Spring Blooming Bulbs

Your spring blooming bulbs need to be planted wherever possible in the fall sunshine. Spring blooming bulbs, as a rule, will grow their foliage first and the flowers always seem to take care of themselves. Spring bulbs seem like such wonders, we just place the bulbs in soil in the fall and these beautiful rich looking flowers pop up in the spring.

Some facts are a little surprising to learn and one of those is to not water the spring flower bulbs during the summer. Several bulbs come from areas where water during the summer is non-existent and are programmed genetically for drought during the summer. When you over-water tulips in the summer they have a tendency to rot away with the excess water. This happened to a small garden of tulips I planted two years ago and last spring not one of them came up and I found that when I went to plant something else all those tulip bulbs had rotted away.

Where the bulbs get planted is very important. Spring blooming bulbs insist on having excellent drainage. Some of the ideal places to plant them for example would be on berms, slopes, raised flower beds or any area where the water can freely drain away. Spring bulbs should never be planted any closer than 4 feet from your house. The warmth of the house will make the bulbs grow prematurely and damage their ability to flower well or to stay healthy from year to year.

You want to plant the spring bulbs as soon as you can after your receive them so they will not dry out. They can be planted up until the soil freezes. Because the bulbs need to have good drainage you want to prepare the soil well. You should dig to at least 18 inches and work in some compost or peat moss to improve the soil. Add a fertilizer that is made especially for bulbs. Even though bone meal is a popular fertilizer for bulbs it does not contain all the nutrients needed for them. There have also been reports when dogs get the scent of bone meal they have a tendency to dig up the bulbs.

Now you want to lay in the bulbs with the pointed end up, to the depth specified for that particular bulb. As a general rule, tulips and hyacinths should be 6 to 8 inches deep and daffodils 6 to 9 inches deep. Crocuses, snowflakes, snowdrops, glory-of-the-snow, grape hyacinths, and squill need only to be 3 to 5 inches deep. For a group of bulbs together you can dig a square hole and plant several bulbs about 4 to 6 inches apart into the hole before covering.

From the early snowdrops to beautiful daffodils, bulbs will provide some low maintenance to the garden. It is as though the year begins when the snowdrops bloom and the purple or yellow crocus start to appear when milder weather arrives. Seeing these flowers in bloom lets you know that winter is just about over. Daffodils seem to be a very popular bulb to plant with their varieties of size and color. An added feature of the daffodil is that deer will leave them alone. The very warm climate areas may have some problems with daffodils because some need more cold than others. Tulips are another favorite spring flowering bulb that comes in many colors and sizes. As much as we all love tulips they happen to a favorite for wandering deer, so they need to be protected, if at all possible.
 
All the spring blooming bulbs that have been listed are a bonus in any garden and can be planted in any workable ground. In the south or southwest, all bulbs should be in the ground before Thanksgiving so they get as much cooling as possible, some will even tolerate being planted as late as the New Year. The key is to allow the ground to cool adequately before you start to plant which can happen later in these warmer areas. Spring blooming bulbs can be grown in containers with the early bulbs planted near the surface and the larger, later flowering bulbs planted deeper in the soil. If you plant a group of bulbs that have different bloom times, it will give an array of blossoms for several weeks, all in just one container.