Caring for and planting bulbs is a delightful spring task
I don’t know about you, but I currently have a ‘brainful’ of bulbs! Between looking after early spring varieties and planning those for later in the year, it can be hard, sometimes, to create thinking space for other plants.
The snowdrops have petered out to be replaced by daffodils, tulips, Anemone blanda and others, and they all need caring for as they continue their cycler.
Many of our snowdrops are naturalised, which makes lawncare tricky as we want the foliage to remain standing and wither away naturally, thus feeding the bulbs, rather than chopping them off with a carelessly wielded mower.
Meanwhile the daffodils need deadheading as their flowers fade, to stop them wasting their energy on making and ripening their seedheads, and all bulbs should be fed with a general liquid fertiliser after flowering to feed their bulbs and promote robust flowering in future years.
Then, unfortunately, there are the rogue bulbs that produce leaves but no flowers. These are called ‘blind’ bulbs and the problem is usually caused by planting at the wrong depth, not enough sunlight (unless they are shade-loving varieties), nutrient-poor soil, or attacks by pests and/or disease.
The problem can be remedied by digging them up to check they are firm and healthy and, if so, replanting at the correct depth (three times the height of a bulb) in a sunny spot (where relevant) with soil that has been enriched with well-rotted organic matter (compost or manure).
Then let the leaves die back naturally and they should flower next year.
The siren song of new summer bulbs and tubers always lures me to the garden centre even when I know that space is tight in pots and borders. This year I have picked up a handy mixed pack of glads, dahlias, anemones and triteleia, as well as some begonia tubers and a delicious looking ‘Green Twister’ echinacea.
How to plant bulbs
Bulbs hate sitting with wet feet so if your soil holds onto moisture, improve drainage by digging in organic matter. If your soil is extremely claggy, most bulbs thrive in containers for years, providing their compost is refreshed annually and you keep an eye out for vine weevils.
Plant them a bulb’s width apart and at a depth of three times their own height. If you are starting them off in small pots before adding them to the garden (which I generally do to make it easier to protect new shoots from pests and the weather) keep them in a frost-free greenhouse, windowsill or light porch and add them to the garden when they have been hardened off.
How to get the best from your bulbs
1. Soak ranunculus ‘claws’ before planting, and plant them with the claws facing down. I also soak anemone corms.
2. Pot up begonia tubers hollow-upwards and mound compost around the sides to promote better rooting.
3. Mow with care so you don’t remove the leaves of naturalised bulbs before they have died back naturally.
4. If you grow forced hyacinths indoors, plant out the bulbs for delicious spring scent and colour in future years.
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