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October 16, 2008 · 7 Comments

A Quick Way to Plant Bulbs

How to

It’s not too late to plant bulbs for spring blooming. With some help from my 16-year-old, I put more than 100 in last Saturday, and we plan to plant a few more over the MEA Weekend. One reason we planted so many is that the tulips I planted about 8 years ago have pooped out. Unlike daffodils and some of the minor bulbs that naturalize, tulips lose their flower power after awhile. Some gardeners even view them as annuals and replace them every year. I’m not willing to do that, since bulbs can be pricey, especially the bigger (and in bulbs, bigger is better) bulbs.

We needed to plant bulbs in the front yard garden I put in this year, which is another reason for the large number to be planted. Bulbs give an early blast of color, which is so welcome after a long winter.

grape hyacinth in bloom

Plant lots of bulbs for lots of bloom. These are grape hyacinth.

To create impact, we planted the bulbs in groups of 20 in four spots in the front bed. This was relatively easy to do. Using a spade, I pushed the mulch aside and dug a wide hole the appropriate depth in each area. I put the dirt in a bucket so it was easy to add back. Then, my daughter moved in and placed the bulbs in a random group with appropriate spacing, added the dirt back, and pushed the mulch back in place. While she was placing and planting, I was digging the next hole. In about 45 minutes, we planted 40 Allium caeruleum, a 16-inch, blue allium that will complement the large alliums I planted in the front door bed, which bloom about the same time. We also planted 20 crocus Grand Maitre for early spring bloom, and 30 grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), which bloom in mid spring.

In the bed near the front door, we’re planting about 50 tulips as well as 60 Allium sphaerocephalon, which has the wonderful common name of drumstick allium. It’s also a later blooming bulb. I have one problem with the tulips, however. I purchased them from the bins at Farmer’s Seed and Nursery in Faribault, and oops, I forgot to write on the bags which is which. I have 25 yellow ones (Daydream) and 25 purple ones, and it’ll be spring by the time I figure out which are planted where. Ah well, spring is a good time for surprises.

Related posts:

  1. Bulbs in a Minor Key There’s more to bulbs than tulips, daffodils and crocus. Many...
  2. Allium and Plant Architecture The ‘Purple Sensation’ allium has such interesting architecture. Each little...
  3. The Smother Method The smother method of starting a new garden is simple...
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Comments

  1. beeinthecity says

    October 18, 2008 at 11:02 am

    Hello! I found your site because this post generated a link to one of my posts, and I got some traffic through it. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog’s recent posts, and I’m planning to add a link to it on my blog today. I just wanted to let you know. 🙂 (Also, my mother spent most of her childhood in Minnesota, where her mother had a beautiful garden.)

    Have a lovely weekend!

  2. mynortherngarden says

    October 18, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Thanks for stopping by, and for the link! There are lots of beautiful gardens in MN because we have so much of the year without them! I’ve visited your blog, too, and will link back.

    Mary

Trackbacks

  1. Tulip Identified and the Purple Ones Emerge « My Northern Garden says:
    March 30, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    […] yard or house, this variety would be great. The identity of the tulip was listed in the blog in a post I wrote last fall when we first planted them outdoors. The purple tulips are still unidentified, […]

  2. Bee Magnet « My Northern Garden says:
    July 14, 2009 at 7:20 am

    […] pleasure. That’s been my reaction to this ornamental onion (Allium spaerocephalon) that I planted last fall. I’ve got clumps of it in three areas of the front yard, and not only is it a particularly […]

  3. It's Not Too Late to Plant Bulbs says:
    October 4, 2013 at 5:55 am

    […] in the space, add a bit of fertilizer and cover them up all at once. Here’s a description of how I did this one […]

  4. A Beautiful Year for Spring Bulbs | My Northern Garden says:
    April 27, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    […] are easy to plant and take care of, too. In early October, I dig a big hole to place large groups of bulbs. The […]

  5. A Beautiful Year for Spring Bulbs – My Northern Garden says:
    August 10, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    […] are easy to plant and take care of, too. In early October, I dig a big hole to place large groups of bulbs. The […]

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I did do one garden job today, pruning the Chestnut crabapple tree. This is a crab you grow for the fruit, which are like half/sized apples. Fortunately, the snow drifts around my tree are high enough that I could walk in without compressing the ground. 

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