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.

I love to plant flowering bulbs throughout my landscape beds but frequently, when moving perennials around, I find a bulb accidentally by slicing through one with my shovel.

To protect the bulbs from injury, one reader suggested setting them inside plastic flowerpots and plant the bulbs and the pot together . This does require a larger hole but you can put about 3″ of soil in the bottom of the pot, mix in bulb booster, and place the bulb on top. Then set the pot in place so the rim rests just below the soil level and backfill with soil to fill the pot. Depending on the size of the pot, multiple bulbs can be put in at a time.

Now, if I hit the plastic pot when digging, I’ll know that’s where my bulbs are planted. Also, this is a great deterrent to keep the voles from eating the bulbs.

Now that the spring flowering bulbs have finished their display, the leaves are looking pretty bad. In order to have healthy bulbs to flower again next year, it is important that you leave those leaves on just as long as you can. As long as the leaves are green, they are still adding nutrients to the developing bulb underground. So . . . don’t cut them off until they are brown!

Don’t like the scraggly foliage look? Most of the public gardens consider their bulbs disposable and just pull them out and throw them away. I recommend a more cost effective idea. I plant my bulbs among perennials that will come up early and eventually their leaves grow up around the dying bulb foliage and hide it. Plants like hosta or daylily work great for this.