PLANTING SPRING FLOWERING BULBS

Fall is the time to plant the spring flowering tulip, hyacinth, daffodil, crocus and iris bulbs for a profusion of color the next spring. Groupings of bulbs throughout the landscape will accent and highlight the garden. When used in naturalized settings of tall evergreens or among trees and broadleaf evergreens, they are particularly effective. 

Because of the variety in growing heights and the wide range of colors available, their uses are almost unlimited. They can be used in borders, for bedding or for background color. Groupings or drifts of several types often create outstanding color effects. The use of bulbs in plantings of ajuga, sedum, sagina moss, thyme, ivy, vinca minor and other low-growing ground covers is especially nice.

Bulbs can be effectively used in containers, too. They can provide spot color on the patio, in the entry area, near the driveway or in the home. Most varieties do equally well in the ground or in containers.

If you are in doubt as to how deep to plant any variety, use the simple rule of thumb: plant three times deeper than the greatest diameter of the bulb. For example, a two-inch diameter requires a six-inch planting depth.

Bulbs prefer a sandy soil, although they will grow in almost any type of soil that is well drained. Most varieties will not tolerate wet feet. In heavy soils, place a small amount of sand under each bulb to improve the drainage.

When planting bulbs, mix in ample amounts of peat moss and bulb fertilizer. Applying an all-purpose soil insecticide/fungicide dust at the same time can control disease and insect infestations.

For a finished appearance and to help discourage the growth of weeds during the winter, mulch bulb planting areas with peat moss or bark.

Winter blooming pansies provide bright color during the winter in areas where bulbs have been planted. The use of winter blooming heather is also a nice companion plant.

Crocus - Offers some of the finest early spring color. The winter Species Crocus begin blooming in early January. They are available in bright orange, white, yellow and blue. Dutch Crocus has a little larger flower and begins blooming in late April, continuing until late May or early June. Colors range from white, lavender, purple and yellow to striped white and lavender. They are effective in borders, groupings and naturalized settings.

Daffodils - A natural in Northwest gardens. The bright yellows, whites, pinks and combinations of colors are outstanding when used among evergreens, in naturalized plantings or in combinations with crocus, tulips and other spring flowering plants.

Hyacinths - Beauty and fragrance for the garden. Their use is more limited than the other bulbs mentioned because they are stiff and formal and do not naturalize as well. When used in containers, in formal plantings or for borders, they are very effective. This is an excellent bulb to use near the entry area, in the home or wherever foot traffic is heavy because of the intense aroma they emit.

Anemone, scilla, snowdrop and frittiliaria are just a few of the other bulbs to consider for spring garden color. Most varieties have arrived at the garden center and may be planted up until ground is frozen or your fingers get too cold.

 Tulips - According to variety they grow from just a few inches tall to 30 inches or more. They have unlimited uses in borders, in rockeries, for massing or grouping, in naturalized settings and as container bulbs. Some varieties have single flowers: others are double. There is a variety to match every color in the spectrum. In addition, some varieties offer decorative and colorful foliage that is ideal for flower arranging.

Tulips are some of my favorite flowers, for a variety of reasons. They're the first sure sign of spring, and they're the first splash of color we see after a long winter. The blooms don't last that long, but when they peak, they can be spectacular. Eventually, those beautiful blooms will fade and end up looking pretty pathetic. Though your first inclination might be to cut the plants down, don't. The plant is storing energy for next year's bulb. You can remove the spent blooms because you don't want the flower to go to seed. Simply remove the top. If you want to remove the stem as well, you can. Just don't remove the foliage, because that is what's sending energy down to next year's bulb. Let the leaves die back naturally. 
    One way to conceal your bulbs is to plant perennials. While the foliage from your bulbs is dying down, the perennials are growing up. You can also maintain the health of next year's bulb through fertilizing. You will know it is time to fertilize when the foliage turns from green to yellow. Simply scratch in an all-purpose fertilizer around the base of the stems. The bulbs planted in the fall for spring bloom have all the energy stored they will need to produce a beautiful flower. After the first spring, it is up to the gardener to see the bulbs create the energy they require for continual blooming seasons.  

    The first step is to deadhead the flowers once their flowering time has past. Much energy is wasted setting seed if the flower heads are left on. Cutting only the flower heads and leaving the stems to help in photosynthesis is important. Also note some spring bulbs set seeds and multiply naturally. Many gardeners fertilize in the fall, but fertilizing can also be done in spring when growth has begun with a complete, slow-release, granular fertilizer with higher phosphorus (the middle number). I usually use 6-9-5 or 5-10-5 and work it into the first inch or two of the soil on a rainy day so it is watered in naturally. This will satisfy the bulbs all spring, but some also prefer to water with a liquid fertilizer just after blooming to give the bulbs an extra boost. The third step is to think of the leaves to be just as important as the flowers. Although they last much longer than the flowers, up to 10 to 12 weeks for daffodils, they must be cared for, not cut down. Years ago, gardeners wove or braided the unsightly leaves, but this allows less surface area exposed to the sun for photosynthesis. Bulbs completely exhaust their nutrients when they bloom and need to replenish it for the next spring. Allowing the leaves to die naturally is best. Watering will improve the growth of bulbs if it is a dry spring. This was not a problem in Nova Scotia until the past few years. The recent dry springs required some watering during rainless weeks. Remember to water the base of the plants instead of from above.  If a large part of the garden is dedicated to spring bulbs, an unruly sight may be faced for several weeks if careful planning did not accompany planting. Many perennials can be planted with bulbs not only to fill the space after they have faded, but to hide the flowerless and yellowing leaves. Astilbes, bleeding hearts, chives, day lilies, hosta and ornamental grasses can be planted in front of or around spring bulbs. For shorter leaves, candytuft (Iberis), phlox, pachysandra, rock cress (Arabis) and snow-in-summer (Cerastium) can be used.
    For the most part, deadheading and fertilizing will be the only chore, but occasionally more work will be necessary. If your daffodils send up lots of stems, but no flowers, it usually indicates the bulbs are overcrowded. The bulbs will not flower this spring because they are competing for a small supply of nutrients and moisture. Once the leaves turn yellow, dig up the bulbs, separate the daughter bulbs from the mother, enrich the bed with compost and fertilizer, then replant. Daffodils should be replanted immediately and not stored through the summer. Once the leaves turn yellow, tulips can be separated and transplanted right away. If you decide to wait until the fall for replanting, the bulbs will need a little special care. Once the leaves have turned brown, dig them up and clean off the excess dirt by carefully brushing or washing them. Pick out the rotten bulbs and separate the daughter bulblets from the mother bulbs. The bulbs must then be dried to prevent rotting. Spread them on a tray in a warm, dry place, away from direct sunlight. After they are dried, dust them well with garden sulfur which acts as a natural fungicide. Place the dusted bulbs in a well-ventilated bag and hang them from the rafters of a cool, dry place to prevent mould. Some gardeners use old nylon stockings or onion bags. Tulip bulbs can be stored three months or more, but must be planted the following fall between mid-September and the end of October. They cannot be stored over winter. A few bulbs should not be disturbed unless absolutely necessary. The snowdrop does best when left alone, but if they must be transplanted, wait until the leaves die then dig them up. Snowdrops dry out quickly and need to be transplanted immediately.
    By following these simple rules, your spring-flowering bulbs should bring you much pleasure for many years. Remember, there is no exact science to gardening and what works for one may not work for another. Experiment and have fun!

Bulb Forcing

Storing Bulbs

Growing Garlic is Easy

Growing garlic is easy and rewarding. All you need to do is prepare a light soil and stick one of those little garlic cloves in the ground for every bulb you want to dig up at the end of summer. Buy some healthy looking bulbs and break them apart, carefully separating the cloves. The bigger cloves will produce the bigger bulbs. I only plant the real LARGE cloves. Plant the cloves about 2 inches down - 4 inches apart, pointy side UP. This year my garlic sprouted in three days.

You can also plant garlic in the fall for harvest the next year. Here in Ontario it is a risky proposition. Sometimes the garlic does not make it through the winter. To have garlic make it through the winter it is necessary to plant it deep, 4", sometime in the fall. You may find it advantageous to spread out your fall plantings. Maybe a week apart for a whole month. Keep track of what works and do it that way again the next year. Mulching with leaves or hay will help to protect the cloves.

As soon as the tops of the garlic stalks start to turn brown you know it's time to consider digging them up. IF the garlic shoot starts to flower, you'll want to break the stem so the plant DOES NOT produce flowers. Carefully dig them up, knock the dirt off and then either dry them, give them away, or EAT THEM. It is now July and I am still eating last years garlic.

If you've never had the opportunity to eat FRESH garlic. You don't know what your missing. Garlic out of your garden will be quite snappy. NOT soft and squishy like the grocery store kind. Give it a try. It's easy.

Prepare the soil

Ideally, a deep, fertile, very well drained soil is needed. Add -and incorporate well-a good dressing of a general garden fertilizer before or at the time of sowing. Your soils pH must be above 6.0.( Ideally,  pH 6.5 -7.0). Unless you are on limestone country, most soils will benefit from a liming at least a month or so before planting. Lots of well rotted compost is beneficial, if you can get it.

When to sow

warm temperate areas - generally speaking, it can be planted in autumn through to early winter. Under warm temperate climatic conditions autumn planted garlic will remain dormant for a few weeks, then develop roots and a shoot. With the onset of the cold of winter growth is fairly slow until temperatures warm in spring. The cold of winter is needed to initiate the side buds that will ultimately grow and swell to become cloves (and in some types, to initiate the flower bud). The lengthening days of spring are the signal for the initiated but undeveloped side buds to start forming into cloves. It is possible to sow in early spring and get a reasonably good harvest, but everything is against you - wet, difficult to work soil; no early root growth; less exposure to winter chill. Early Spring is possible, but definitely a second choice.

Temperate areas- plant after the first good frosts of autumn. Spring planting is possible in the higher latitudes, as the longer day lengths promote bulbing, but the shorter season means the bulbs are often smaller. Autumn garlic will produce roots, but either no, or short, top growth. If the garlic sprouts have emerged, they will survive freezes and snowfalls, but they should be mulched heavily (about 15 cm/6 inches) to prevent heaving. Pull the mulch aside in spring. Autumn planted garlic will have strong roots by winters icy grip, and these roots will help prevent the 'seed' being pushed out of the ground as the soil alternately freezes and thaws ('frost heave').
 

How to sow

Choose the biggest and fattest seed cloves, and sow them root end down, standing erect, and far enough in the soil that they are anything from just buried to being 25 mm/an inch or so under the soil surface. Put them about 100 mm/4 inches apart.

The tricks of growing satisfactory bulbs

Home grown garlic can be disappointing- small bulbs, bulbs with only one big soft clove, no bulb. The causes of unsatisfactory production come down to the quality of the 'seed', growing conditions, the variety, the vagaries of the season, and disease.

Give the best possible drainage
It is important to have a free draining soil. While cloves put in early in winter will have a longer cold treatment and will respond to lengthening days more quickly than those put in later, there is always a risk of the cloves rotting in a cold wet soil. Especially if the cloves are of dubious quality, or if you have a history of disease problems in your own saved seed cloves. Commercially, the seed cloves are often soaked in rugged fungicides prior to sowing to minimize this problem, but this is not an option for most of us. Excellent drainage is very important to give the edge on climate and disease.

Give your plants an unreasonable advantage
Your garlic is likely in a race against root rotting disease and stem and leaf diseases. The better the leaf growth before bulbing starts, the bigger the bulb and the cloves will be. This translates to 'early care pays dividends later'. And also at the main growing stage, give your garlic every advantage to grow more than the disease will damage. Provide a free draining soil by amending it with sand, potting mix, well finished compost, leaf mould, or whatever. Consider a raised bed, or large tub culture. Before sowing, beef up the nutrient status of your soil by working in a complete fertilizer (5N - 10P - 10K) at about 225gms/half a pound per 7.5 Metres/25 feet of 30 cm/12 inch wide row. Once they have started growth in spring, give them regular - say fortnightly - very light side dressings of urea (or other high nitrogen fertilizer), spread 100 mm/6 inches either side of the plants. Liquid manures are also beneficial. Garlic competes poorly with weeds. Keep them as close to meticulously weeded as is possible. Be careful with the hoe- there is nothing more tragic than a beautifully growing garlic plant sliced off at soil level by a hurried hoe! If the weather is dry, mulch them to conserve water. Dry soil when the leaves are developing affects the yield quite badly, so water them well and regularly in dry periods.

Either buy clean seed stock or provide ideal growing conditions
If you grow garlic regularly, and especially if you keep your own seed cloves, you will almost inevitably end up with a greater or lesser degree of disease in your soil and seed stock. This shouldn't prevent you from growing garlic, be we do need to accept that we have to put extra effort into keeping the plants in best possible condition when they start growing, and accept that is very wet years we may lose the lot. Even if you have disease in your soil, it is probably best to by clean seed cloves every year, as they will get a good start before becoming infected. Garlic that is water stressed in it's early growing period can 're-vernalise', which means the plant in effect 'cancels' the side buds that were about to grow into cloves, and produces a single fat, low quality clove instead. A cold winter largely prevents this phenomenon, so it is chiefly a problem for warm temperate areas. The same thing can happen if the plant is exposed to unseasonably high spring temperatures-29C/85F or above. The solution is keep the garlic well watered if there is a dry spell in spring, mulch to keep the soil, at least, cool, and keep your plants growing strongly.

Use the most suitable variety
Some garlic strains will just not bulb satisfactorily in your area. Garlic varieties are adapted to a fair range of day lengths, intensity of cold, and accumulated heat conditions. Don't expect all varieties to do well in your area. 'Wrong' varieties may grow very well, but not bulb properly, re-growing from the barely formed new season cloves without the top dying back and without forming a proper bulb at all. Try locally sold seed cloves. They may well be- but certainly not certain to be- the best variety for your climate. In mild and cool climate areas 'rocombole' garlic is far more forgiving of the vagaries of climatic conditions than common garlic. Equally, in hot areas, the 'Creole' silverskin types are far more reliable than most other garlic’s.
 

Harvesting

    The plants are ready to harvest when the foliage has died off, or mostly died off. If it is very wet near harvest time, consider lifting them a bit earlier and drying them under cover. Left in wet soil, the outer parchment often rots. And if there is disease in the root plate, it may develop too far and cause the bulb to fall apart when it is lifted. Rocambole is almost always ready to harvest a month or so before common garlic. But the state of the foliage is the indicator, not any particular date. An experienced Italian American home garlic grower passes on a valuable tip for refining the estimate of when to harvest common garlic-
    Once the top part of the plant has begun to turn brown, pull one of them and peel back the sheaths one at a time. My grandfather liked to wait until there were 2 sheaths, but I'm more comfortable with 3 to 4 sheaths. The problem with only watching the top part of the plant is that when it's very wet or very dry, the sheaths can reduce much faster than in other years.

     Wash the bulbs, especially the roots, and leave them for a week or so to dry-  so long as it is fine. If you live in a hot climate area, you will have to dry them out of the sun, or your precious bulbs will sunburn. If the weather is dubious, dry your garlic under cover. When the bulbs are dry, you can trim off the roots, scuff off the outer discolored parchment, and braid your garlic for storage.

    If you intend to keep your own clove seed, select the biggest and best bulb. Leave the cloves on the bulb, and at planting time select only the best cloves to use as seed cloves. But store your seed bulbs in a relatively cool, dry place-heat in storage can cause the seed cloves to develop into a plant that produces a single large clove , rather than a normal multi clove bulb. Prolonged very low temperatures can also disrupt proper growth.
 

Storage