You Can (and Should) Plant Bulbs Now
Every year around this time, people in my online gardening groups start discussing whether now is the right time to plant tulips. And while planting bulbs in the dead of winter may seem like odd behavior, there’s reason to wonder: gardeners love the off-season bulb sale, and if the ground is soft enough, winter is a great time to plant bulbs. .
Rain makes the soil pliable
It’s simple: as long as the ground doesn’t freeze in winter, it’s ideal for planting. (I understand that in some parts of the country, especially in areas with sub-zero temperatures, it may already be too late.) The mud from the rain is soft. ; all plants are at rest, so planting is less traumatic; and throwing bulbs into the ground is a way to satisfy your winter gardening habits. Plus, you’re probably bombarded with emails on a daily basis about how incredibly high sales are at bulb stores. Remember, bulbs do not take root well in the ground from year to year, so houses are desperately trying to empty their reserves before spring.
Let’s look at all the autumn bulbs
And it’s not just about tulips. Consider ranunculus, which look like small poppies; liatris, a tall, spiny flower; bows that produce a single shoot with a gigantic ball of puffball at the end, sometimes reaching twelve inches in diameter; crocus, the first sign of spring; poppies, irises, peonies and much more. They look very similar to garlic bulbs and grow in the same way. Planted underground in the fall and winter, they receive much-needed cold from the elements and germinate in the spring. They appear in a very specific order: crocuses first, then tulips, ranunculus, irises and peonies, followed by alliums and finally liatris in midsummer. They also come in different forms: bulbs and corms that look like tiny spiders. Peonies and poppies appear as bare roots, and irises as tubers. Everyone sits a little differently.
Where you can buy bulbs at competitive prices at the end of the season:
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Holland Bulb Farm , discounts up to 85%.
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World of Tulips , discounts up to 80%
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Brothers Eden, 40% discount
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Dutch light bulbs , discount up to 60%
How to plant bulbs in winter
As soon as the box with your purchases arrives, you should open it and let it air, but not the sun. At this stage, you should plant the plants as close to arrival as possible. Some bulbs may develop slight mold. If there isn’t much, it’s okay, but expect a few bulbs to die (they will be dried out and papery).
To plant the bulbs, you will need a hole that is three times the depth of the bulb. The larger the bulb, the deeper the hole. Large onions require deeper holes than crocuses, which are tiny.
You will need a planter for the bulbs.
These holes are best dug using special equipment, and you have several options. If you’re comfortable getting close to where you’ll be planting, you can use a bulb planter , which is a hand-held tool. This is the most ideal option so you can see what else there is in the area. There are also standing versions , which are a little less accurate since you are further away and may miss something in the space. But standing planters have the advantage of protecting your back and allowing you to use more leverage in your body. The last option I often recommend is an auger that attaches to your power drill, but I don’t recommend it for this job. Augers are great for digging deep holes, but they are the least precise of the tools and are more likely to disturb nearby plants. The bulb pots have neat holes where you can drop the bulb. Augers tend to spread a lot of dirt and basically loosen the soil to make it easier to dig.
When arranging, think about color and bloom time.
Regardless of the tool, the next step is to decide where the bulbs will go. I choose my bulbs purposefully and carefully select colors and bloom times to create broad waves of color throughout the yard. Once the bulbs arrive, I often make a chart of the order in which the bulbs are planted so I can refer to it in the garden.
I unload all the bags of bulbs and roughly lay them out in order where they will fit. This allows me to determine the distance and make adjustments. I then open the bags and begin arranging the individual bulbs, working one section at a time. I prefer the “naturalized” look, so I just toss the bulbs on the ground and plant them where they land.
How to use a bulb seeder
Take your bulb planter and start by inserting it into the ground and turning it left and right at the same time. The seeder has teeth that cut through anything in or on the soil’s surface: grass, wood chips, etc. Once the seeder is firmly rooted in the ground, rocking it back and forth will cause it to dig deeper into the soil. you need. This works for a standing or portable version. Remove the pot and you have the perfect hole for the bulb. Insert the light bulb, turn the pot upside down, tap it on the ground to loosen the dirt plug, set it in place and move on.
Much has been written about how to place the bulbs in the hole with the sharp side up, because this is how they grow. In recent years this has been debunked by gardeners: the plants know what they are doing and will straighten themselves out of the dirt.
If you know the soil is poor, you can add bulb food to the hole when you place the bulb there; Once the bulbs are planted, they need to be fertilized annually with fertilizer.
How to Plant Tubers, Corms and Bare Roots
When planting tubers, you only need to scrape the soil and remove a couple of inches of soil. Tubers like to have roots in the ground, but they themselves remain on the surface. Tubers also spread easily, so make sure they have enough room to grow.
Bare roots should be planted below soil level. Find the top of the plant so that all the roots hang down. Fan the plant on the ground and now dig a hole that is about the same size and at least the same depth. In this hole, form a mound in the middle and place the plant on the mound so that the roots spread out around the mound and the top of the plant is just below the soil line. Now fill the hole.
The corms should be soaked overnight before planting. These are interesting roots, but all the arms of the “spider” are directed in one direction. This is the bottom. After soaking, these roots will swell and are now ready to plant. You want the soil you plant in to be loose. You can insert the corm into it just enough so that the top of the corm is still visible and the rest of the plant is under the soil. They are quite small so this won’t be difficult.