Most of spring’s beauty really starts in fall

Tim­ing is every­thing, or so they say. So, when you think about the spring blooms in your gar­den, the first thing that comes to mind is Octo­ber, right? Even though we think of falling leaves, prun­ing and mulching, most of spring’s beauty really starts in the fall.

If you want a daz­zling dis­play of daf­fodils, tulips, hyacinths or other spring-flowering bulbs, the time to plant has come. If you want to force bulbs so that you have an indoor dis­play this win­ter, you’ll need to start now. Hardy bulbs are those that not only tol­er­ate the cold win­ter, but require a period of cold weather to stim­u­late blooms in the spring. They are planted in the autumn to give them time to grow roots. Most spring-flowering bulbs can be planted from late sum­mer until the ground freezes. Since the weather was so hot this sum­mer, any time from now until ground freeze should be ideal grow­ing weather for estab­lish­ing next year’s spring display.

It is impor­tant when you plant bulbs to make cer­tain the plant­ing loca­tion is well-drained. If you have a heavy clay soil, make sure you add some organic mate­r­ial to loosen the tex­ture and improve the drainage. Ide­ally, your plant­ing area will be worked twice as deep as the bulb needs to be planted, to encour­age root devel­op­ment. For most bulbs, that will mean work­ing the soil to a depth of 12 inches. If you’re buy­ing bulbs, the pack­age will usu­ally indi­cate a plant­ing depth. This refers to how deep the low­est part of the bulb will need to be. If you need more infor­ma­tion, you can refer to Fact Sheet HYG 1237–98, avail­able online at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/ 1000/1237.html

If you are eager to have blooms before spring, you can start now to set up a beau­ti­ful win­ter dis­play. Hardy bulbs can be pot­ted now for forc­ing later this win­ter. Unlike plant­ing in the ground, forced bulbs are planted high in the pot, with the tip slightly exposed through your pot­ting medium. Plant the bulbs close together. There is no need for pot­ting mix with added fer­til­izer. Each bulb has stored all the energy it will need to flower.

Leave a lit­tle space at the top of each pot so that you can water them. As soon as they are planted, the bulbs should be watered and moved to a cool loca­tion. Most of these bulbs require 10–13 weeks of cold before you can force them. Dur­ing that time, do not allow the pots to get warm or to dry out. This can be accom­plished by set­ting your pots out in cold frame with mulch over them once the weather cools, by keep­ing them in an unheated garage, attic or base­ment, or by cov­er­ing them with ven­ti­lated plas­tic and plac­ing them in the veg­etable area of your refrigerator.

After the required cool period has passed, move your pots to a warmer loca­tion. Ide­ally, you would move them to a cool room, such as a base­ment, that is under 65 degrees for the first week. After that, you can place the pots in your warm house. Three to four weeks later, you should have your first, early blooms.

Mark your cal­en­dars: Octo­ber Com­mu­nity Gar­den Pro­gram: Plan on join­ing the Grow and Share Com­mu­nity Gar­den com­mit­tee for the final pro­gram of 2012. Learn how to clean up the gar­den for fall, tools main­te­nance for win­ter, new and inter­est­ing ideas for grow­ing pota­toes (for next year), and get a list of classes and pro­grams over the win­ter months to help you get ready for Spring of 2013. The pro­gram runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18, at the YMCA on Houk Road.

Wendy Wolpert is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Oct 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.