It is just about sentence to plant flower bulbs for beautiful flower next spring . Two geezerhood ago , I planted dozens of Crocus bulbs , looking onward so much to those first signs of life history at the origin of give . Unfortunately , my neighborhoodsquirrelsspent the wintertime digging them up and snacking on them , and I ended up with a total of one crocus flush in the spring . Since then , I have seriously read up on bulb planting .
I found an first-class book , Gardening Wisdomby Douglas Green , which has a great chapter on electric light planting , which I excerpt below :
“ There are three rules for grow a good bulb . The first is to check that there is excellent drain so the medulla does not suffer from excess body of water . Over water bulbs or growing them in heavy or clay dirt causes bulbs to fade off . First they come up without their flush and then they simply disappear from the garden . Often rodent are blamed for this disappearance rather than the straight culprits , garden soil or overwatering .
“ The very significant 2nd linguistic rule for produce good bulbs … Because bulbs are undercover and out of sight … nurseryman bury that they have specific needs for food . Every summer the electric-light bulb have to replace the vim spent producing leaves and peak , and it is our job as nurseryman to give them the necessary food . A generouscompostingof the garden each spring will admit enough nutrients to hit bulb astuteness to keep them happy .
“ The last and most important rule is to grow the foliage , not the prime . Too many gardeners … cut off the leaf so as toplant annualsin that space or tidy up the mass of flopping leaves left after bloom have finished … tidiness in lightbulb does not count ; an untidy garden is a fat garden because the bulb leaves are put in energy for next twelvemonth ’s bloom of youth … If the leafage are cut off too early , before they have yellowed and start to fade , then the medulla has not yet finished its regrowth and next twelvemonth ’s bloom will suffer .
“ Deep planting ( as much as 8″ ) deters rodent from dig up … the crepuscle implant bulb . The rodents know it is down there ; they just can not seem to muster the effort to dig that cryptical when other solid food is more ample … If your planting method is a bushel - basket - sized hole , then it is quite promiscuous to consist a hardware cloth ( wire mesh ) cover over the incandescent lamp before backfilling . If a half - column inch mesh is used , the squirrels will not be able to dig up through to the bulbs , but next fountain the shoot will have no difficulty observe their manner to the surface . ”
The last affair to remember is sit : is the flower you ’re planting a shade inhabitant ? Sun fan ? A little of both ? verify you ’re planting the bulb in the appropriate area – you may usually go by the info supplied on the medulla oblongata packet ( assume it ’s packaged ) .
