The Heirloom Garden Blog

by Jayneanne Benjamin

Bulbs can be some of the most reward­ing plants to grow, pro­duc­ing masses of beau­ti­ful flow­ers year after year, for rel­a­tively lit­tle work.

Plant­ing Bulbs

Bulbs can be planted in ded­i­cated beds, dot­ted around your gar­den amongst other plants, or in con­tain­ers. What­ever the loca­tion, bulbs need a well-drained soil, since they will rot if the ground is sod­den. As a gen­eral rule, they should be planted at a depth two or three times the height of the bulb. It’s a good idea to make a deeper hole and mix in some organic mat­ter so the roots have good soil to grow into. You can also add some fer­til­izer, prefer­ably one high in phos­pho­rus, since this will encour­age good roots and flow­ers. Plant the bulbs with the point upwards and the root plate down­wards, press them down well into the soil to make sure the roots aren’t sus­pended in the air, and fill in the hole, press­ing down firmly. Make sure you water them in well. Adding a thick layer of mulch will help pre­vent weed growth and ensure the soil retains moisture.

Using Con­tain­ers

There are many advan­tages to plant­ing your bulbs in con­tain­ers, as you have com­plete con­trol over the envi­ron­ment your bulbs are grow­ing in and can even move them around if desired. It also makes it eas­ier to con­trol pests (mice are par­tic­u­larly fond of eat­ing bulbs). A care­fully planned con­tainer gar­den can look stun­ning, and is a great option for those tight on space. If you choose this method, remem­ber that the soil in a con­tainer will dry out faster than that in a gar­den, so you need to keep them reg­u­larly watered. Avoid over­wa­ter­ing though, per­ma­nently soggy soil is a recipe for disaster.

Main­te­nance

Spring and sum­mer bulbs should be watered when the buds first start show­ing and from then on once a week if the soil is dry. They may need quite a lot of water in order for it to reach the bulb’s roots, which are prob­a­bly 6 or 8 inches down. Don’t overdo it though, or the bulbs will rot. Dead­head the flow­ers as nec­es­sary, apart from mak­ing the plant look nicer, it will stop it from putting unnec­es­sary energy into pro­duc­ing seeds. How­ever, it’s impor­tant not to cut back the leaves until they go yel­low and die back nat­u­rally. This is because they are vital for the bulb to pro­duce and store the energy it will need for the fol­low­ing year’s growth.

About the Author

Jayneanne writes arti­cles on health and other mat­ters, both on– and offline. Take a look at her web­site about using sur­round sound wire­less speak­ers and 7.1 sur­round sound systems.

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