Spring flowering bulbs

Bulbs bring a wel­come sight in the spring with an erup­tion of color. Spring flow­er­ing bulbs are attrac­tive and very resilient. They do well almost any­where they are planted, and give a sur­pris­ing show of color to any garden.

Spring flow­er­ing bulbs must be planted in the fall or early win­ter. Most bulbs are ready to release their stored up energy as soon as they are planted. They develop their root sys­tem soon after plant­ing and push upward to the soils sur­face, and then stop. Some­times bulbs can be tricked by an early thaw in late win­ter and popup above the ground, but stop when the cold returns. The warm spring weather will start their growth again. If prop­erly cared for, these bulbs will come back year after year and pro­vide blooms for many springs.

With good plan­ning a spring bulb gar­den will pro­vide blooms from early March through late spring. Care­ful atten­tion should be made in site selec­tion as well as prepa­ra­tion of the soil. Most bulbs need a well-drained soil to thrive. Do not plant bulbs in areas that retain water. In gen­eral bulbs need full sun to bloom year after year. Since most bulbs grow in the same area they are planted until it is nec­es­sary to dig them up for divid­ing, it is impor­tant to pre­pare the soil before planting.

In order to pre­pare the soil, you should loosen it 8–10 inches deep. Then add organic mat­ter such as mature manure and work it into the soil. This process will improve the drainage espe­cially in heavy clay areas in cen­tral Ohio. A stan­dard fer­til­izer (5–10-10) should be worked into the soil to a depth of 4–6 inches.

Most bulbs are planted pointed side up. A gen­eral rule is to plant bulbs so that the soil above the bulb is twice the diam­e­ter of the bulb, thor­oughly water after plant­ing. Cover the planted area with 2–4 inches of mulch to retain water and pro­tect the bulbs. If deer or mice are a prob­lem in your neigh­bor­hood you may want to place wire mesh over the bulbs to dis­cour­age the varmints from dig­ging the bulbs up to eat. Of course another solu­tion would be to sim­ply plant bulbs that deer will not eat, such as daf­fodils. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able with Fact Sheet HYG 1237–98 on Ohioline.osu.edu.

Most of the spring flow­er­ing bulbs‚ core is con­cen­trated to help the plant store energy for bloom­ing the fol­low­ing year. After the flow­ers fade remove the growth so the plant does not waste any energy to develop seeds. Do not remove any foliage until it is yel­low in color and dies back nat­u­rally. Cut the foliage off at ground level and remove it to avoid any dis­ease. After sev­eral years, bulbs need to be dug up and divided. You can replant imme­di­ately after divi­sion or store them in a cool, dry, ven­ti­lated place until plant­ing next year.

A good bulb plant­ing guide sug­gests plac­ing low bulbs in the front and higher bulbs in the back of a bed. This is a good rule for bulbs that bloom at sim­i­lar times. You can also plant a clus­ter of the same bulb for more of an impact of color. Another way to plant bulbs is by bloom time. If bulbs are planted by stag­ger­ing bloom times you can watch the color show from early spring until almost summer.

A sug­ges­tion for bulbs that have stag­gered bloom times would be the following:

• Early spring bulb exam­ples: Snow­drops, cro­cus, aconites, hyacinths, early daf­fodils and early tulips.

• Mid spring bulb exam­ples: Daf­fodils, anemones, tulips, and star of Bethlehem.

• Late spring bulb exam­ples: Callas, alli­ums, cal­a­di­ums, tuber­ous bego­nias and gladiolus.

Spring flow­er­ing bulbs can offer a depend­able col­or­ful dis­play in your gar­den. They require very lit­tle effort and care. Whether you plant them in clus­ters or indi­vid­u­ally, by height or bloom time the ben­e­fits are enor­mous and are lim­ited only by your imagination.

Diane Geli­nas is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener intern.

Posted by Master Gardener on Dec 10 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.