Sunrise Landscape Designs

Fall is here and it’s a great time to plant spring flowering bulbs!  Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinth are always favorites and for obvious reasons!  However, there are some beautiful bulbs available that are easy to find yet rarely used. 

Fritillaria – a tropical looking bulb that can get about 2’-3’ tall and the flowers hang down with spiky green on top reminiscent of Dr. Seuss!

Tulip Varieties – opening a bulb magazine, you can find pages upon pages of tulip varieties.  From feathered flower petals to red striped leaves you can find it all. 

Allium – From the onion family, this bulb is very deer resistant.  Alliums send up a ball of color on a tall stem.  The largest variety (globemaster) can reach 4’ tall and the flower ball is 10” diameter.  This makes quite a statement!  After the flowers fade, spray paint the flower heads for a couple more months of color!

When choosing bulbs, be sure to choose the right bulb for the spot.  If you have deer or rabbits, look for deer-resistant bulbs.  Otherwise they will have a nice feast come spring!  When planting the bulbs take note of the planting depth and bulb position.  A sprinkle of bulb booster always promises a nice spring show.   If the bulbs are particularly tender, extra bark over the bulbs will protect them in winter.

Spring is blooming! As you see the Forsythia bushes bloom with their bright yellow flowers, it is a reminder that the ground is now warm enough to put Crabicide down on the lawn.

If you are enjoying the flowering bulbs and are wishing you had planted bulbs in your yard last fall, now is the time to plan for their location. Bulbs are less particular about soil than most other plants, but drainage is important. Areas where water stands several hours after a rain storm should be avoided.

Don’t spread bulbs too thin. It is usually more effective to plant thickly in one area than it is to scatter the bulbs thinly all over the garden. Spring colors and heights of blooms may change from day to day. Before you judge the season, wait until flowering is completely finished.

Tulips or daffodils make great cut flowers for a vase. Cut the flowers as soon as they are beyond the tight bud stage and are just beginning to show color.

If you want to encourage tulips to bloom the following spring, remove the spent flowers. Snapping off the top 3 inches of stem diverts energy from seed formation to bulb growth. There is no benefit to removing daffodil flowers except to tidy up the planting bed.

At this time of the year, I look for any opportunity I can find to spend time outside in the sunshine. What a joy to see bulbs starting to grow! Our gardening efforts begin now that the weather is cooperating. It is time to start spring clean up of the landscape beds.

This includes cutting down to stubble all ornamental grasses and any remaining perennials left standing that are herbaceous and not evergreen. Rake out leaves and debris and apply a fresh layer of mulch if needed.

The more tender perennials, such as butterfly bush will appreciate being uncut and surrounded with a protective layer of mulch or evergreen branches for a little longer yet. They can be susceptible to being killed off with a heavy frost. Wait until the temperatures get a bit warmer to trim these back.

Fall is here and its time to think about planting your spring flowering bulbs. With the welcome rains, the ground should be much easier to dig in. For healthier bulbs, add a little Bulb Booster into each planting hole.

Here are some universal signals that let you know its Fall bulb planting time:

1. Soil temperatures in your area are approaching 55 degrees F
2. Fall nighttime temperatures stay between 40 and 50 degrees F
3. The Fall foliage has moved just past peak.
4. The Fall striped bass run in on.
5. Squirrels are digging in acorns as fast as they can.
6. Birds start grouping.
7. The grapes are ripening on the vine.
8. Your allergies start kicking in.
9. The cat wants to take a nap in your lap again.
10. The dog stops lying in that round hole he dug in the garden, and moves to a sunny spot.

LIGHT FROST WARNING! It doesn’t seem possible for the chance of frost to be coming already but in the northern part of Michigan they have already had frost and sleet. Keep an eye on the low temperatures so you can cover any annual plants you want to keep.

If you don’t want to save your vegetable plants, pick any remaining crop that is sensitive to the frost and let it ripen inside. Cover all flowering annuals and all tropicals. I use double layers of old sheets, towels, pails, cardboard, newspaper (if it isn’t windy) or anything you find that will cover the top of the plants without crushing them.

We still have a lot of pleasantly warm days ahead to enjoy our gardens so it might be worth the effort to cover your plants for a little while. Be sure to uncover them in the morning when the temperature warms up a bit.

Can you divide daylillies in the fall? Laurie wrote that her daylillies were ready to be divided and now that the weather is cooling down; what a great time it is to be working out in the garden.

Probably the best time to divide daylilies, and many other perennials, is in the spring when the plants are newly emerging. This way you will do less damage to the leaves when dividing them with a spade. However, you can safely divide daylillies most anytime during the growing season up until about 6 weeks before the first frost (~late Sept.). Perennials overwinter better if they have had adequate time to establish a good root system. Sometimes the freezing and thawing of winter will heave them right out of the ground and the plants may not survive.

So, yes, divide your daylillies! Many divisions can be made from one overgrown daylily plant. Keep them watered until frost arrives.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for planting bulbs so they don’t get eaten or dug up by animals?
Judy L, Rockford, MI

A: It is time to order spring flowering bulbs for planting this fall. These bulbs can be planted right up until the ground is too frozen to dig in. If you have problems with small animals or even deer digging them up, I do have a suggestion but it requires a bit of extra work.

First of all, the deer are usually a problem if they detect that you have added bone meal. Bone meal (or Bulb Booster) is great to add to the soil when planting bulbs as it helps the bulb grow strong. It’s best to dig the hole and put the bone meal in the bottom of the hole and try not to spill it above ground.

Many of the smaller animals burrow underground and eat the bulbs. To prevent this, the bulbs need to be buried in a cage. If planting a bed of bulbs, dig all the soil out of the planting bed area to the proper depth you would normally plant your bulbs. This soil can be shoveled onto a plastic tarp right next to your work area so it is easier to put back in. Now lay down either a tight chicken wire or some type of closely woven wire with small openings. The openings must be large enough for the bulb foliage to grow through. Put some of the soil on top of the wire, push the bulbs into the soil then bury the bulbs with more soil. Use enough wire to be able to fold it over and make a box with it; enclosing the entire bulb area with the wire. Cover the wire with soil and bark.

Since this is quite a project, take advantage of your efforts and put in a lot of varieties of bulbs. Different types of bulbs can be stacked on top of each other and as their flowering times come along, they will just push right past the others.

Fall-blooming bulbs are every bit as easy to plant and grow as spring-blooming bulbs, yet they remain unfamiliar to many gardeners. Garden centers rarely offer them so you will probably have to order them by catalog or online. If you need a source let me know. Plant a few, and you’ll be hooked. Your garden will be the talk of the street when the Colchicums bloom, because your neighbors will want to know what trick you used to get those “giant Crocuses” to bloom out of season. Choose a site in full sun to partial shade with average, well-drained soil.

Some of us have had more rain than others this summer, but here in Rockford, we have had very little. With such high temperatures, even the trees are struggling and show burnt or yellowing leaves. I always go over watering advice to my new landscape clients and we are going to review it now because watering is not easy and it is so very important.

The best way to water trees is to lay a hose end near the tree trunk and let the water trickle into the ground for 15 -30 minutes. With sand, a sprinkler might work better to water all of the roots. This method works well for large shrubs too. You want to get the water to the bottom of the root ball. The idea is to encourage the tree to develop a deep root system so it can eventually take care of itself. In the hot weather, water new trees 2x/week. Trees 1-5 years old; 1x/month. As the temperatures cool down, cut down the watering schedule too.

Every day we see new things happening in the garden. If you have any perennials that need to be staked or have supports put in place, this is the time to get them on. If you wait until the support is needed, the plant may be too large and stiff to cooperate with the direction you want it to go. Peony plants usually requre a “Peony Hoop.” This is not a tomato cage! They are a large (~30″ diameter), 2 ring support stand with prongs that stick into the ground. I found some sturdy, green coated hoops at Fruitbasket last year that look good around the plants.

Great questions this week from Dawn B.!!!

Q: I bought several packages of bulbs last fall but never got them in the ground. Yesterday, I looked and some of them were beginning to sprout in the package so I stuck them in a big pot. Will they grow/bloom this year?

Is is necessary to pull out all bulbs after they bloom every year and replant them in the fall or can they be left alone till they need to be divided?

A: Spring flowering bulbs require a cold period of approximately 13 weeks for the bulb to be triggered that it’s time to grow and bloom again. If you stored your bulbs in the garage, it was likely cold enough for the bulbs to overwinter there. You can either pot them up or plant them in the ground now and see how they do. If you get weak growth, I would just toss them out and start over with fresh bulbs.

Public offices & gardens might remove their bulbs every year but they usually throw them away and buy new every year. This is costly. Do not remove your bulbs after they finish flowering. Leave them alone until the leaves turn yellow; then just cut off the leaves at the soil level. The reason those leaves are left on for so long (~4 weeks) is because they are still photosynthesizing the energy from the sun and strengthening the bulb for next years flowers. Sally C. from Rockford told me that her mother used to roll up the flat bulb leaves and bury them in the soil. She had beautiful bulbs every year! Pam L. from Grand Rapids suggested braiding the old leaves to tidy up the garden. I have not tried these methods but it might be fun to see if they work.

Your bulbs do not need to be divided every year but fall is definitely the season to get it done. Divide Tulips every 3-4 years. The way to tell if it’s time to divide is if the foliage grows up with hardly any flowers. Or, if you are getting large clusters of foliage and flowers and you want to spread them further apart. The great thing about bulbs is they keep multiplying if kept healthy. You can scratch in Bone Meal or Bulb Booster every year to encourage strong growth.