a bed.
If you are uncertain where to plant bulbs in the garden, grow them first in pots kept in a carport or unheated garage, or against a house wall where they won鈥檛 be rained on. Water once or twice over the winter to prevent the soil from drying out.
Set newly sprouted bulbs in full light. As they start blooming, enjoy them on the patio or deck, or stand them in likely spots in the garden to gauge the effect. When the plants have finished flowering, cut off the dead daffodil and tulip blooms and transplant into chosen sites, where the plants will die back naturally.
The bulbs will re-root from late summer onward and bloom again next spring.
听
Dear Helen: Please remind me how to arrange layers of bulbs in containers. Are the tiers located by bulb size or by bloom time?
A.R.
Dear A.R.: Almost all the small flower bulbs are also early to bloom and are used as the upper planting layer. Commonly used here are crocus, dwarf iris, glory of the snow (Chionodoxa), early dwarf daffodils and Anemone blanda.
What is used for the lower one or two layers depends on whether you need the container for planting with summer flowers in April or early May. If it will be needed, plant nothing later to bloom than early tulips 鈥� mainly Single Early, Double Early and Fosteriana.
If you won鈥檛 need the container until late spring or early summer, the bottom layer could be a Triumph tulip (excellent for pots) or even a late flowering tulip. Most packaging indicates the bloom period.
A typical three-tiered bulb planting has small bulbs over daffodils over tulips. Hyacinths are also suitable as the middle layer, alone or together with daffodils. For a two-tiered container that will bloom early, simply use small bulbs over daffodils.
For a full and compact, space-saving display of spring flower bulbs in the open garden, plant in similar tiers.
Excavate the space to about23 cm (9 in). Loosen the soil at the bottom and enrich it with fertilizer and compost before starting to plant.
