() Comments
Bulbs: Horticulture educator Patti Nagai answers some frequently asked questions about spring-blooming bulbs
By Marci Laehr-Tenuta
The daffodils and crocuses are about ready to pop (if they haven't already). Soon bright red tulips and pale blue irises will line garden plots around Racine County.
If you're wishing you had taken the time to plant bulbs last fall, you're not alone. However, don't bother running out to buy spring-blooming bulbs now. Instead, keep these facts and tips about bulbs from Patti Nagai, horticulture educator for the Racine County UW-Extension, handy for next fall.
Nagai also has the answers to common questions for gardeners hoping to get the most out of their spring blooms.
Can you plant bulbs now and have them bloom? Spring-flowering bulbs should be planted in the fall for two reasons. One is the soil temperature is still warm, the air temperature is cool, so all of the growth is in establishing a large, healthy root system to prepare for early spring sprouting. The second reason to plant in the fall is that the spring-flowering bulbs require 10 to 14 weeks of chilling temperatures in order to set flowers. Bulbs planted now, if they have not been pre-chilled for the right amount of time, will sprout leaves, but will not flower. The plants will tend to be a bit weak and spindly. If they survive and grow, you may get flowers next spring.
There are many summer flowering bulbs that can be planted soon, including dahlia, caladium, canna, calla lily, gladiolus and others.
What about transplanting forced bulbs from indoors out? Is that possible? You can transplant forced bulbs from indoors to an outdoor location, but typically they do not survive the next year to flower again. If they have been heavily fertilized and have had good light and care throughout their growth in a pot they have a chance of growing and reflowering. Most of the time though, bulbs in pots do not have adequate moisture, nutrition and light to completely "restock" the food stores in the bulb for a second year's growth.
Tulips are always popular, and with the many types and cultivars you can get any height, color and flower time you desire from early spring to the start of summer.
Minor bulbs are also popular; these are the small bulbs which produce small flowers such as grape hyacinth, crocus, squill, puschkinia, dwarf iris, and anemone.
Squirrels tend to move bulbs around in the winter months. Can you move bulbs that have already bloomed (in the wrong place) without ruining them for the season? The best time to move bulbs is after the foliage has died back, however, you can move them while blooming or shortly thereafter with proper care. You may lose the flowers.
Nearly every year we have a very short warm spell in late February to early March, and then another frost. How do you protect sprouted bulb plants from the cold? Spring flowering bulbs are very cold tolerant. They actually will flower better, have better color, and maintain their flowers longer if the temperature is cool to cold.
If we are expecting frigid temperatures below 20 degrees, you could cover your sprouted bulbs with a loose layer of evergreen branches, straw or other mulch. As soon as it warms up though, you must remove the mulch; the warmth is much more damaging to the foliage and flowers than the cold.
What is the best way to protect tulips, daffodils, iris, etc. from critters who like to munch on them? Daffodils are not generally bothered, they are poisonous and the animal world seems to know that. Tulips, however, are delightful delicacies for rabbits especially. Squirrels will eat tulip bulbs. Some people swear by applications of blood meal, but I have not had much success with that. Spraying the emerging leaves with a product called "waxy pepper spray" or "hot pepper wax" will deter the rabbits from munching, but the only way to keep deer from eating the flowers and foliage is to cover the plants with plastic bird netting. To deter squirrels from digging the bulbs in the fall, hardware cloth can be laid on top of the bulb planting area, then covered with mulch. You will need to remove this in the spring before sprouting.
Can you tell me the proper way to plant some of the most common bulbs (tulips, crocuses, daffodils and irises)? Which end is up? Usually, you can look at any bulb and tell which end goes down by the presence of a disc-like structure that has root fibers on it. Think about an onion, which is a true bulb. It is easy to look at an onion and see where the roots were, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses are the same way. Iris are not true bulbs - they are rhizomes. You can typically see the start of little shoots on iris rhizomes, so make sure those go up. All that being said, if you plant bulbs upside down the roots will still grow down and the shoots will still grow up. Plants are very sensitive to gravity and they will get it right.
I've heard gardening friends say that bulbs planted around the foundation of a home tend to sprout quicker because of the heat coming from the home, exposing them to the risk of being killed by a cold spell. It there any truth to this? Is it better to plant bulbs in beds further from the house? Tulips do much better when planted near the foundation, but it's because tulips do not like to be wet and typically the closer you plant to the house the less water they will receive throughout the year. Most of the time when tulips die in our gardens it's because they are too wet and get exposed to one of many of the root rot organisms in our soil. Planting under the eaves of the house near the foundation protects them from some of that excess moisture.
Yes, it will be warmer there and they will probably pop up soon, but it shouldn't make them any more susceptible to cold damage.
Some people cut down bulb plants after they bloom. Others tie off the stem. Others take the bulbs up each summer and put them back in the fall. Which is the best way to ensure beautiful spring flowers? There are many methods people use to care for their bulbs after flowering. Ideally, you need a minimum of 8 weeks after flowering to assure that enough food stores have been replaced in the bulb from the leaves for good growth next year. Many people also plant other perennials around their bulbs so that as the bulb foliage is dying back, the perennials are growing around them hiding the dead leaves.
There are some tender bulbs that need to be dug in the fall like canna, calla and caladium, but the spring-flowering bulbs should be able to stay in the ground for many years.
I know bulbs split and produce more flowers over time. Are some faster multipliers than others? All bulbs divide under the right conditions, but it takes several years for the little bulblets to mature enough to make flowers. Daffodil, grape hyacinth, squill and crocus are very good at this, which is one reason they are often used for naturalized areas. Plant them once and they continue to grow and spread for years. In fact, squill are often so aggressive that people regret having planted them in some areas. We've had many people bring them in as "weeds," wanting to know how to kill them.
I've read that bulbs grow best when they are planted in clusters, rather than spread out throughout a garden bed. Is this true? Not really. They don't grow better, but they look better. The more bulbs you can plant together the better the floral display will be. It is not uncommon to plant hundreds of bulbs at a time in a fairly small area.
As the bulbs grow, develop and hopefully divide, you may get into an overcrowded condition after a few years - or sometimes not for 20 years. If that happens, the flower number will decrease. You can alleviate that problem by digging and dividing, or you can just be a little more careful about providing enough fertilizer (nutrients) to supply all of the bulbs in that area. Bulb fertilizer should be used when planting, then again in the spring when the foliage is up about 4 inches (for daffodils and tulips), then again when the flower bud appears. You can get by without fertilizing, but eventually the bulbs will decline.
Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!
|
||
| Tiki comes home: Tiki style has staged an exuberant comeback |
