Bulb planting in Fall for Spring Flowers

Plant bulbs of tulips, daffodils, narcissus, freesia, lilies, irises, gladiolus, renunculus, hyacynths, and more in the fall for a grand display of color in the spring. Once planted, bulbs need very little care, and bring multiple years of blooms. That's a great return on investment for your time and money!

Plan your bulb garden in the fall

Most flower bulbs need to be planted between October and January for blooms sometime between February and April, depending upon the flower type. You can plan your garden for flowers to start in February, and as the first flowers are finishing, the next are in full bloom, and so forth until about April or so. This depends on your planting region, also.

Tips for planning your bulb garden:

Decide on colors. Do you want one color throughout the season, or would you like coordinated flowers in the same color, or mixed colors, or only a few colors? You can purchase sets that are color coordinated, for instance all your blooms in blue,or all your flowers in pink. Purchase a set of each and have a blue area and a pink area, or mixtures of both.
Examine the estimated bloom months. You can choose anenomes for blooms as early as January in some areas, then up come the narcissus and daffaodils January, February, March. Move on to tulips February, March, April, and Amarylis by April, May. In other words, by planting a variety of bulbs you can enjoy flowers for months on end with little more work!
Choose an area of your garden in the sun. Plan for lots of sun for your bulb garden. Take a piece of paper and plot out which color and what height of flowers you are planting. Add the month they bloom, so you can get an idea of what your garden will look like as the spring wears on.
Buy bulbs from a reliable source. Bulbs generally ship in September, not earlier, sometimes later, depending on your growing region. If you go looking for bulbs in August, you may indeed find some at less than scrupulous stores. These are last years bulbs, and if you plant them, they will not last as long as bulbs harvested for this year's growing season. One garden center that HomeFurnitureDecor.com interviewed stated that they had already potted last years bulbs in containers to resell as indoor blooms for the spring, rather than sell them and have customers results be less than satisfactory. Homefurnituredecor.com recommends GoodBulbs.com for reliable bulbs. GoodBulbs.com hand inspects their flower bulbs before shipping. That's because GoodBulbs.com is run by a home gardner who hates to waste her money on things like bulbs that are obviously no good!

For example, this is what we chose:

Amaryllis Apple Blossom: A pink striped amaryllis. Planting time: October to January. Bloom time: April/May.
Tulips, Blue Aimable: a blue variety of tulip. Planting time: November to January. Bloom time: February/March.
Tulips, mixed colors: a variety pack of colors. Planting time: November to January. Bloom time: February/March.
Easter Lilies: a white lilly. Planting time: October to January. Bloom time: March/April.
Narcissus: "Chinese sacred lilly", an aromatic small daffodil type flower. Planting time: October to December. Bloom time: January/February.
Freesia: a variety of colors, great smelling cutting flowers. Planting time: October to December. Bloom time: February to April.

With this combination, planting in November in a zone where the ground isn't frozen yet takes care of all the planting, with blooms expected from February until May. Here are pictures of the bulbs themselves, though some of them are upside down in the picture (plant with pointy side up!):

How to plant your bulbs

Now that you've chosen your bulbs, picked a spot in your garden, it's time to get out there and dig. On each bulb package is the depth at which you should plant the bulb (often about 5 cm or 2 inches above the top of the bulb), and how much space to leave between bulbs.

Plant at the correct depth. One really cool tool to have for your bulb gardening is the bulb planter. The bulb planter helps you plant at exactly the right depth. If you don't have a bulb planter, you can purchase one online, or make do with a ruler in the dirt and eye balling the depth above the top of the bulb. You can buy a bulb planter at GoodBulbs.com also:

Bulb Planter - $ 4.95
This chromed steel planter is good for small or precise plantings. Makes exact placement of bulbs easy.

To fertilize or not to fertilize when planting? That question was posed to two different garden centers, and both agreed that certainly if your soil is poor, mix in compost or fertilizer. Dig a bit deeper than necessary for your bulb, mix compost with soil, put in some soft soil, and press your bulbs gently to keep them from tipping. If your soil is extremely dense soil, you may want to consider planting your bulbs in a raised bed.

Plant your bulbs with space between them. The bulb packet will have a recommended spacing. Spacing is another one of those bulb planting points about which you will get differing advice. One garden center told us to plant the whole pack in one large hole for a "bouquet" look. GoodBulbs.com says to plant at least 4 inches apart so the bulbs aren't over crowded. While the crowded bouquet look will be pretty, your bulbs will require more water, fertilizer, and more frequent thinning than planting at least 4 inches apart.

Note that pointy side is planted up, flatter side down.

Now water once to activate the bulbs, and leave them alone until they come up. Then keep them watered and enjoy the blooms!

Buying Bulbs online that will bloom

The owner of GoodBulbs.com hand inspects the fine Dutch bulbs before shipping, to make sure you get only the best bulbs. Buy the best bulbs online, at GoodBulbs.com. The bulbs currently available at GoodBulbs.com are:

Bulb Growth Updates

Narcissus spotted already poking up on 13 November.

Freesia seen already up on 20 November!