Planting Autumn-planted Bulbs in Spring

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Hold on, it's about to get super-garden-y 'round these parts!

Daffodils - May 17, 2019
It turns out that your classic spring flowers, {daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, crocuses}, are bulbs typically planted in the autumn. The freeze-thaw cycles of winter help them get ready to go in early spring.

It also turns out that in early April I had an opportunity to purchase ~100 daffodil bulbs (~32 Cheerfulness, ~32 Pink Charm, ~40 Mixed) and ~100 tulips (mixed colors) for $30. That's about $0.15 per bulb! The risk was that these would need to be planted ASAP in spring, with slim chance of them coming up.

Daffodils - May 10, 2019
Daffodils - May 17, 2019
Well, the daffodils came up gang busters. Not every single one is blooming, but the leaves are up and gathering energy for next year. The Cheerfulness daffodils look more in line with 'Extravaganza' and are absolutely stunning. These mostly bloomed this year along with a couple interesting varieties from the mixed daffodil bag.

These were planted in the garden plot which I've recently rehabilitated significantly, and will talk more about later.

Daffodils - May 17, 2019
The tulips are another story. I only planted 25 as many of the bulbs looked fairly diseased. And of those 25, around 7 or 8 came up. 5 are blooming right now, and it looks like the others will bloom later in the season. Maybe next year we'll get some surprise tulip appearances?

These had to be planted in the 'dog yard' right next to the house, as deer and bunnies love tulips. I figured the smell of stanky dog (plus a fence at the top of the steep cliff that is our dog yard), should keep most nibblers away from the tulips.

Tulips - May 24, 2019
Tulips - May 16, 2019 Tulips - May 24, 2019

0 comments: