Category: Bulbs

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Now is the time to think about Fall bulb planting

Bulbs again by robholland

If you are anything like ThisGardenLady, you are enjoying your garden. Not quite sitting back to enjoy it, because the weeds are more vigorous than many of the plants.

So it seems like the last thing one wants to do now is think about fall bulb planting. But unfortunately, if you want the pick of the catalog crop of bulbs to be planted this fall for next spring’s blooms, this is the time to order. And the catalogs are being mailed to your house, if they know you are interested.  Of course, you can sit back and wait if you don’t mind seeing a sold out sign when you get around to ordering. Many of these bulb stores don’t ask you to pay until the fall, so it is silly to miss out on a special bulb that you feel you really must have blooming in your garden next year.

John Scheepers is the place where many head gardeners say they order their bulbs. TheGardenLady just had the opportunity to visit a famous person’s private garden that will soon be open to the public. The head gardener is naturalizing acres of forest with 1000s of daffodils. I asked him where he bought the bulbs and he mentioned Scheepers.

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Some Things to do in the Garden in October

october garden 33678 by flora.cyclam

I am getting ready for winter and thinking of next spring. Are my readers also doing the same?

I did my first major raking. Living with so many trees, this raking will be ongoing until the last leaf has fallen. But I never throw any leaves away. They are always saved. I don’t leave any leaves on my street. I greedily collect those, too, for composting. I hope you have compost bins for your leaves.

I just planted over 60 tulip bulbs for next spring. Now I have to hope that no varmint eats the bulbs. Unlike daffodil bulbs, tulip bulbs are not poisonous so animals may want to dig them to eat. But the vision of tulips in bloom, is worth the risk. Last year I only lost a few tulips. I have been talking to nursery people to ask what they do to safeguard bulbs and have been told that they put in red hot pepper flakes in the holes with the bulbs. They buy the cheapest giant economy size of pepper flakes for this purpose. I used up my old bottles of pepper flakes and also put in some moth balls into each hole with the bulb food. Then I sprinkled Tabasco sauce or hot chili oil plus stale ground black pepper on the ground after I covered the bulbs with soil. Hope that will detract those cheeky chipmunks.

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Now is the time to plant your tulips and daffodils

At the Foot of the Magic Tree by JLMphoto

If you are planning to have tulips or daffodils or any bulbs blooming next spring, this is the perfect time to plant them. Bulbs can be planted in the ground now until the soil freezes so hard that you can not dig it. But even though we are having frosts, so long as the soil is able to be dug, you can continue planting the bulbs.  If you fail to put your bulbs in the soil, pot them and keep them in a cold garage or in a cold refrigerator so that they will also bloom next spring.  Bulbs need that coldness to bloom.

If you plan to buy bulbs in the stores, many of them are now on sale- half price or better, be sure to squeeze the bulbs to make sure that the ones you are buying are hard. Don’t buy any bulbs that are mushy or empty. I would ask to open the package in the store to check before you pay for the bulb. You do not want to buy flowering bulbs that are no longer good. A good bulb feels hard.

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