Tutorial: Planting Spring Bulbs

I know it is difficult to think about spring when autumn has just begun (though perhaps not for my readers in the southern hemisphere!) but fall is the time that we northerners need to plant the bulbs we want to bloom in the springtime. If in the spring you find yourself pining over the daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses in your neighbors' yards, now is the time to plant some of your own. Bulbs are the easiest thing in the world to plant and maintain. Here's how to get them in the ground the right way.

First, select your bulbs. Look for ones that are firm and have no soft spots or rotting. There are many mail order companies out there that sell great flowers, but I like to see what I'm getting, so I got mine at my favorite local nursery, Van Atta's. Note the bloom times and sizes. Spring bulbs don't all bloom at once, which means if you are clever you can have flowers all spring in different waves. Here's the order I generally see spring bulbs blooming in my neighborhood, starting with the very earliest in late March or early April: snowdrops, scilla, crocuses, daffodils, grape hyacinth, tulips, hyacinths, allium. Different varieties within these species will bloom slightly earlier or later. But odds are you will not have your snowdrops blooming at the same time as your tulips, so don't think of them as companions in a display.

This time around, I got daffodils and crocuses because they are fairly cheap, they bloom together and look good together, and they both naturalize, which means both will multiply over the years, making the clumps more full and the flowers more abundant. They are also not eaten by squirrels or deer like tulip bulbs often are. They are a good investment. You plant a tulip and that bulb is always going to put up one tulip, so you have to purchase more bulbs to fill up a large plot. I do eventually want many more flowers in my front beds, but I'm sticking with just a couple varieties this year so that I can note the bloom dates and when the flowers fade, which will help me decide what kind and what color of tulips and hyacinths to get next fall to carry on the color show.

Flowers always look better in groups and usually groups of odd numbers. If you plant single tulip bulbs all over your garden bed, it is going to look strange and bare unles you plant them about an inch apart and the cover the entire bed in a thick carpet. Especially with smaller flowers like crocus, snowdrops, or scilla, you want to plant them in clumps so they make an impact.

First, take your bulbs and lay them out where you want them to go. In my case, I've bought 3 packages of crocus bulbs and I'm planting one whole package in 3 different locations that are close enough to one another (within a few feet) so that the clumps seem unified in design. Laying things out ahead of time helps you visualize the effect as a whole and help you avoid having to dig things back up (and risk damaging them in the process) if you change your mind.

Next dig a hole to the depth specified on the package. Bulbs can't be too deep or too shallow or they will struggle to perform well. If the package doesn't specify and you can't find the information in a guide or on the internet, try this advice from my bulb garden guide:

The planting hole should usually be twice the depth of the solid chunk of the bulb on heavy ground, and three times the depth of the bulb where the soil is lighter and more free-draining. (Tulips, however, should be planted at four times their own depth.)

The hole for my crocuses is about 3 inches deep and fairly wide to accomodate all the little bulbs. Bulbs should be placed in the hole with the point up (this is more obvious on larger bulbs).

Then cover them up with soil and water them.

Crocus bulbs are about the size of acorns. But my daffodil bulbs are significantly larger. You can see why they need a deeper hole.

I got a bag of 50 daffodils and placed them around the garden in 10 groups of five bulbs each. The best place for bulbs when you're planting in an established garden is between perennials that will cover up the bulbs' dying foliage when the perennials come up in late spring. Hostas and other large-leaved perennials make good neighbors for bulbs because their leaves do a good job hiding the late-spring mess. Also, because they are long-lived and don't need frequent division, you're less likely to be digging around the bulbs later and possibly harming them.

Here's my daffodil planting hole, which is about 6 inches deep. I probably should have spaced the bulbs out more, but I was working in fairly restrictive space and often having to dig around tree roots, which gets a bit tedious.

You can use a shovel to dig or, if you need to be more precise and you have fairly loose ground, you can use a bulb planter (the little black and yellow thing in the first photo up top). These gizmos have the measurements right on them. However, mine only goes to 4 inches, which wouldn't be deep enough for my daffodils and I needed a wider spot for my crocuses. Oh well.

All of this work took me about an hour to accomplish. Very easy and, come spring, I'll see that little effort rewarded ten-fold as I enjoy some lovely spring color in the front yard.

Happy planting!