Plant Now for Spring Beauty

As summer winds up, it’s hard to think about spring. But if you want colourful drifts of flowers next spring, now is the time to buy and plant bulbs.

Spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, daffodils, crocuses and alliums produce some of the most dramatic garden color with minimal effort. Tuck them into your garden beds for a traffic-stopping display long before dormant perennials emerge, naturalize them in lawns to create a woodland effect, and plant them in pots to provide cheerful displays on your deck or by your front door.

These bulbs must be planted in the fall so they have time to form strong roots before sending up flowers next spring. Spring-flowering bulbs come in many shapes and colours and bloom from late winter to early summer. With a little planning, you can have a stunning, continuous display from January to June.

Planting is simple. Choose a well-drained site with full sun. Add a little bone meal or bulb fertilizer to the planting hole and place the bulbs pointed end up. Plant bulbs to a depth of 3 times their diameter. For example, daffodils and other large bulbs should be planted 6-8 inches deep. Smaller bulbs can be planted to a depth of 3-4 inches. Come spring, you should be well rewarded for all your efforts.

One of our favourite ways to plant bulbs is to layer them in containers. Plant the largest, later flowering bulbs such as late tulips or alliums near the bottom of the container and cover with soil. Then add some earlier flowering bulbs such as early tulips, hyacinths or narcissus and cover these with more soil. Finally scatter some small, early flowering bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops or grape hyacinth on top and cover again. Water well. To make the container look great until the bulbs emerge next spring, plant winter pansies on top. The bulbs will find their way through them and the winter pansies will bloom from now until the spring bulbs take over. If you want to make things even easier, you can purchase combination packages of bulbs that can be layered and will look great together.

The hardest part about growing spring-flowering bulbs is choosing which ones to plant. There are so many gorgeous colours and shapes to choose from. We have lots of interesting ones at Dig This. Shop early for the best selection. Dig This 9813 Third Street 778-426-1998