Fall-planted Flower Bulbs for Spring

it's early spring and my bulbs are coming up. Are they going to freeze? Cause we're going to get cold weather. If I had a dime, I'd be a pretty rich guy. Now, when people say bulbs, they're often referring to true bulbs as well as corms, rhizomes, tubers. Bulbs are kind of a tagline in marketing. You know, you're not getting a tissue, You're getting a kleenex, You're you know, nothing runs like a deer. We know we're talking about tractors. It's a tagline.

They're bulbs, and the four big keys to success with bulbs are well drained soil planting, depth and timing in my opinion. Oh and one other thing that is a total pet peeve for me with bulbs. If you're purchasing them and you're planting them bulbs, rhizomes, corms, tubers, whatever they may be. And let me mention that here in the North, things like tubers and rhizomes or corms, we're lifting them in the fall and we're putting them into storage. Cannas and dahlias are a perfect example, or one of

my favorites, tuberous begonias. They're not really bulbs, they're tubers or rhizomes, but we'll just loosely define them as bulbs. Back to the pet peas.

good bloom for next spring. My pet peeve is when they get put into fancy packages with colorful header cards, and all kinds of effort is put into the header card. But the size of that bulb, in my opinion, at least from what I see out there, in some cases, is going to lead to disappointment nextpert.

getting the bargain. Well, there is something that is being made up there, and it is the size of the bulb, because those bulbs are being raised in the Netherlands, and most flower bulbs in the US are actually still imported from the Netherlands. It is the capital of bulb production in the world. You know, not everything is a top grade bulb. There's some smaller bulbs, and they're not just

gonna throw those away. They're just going to go out and sell them at a lower price to you know, second tier retailers, and it's perfectly fine, but you just need to know what to expect. You're not going to get the same results is if you're buying that top grade bulb.

to emerge when the conditions are right now. At the risk of being pedantic, I'm using your word here, Stacy, at the risk of being pedantic, cooling the bulbs is a confusing thing for people, but really, simply put, cooling keeps the embryo from emerging at the wrong time, but it also provides the opportunity for root formation for the bulb.

They'rein my case that the depth that you plant at, as well as the fact that the soil needs to be well drained, is very very important because while that bulb is resting throughout the winter, and we're talking here about bulbs like daffodils or tulips, or hyacinths, crocus aliums, any of those fall planted non tropical bulbs. They need an opportunity to root. That's why when we force bulbs and we say you need a cooling period, we're not talking about frozen soil. We don't want ice frozen soil.

We're talking about chilled soil. That is number one, going to allow the bulb to prepare so that when the temperatures are right and when the conditions are right, that embryo is going to emerge in spring as a beautiful flower.

Eggs where so many people want to plant, it's not that you can't plant from there. You can, It's just you have to know you're only going to have probably a one year display because otherwise the bulb is going to rot as you keep your flowers going. And it's such an interesting way to do your research and to understand how you're growing your plants is to really take it back to that area and learn what you can and then again do your best to replicate it.

you have cannas, kala lilies, elephant ear, Colocacia esculenta. Alocasia's kalladiums are wonderful, wonderful plants for warm climates. Eucumus, which is pineapple lily, eucharis amazon lily, and of course, boy, this one always trips me up. But it's zephyra anthees, zephyr anthes grand a floor, the rain lily when it rains in the south, and all of a sudden, these beautiful amaryllis like blooms up here. It's really cool to see.

to worry about knowing all of this. All of these are different types of bulbs and corms, and all of these are the kinds of plants that have a dormant period where all their energy is stored into that fleshy, energy packed potato like structure, and they grow and then they go dormant again, and all of this combines to make them, in my opinion, some of the most rewarding, easiest to grow plants. I mean, I've said it already this year, but I'm going to say it again. You never regret planting bulbs.

and we love freezias. In the deep South Florida, you're going to be planting freezias and find them in fall, whereas here in the north or Midwest, you're going to find those in garden centers in spring and would be planting them in spring. So freezias are a good example of that. Also, here's a little limb a rick for you. It's bulb planting time. Whoopee, use your tulips and speak to me. They'll sleep in the ground and then spring will abound with blooms. I guarantee, and they will, they will.

Although I do have to mention again that in the past, when I planted bulbs, usually what I would do is have some old screens around, and after I planted them backfilled the soil. I'd throw the screens on the soil to keep squirrels from digging because they see that freshly dug soil. But you're better off using chicken wire digging your hole, putting the chicken wire in plant the bulbs, peel the rather wrap the chicken wire around the bulbs,

then fill with soil. That will work well for you when you're planting.

living surrounded by deer. But yeah, that's I mean, that's an easy way to make sure that they don't dig them up and mess with them, because you know they're probably like, hey, another squirrel buried a walnut around here, I better get that walnut. Oh crap, it's just a bunch of crocuses.

Plant those bulbs right in with those groundcovers, and then when they grow through them in spring, they'll be really pretty.

more on bulbs. But first I do want to say Halloween is about a month away and we would love to feature your garden horror stories on our Halloween show. It's going to be airing right after Halloween. If you have a garden horror story, it doesn't have to be truly scary. It could be something that was merely alarming to you personally or just funny out of the ordinary.

We all have them sometimes we need a little time to think of and we would love to hear that from you and be able to read that on the air and share it with our other listeners. If you have a garden horror story, you can reach us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There's a contact form right there. You can just type it all in and we will add it to our list and share it with our listeners. It could be anything from you know, animal related, pest related.

I had said that I once heard from a listener on my previous show who went to put her garden glove on and found a mouse was inside it. Yes, stacular, you know, unexpected snake sightings, so many possible things. My brother wants threw a slug into my hair that was very traumatic for me as a child.

and it shouldn't it shouldn't. This is not like I show up to your house and say, here's twenty five shrubs. You have to find spots for them and plant them. It's not like that. Bulbs are very easy to fit in anywhere. And I will tell you what I have learned from working in gardens and what I do in my own garden. I don't dig twenty five holes. That

would be ridiculous. Not only would it be more work than is necessary, but you're not going to get the display that you want because all you have is little tiny flowers spread out over like you know, one hundred square feet, and that doesn't have the impact. So what I do is I will dig one slightly larger hole, and I will pack that with all sorts of bulbs. Usually i'm looking for things. I tend personally to go more with what's known as the minor bulbs, so smaller,

more unusual things. I do love daffodils. Those are bigger and they need a lot more space. You need to dig a lot deeper for them. But even if I plant a daffodil, you know, I'll dig that hole for the daffodils, put in some soil, and then just put a handful of mixed minor bulbs, So that could be great hyacinth, crocuses, kyona, doxa, pushkinia, I mean so many different things. I'll just mix them all up and just take a handful and PLoP it right in that hole.

You know, as I've said before, like is too short for proper spacing by and large, and that is no more that's no more so true than with bulbs. So don't be intimidated by that quantity. You know, there have been many years where I have finished up planting bulbs and said, okay, I planted about seven hundred and fifty bulbs this year, and that seems insane to a lot of people. But it's actually a lot faster and a

lot easier. And as long as you are picking bulbs that are appropriate for your area, that are going to resist the challenges of your yard, whether that's moist soil or deer or whatever, that little investment in time and money will last two decades. Yes, you know, a lot of those minor bulbs are great for naturalizing. And that's what I love.

You know. They it's they're very easy to plant, they're very easy to maintain, They require almost no work, and they come up in spring and they look amazing. You get that fresh growth of green right when the snow starts to melt, and you're getting super psyched to see

your bulbs and they bloom and that was great. And now all the rest of your garden is coming alive, and there is that bulb foliage looking like that dog's breakfast and it's yellow and streaky, and it's kind of sad really, because you know, again, the rest of the garden is just starting to get going and is looking fabulous and fresh and beautiful, and here's this foliage just like no I'm gonna die now, And it's kind of depressing.

in their leaves, and that's why they turn yellow. So it's super crucial. Now, some bulbs can withstand it once or twice, but if you were to repeatedly cut back your bulbs every single year because you're like, I can't look at that yellow foliage, you will not have bulbs for are very long. They really truly do need that period, so you do have to to put up with it. Now. Over the years, gardeners have found many interesting ways to

kind of deal with this little life ability ponytails. The people will put them in a little ponytail, gather them all up raiding famously, as Martha Stewart did, And those are okay. First of all, I think their life is too short to probably sit around braiding your daffodil foliage. But even if you did want to do that, you know, the issue is that that hides a lot of those photosynthetic surfaces from the sun so that they're not able to fully, you know, make create all the energy that

they need through this process. So one thing that some people do is pair their bulbs with a plant that will kind of either grow up to cover the dying foliage or distract from it. So daffodils and hostas are two very popular choices for doing just that, because the foliage is small when the bulbs are active, so it's not shading them out or anything like that. And then as the bulb foliage starts to die back, their foliage is really expanding. But I wanted to propose another idea,

and that is today's plant on trial. Cody fresh Drvilla and so Durvilla is a native shrub North American native. It's native here to Michigan. In fact, you find it in many many places, but all over Mackinaw Island if you are familiar with that, and it's a relatively plain but tidy shrub. It has nice, high quality foliage. And what we have been doing here at proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs with Durvilla is trying to capitalize on its tendency to have some quite nice color, especially in its

new growth. And so we have been working with Durvilla for a number of years now, and we have Kodiac Red Durvilla, which has red foliage. We have Kodiak Orange, which has orange. We have Kodiak Black which has nice beautiful purple black foliage, and Kodiak Fresh is kind of a mix of most of these. So Kodiak Fresh Dravilla has chartruse foliage that emerges in shades of red and orange and yellow, and it just really lives up to

its name and has this pretty vivid fresh look. And if you were to plant a Kodiak Orange or a Kodiak Fresh Terravilla next to your bulb planting, I think that you would genuinely find that as this starts to come out for spring, and it is so much more colorful, even if it is not directly covering your bulb foliage.

It is easily distracting enough from them because it does bring so much color and life that you can kind of forget about all of the sadness going on just over there with your daff at all.

But I think Kodiak freshtervilla is a great way to lighten up the area and forget about that dying foliage. And Kodiak dur villas are so incredibly easy to grow. Like I said, they are native. There are very very durable shrubs. They kind of just grow as a natural sort of rounded habit, so you can let them be, or if you prefer to have something with a little bit more shape. They're very easy to trim and maintain into.

You wouldn't want to put them into like a tight shape like you would a boxwood, but you can easily give it like a light trim to give it a more rounded, sculpted shape. In summer, it puts out tons of yellow flowers, and those attract native pollinators, especially bumblebees. Now, one name that you might hear sometimes as a common

name for durvilla is bush honeysuckle. Now we don't like to use that term because it is not a honeysuckle, and of course people think honeysuckle and they think wow, invasive, even though they are in the same family. You don't have to worry about CoDIAK dri villa's being invasive or making a pestive themselves in your garden. They will tolerate just about any soil. Kodiak fresh is hardy down to

USDA's own three. All aren't through USCA Zone eight. It gets to be two to three feet tall and wide, so again just a nice size for adding to your garden. And you know, I think much like bulbs, you won't regard planting it because it's one of those plants that really just looks fabulous without having to do anything to it.

Whether you're looking for an easycare rose and unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your local garden center's Gardening Friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we try to simplify gardening for you, give you the information that you need to understand what

the heck is going out there in your yard. And one of the ways we do that is by answering your garden questions and celebrating your garden successes and quandaries and conundrums. So if you want to reach us, we would love to hear from you. Help HLP at Gardening Simplified on air dot com or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com and there's a contact form where you can send us your message. Now you have seen a couple of things come across your radar.

North American native. So it's a true example of how that grass is always green on the other side.

breath away. So we will put a link or some shots of that in the YouTube video so you don't miss that and miss out on that opportunity to make your yard look as fabulous as that is beautiful.

Number one sometimes mess up fall color dominic Yeah, and number two mess up the I don't know calendar or cycle of spring blooming for some plants, and that in itself also could at least diminish a few of the bloom's next spring.

lilacs or lets dans hydrangs. The reason that those are reblooming, or why they bloom on new wood as well as on old wood, is because those new wood flowers don't require vernalization. And so what's happened here is these plants are blooming without somewhat without vernilization. They're not, like you know, in full bloom and absolutely covered in flowers, just a bit here and there, But it is not unheard of.

Always a little bit distressing, especially when it has been as hot and as dry for as long as it has been here. But nature does crazy things. What can I say, you.

sometimes purchase plants online, you're usually getting smaller plants. And when, especially with shrubs, when you get a smaller shrub, the amount of time that a grower would have spent trimming it and building it into a bigger and bushier and more full shrub, that's not there to actually do that yourself. So it is totally fine. If you feel as though they need, you know, a little bit more bushiness, go

ahead and prune them. But do be aware that both aerowood viburnum and nine bark bloom on old wood, So if you want to see the flowers, you're gonna want to do this after they bloom. If you don't care about the flowers and you're just willing to sacrifice it for you know, getting a nice full shrub, no problem.

Just do it in spring with the aerowood viburnum, though, do be aware that, of course, because that is a flowering and fruiting shrub, that if you prune it after it blooms, you will be removing the ability for it to actually set fruit. But again, these are just esthetic considerations, not plant health considerations, and you can safely prune these back by up to half, even a little bit more

if you need to. It's really going to depend on the look that you're going for and what you're dealing with already.

was that your soil was created from. Can also be created through the use of limestone if you were using that to lower or to raise your pitch, which hopefully wasn't the case because if so, that was way overused to get your soil up into at seven point six. But the high magnesium is a concern because that can induce deficiencies of other nutrients because it ties up the

plant's ability to take up other nutrients. But what Martha is actually asking is, you know they gave her, they said, hey, use this fertilizer three two zero, And she says, what fertilizer should I use? And I have to say, Rick, I have never seen a three two zero fertilizer for sale in my life. So Extension, I'm sure is well meaning and saying this would be the ideal fertilizer, But I don't think that most consumers are going to be

able to find. You know, as a homeowner, you're going to be able to find a fertilizer anything like that. But you know, definitely read the labels of the fertilizers that are available at your gardens ter make sure they do not contain magnesium, because some will have trace elements or trace nutrients in them. So you're going to want one that does not contain magnesium, so that you're sure to not you know, increase that issue. But then Martha goes on to ask, you know, so I'm sorry, we

don't have an exact recommendation for you. They're just recommending sort of the ideal, so get as close as you can, and you know, the low potassium could resolve itself with the magnesium going down, which it will in time because magnesium does tie up potassium in the soil. So how you'll apply that will depend. It will probably be a granular.

I would personally just broadcast that in probably late March myself, and then you ask how Martha asks how soon can she plant after the fertilizer has been applied, and I would say, again, apply that in about late March when your soil is starting to thaw. And if you give that probably two to three weeks for you know, rain and everything to weather that fertilizer. I think think you should be good to plant.

good reading on the lawn. Seven point six is pretty high. Now, if you're comfortable that the soil test taken was done with plenty of samples so that that's an accurate reading of the soil, just make sure of that before you start applying something like aluminum sulfate to try and bring that pH down right.

are like yellowing foliage or unhealthy growth. You will know that's a result of nutrients that are being tied up at that pH level and that is something that can easily be remedied with by applying fertilizer regularly and eventually it will sort itself out. You know, that's not a long term solution, but if you if you do want to take that pH down, like Rick said, with aluminium sulfate, you can use fertilizer on the plants that are showing

signs of that pH level issue. And of course, for at this point in your gardens, steer clear of anything that you know is notoriously acid loving. So we're going to take a little break. When we come back, we've got a special guest, so you won't want to miss it. We'll hope you come back. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and

less work. Look for proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.

twenty five. Jenny, thanks so much for joining us on The Gardening Simplified Show.

If you do, you're a color person, you know, and then it just won't do to have, you know, a yellow toothbrush, you know, and then you get muddled up. So it was sort of like self preservation that I always got my pink toothbrush and my pink hat and my you know, I knew it was mine and no

one else was going to use it. But more to the point, I love think it makes me happy, and I try and encourage people to do the same thing in their gardens, because if you are a color person, I know, the color of your toothbrush, then you want to go for you know, swaps of your favorite color in the garden or accessories or benches, and they'll just make you happy every time you go out to your garden.

It must be that you feel people in general love bulbs based on the fact that you're writing a book about bulbs. Why do we love them so much? Jenny Well?

and then all of a sudden you look back at that spot and there's a green shoot, and then all of a sudden there's an amazing colored flower popping out of the ground. And it's sort of like, I don't know, delayed gratification or something like that. But also it may are just you know, they're in the moment. They're in

the moment. And one when you look at the daffodil, you know it's spring when you look at you know, now in my garden, I say dahlia, but no one can think that, you know, I can understand what dahlia now right now, my you know, my cupping garden and my varose gardens are four of dahlia's and I've got two barrows out and I've got you know, all these things,

oh gladiolus. But I popped up on Instagram the other day with a lovely white outside and a pink center, and you know, there's there's nothing quite like it for just a real bloom power.

But you know what, you don't really see daffodils out of season, and you know, you don't really have these other plants just popping up and they are one of those things that truly are just completely rooted in the springtime.

local you know, growers, and support them. But you know, I am a very big proponent, and in all of my books, I have sections where I divide up and tell you these things are going to be in flower at this season and they will go together like this. If you put them in the same bed or adjacent beds or adjacent pops, you know, these will combine well, they'll flower at the same time.

you know, where's the joy in that. It's sort of like we are in such a rush and everything like that. There's so much going on in the world that makes us all anxious and everything like that to have these little calming moments of our first you know, the first daffodil,

you know, the first crotus, the first anything. And that's why I really encourage people to plant them, because there's nothing like after the winter in particular, as you know, going outside there's still a chill in the air, and then you just walk outside and you see just a little touch of white or purple or yellow, and you're like, oh, yes, I think the year is going to be okay, you know. Ready as the hope message. Really, I think.

own thing. So you know, they're all storage units. I am a biologist, and my dad and uncle were all botanists, and you know, we would debate about whether it was a tuberous route. Oh no, it's not a tuberous route. It must be a risomotous route, you know. But you know, most people couldn't give a hoot about whether it was

one or the other. So I've called them all bobs in the text, I've you know, gone through you know, what is a corm for those and those people at once know otherwise you skip that bit because it, you know, smacks too much of bio one oh one, and you move on and look at the pretty pictures. So you know, I've given you, I've given it to you. In the book.

But it's not you know, you don't have to. I don't feel like I have to belabor the point because they they whatever they do, the plant has figured out that it is a wonderful way to get through in clement weather. So they all have the same function. Whether they are summer dormant or winter dormant, they are all a coping mechanism for getting that plant through the time, either of hot and dry or cold weather, and then allowing it to pop up at the right season of

the year. So you know, it's a storage unit when it boils down to it and what was inside it, you know, is less relevant to us than it is to the plant.

an unfair question. So you're working on the bulb book, give me two bulbs that are absolute favorites of yours that you must have in your garden, regardless of what happens. I have to have these two. Share those with our viewers and listeners.

And I have set about whether it has one green dot, two green dots, you know, you know, whether it's a double, whether it's a single, loose sort of things, and that keeps me going through the winter. And then the daffodils are a real favorite because no deer eat them, you know,

no rabbits eat them. And you know, I have a lot of wildlife in my garden because my garden for wildlife and they come in such a great diversity that there's something for every garden, and there's some that you know, like cold weather better and some that do well in

warm weather, like the tazettas. So I can obsess about daffodils because I get my first daffodil out usually January or February, and then the last one in May, so that gives me a good few months for that, and so that would get through that bit of the year, and then I have to say my dahlias or dahlias however you want to announce them that are in full bloom right now, because they're in bloom now and you always want, well, you know, to obsess about what you're

looking at this minute. And that really sends me right through until we get a very hard frost. So they come out starting in usually August, I get my first one, and then really through September is the peak, and then into October if I'm lucky. So that gives me a good eight weeks probably of bloom, if not more of you know, we don't get the frost. And again there's one for cutting. There's low growing ones that people are

growing more as an edging in a display garden. So you know, I love the cutting ones because I've got You won't believe how tall they are this year. I don't know why because we had no rain, but they are. I would say I've got eight foot nine foot talls Daly. And you know how many blooms were on. I really should put some up on Instagram, but it's you know, there's so many things in bloom. We had garden tours

this weekend. We had one hundred and thirty five people through on a tour on Sunday, group yesterday, another group last week. And I really enjoy this time of year because there's just so many flowers out. All the ass were everything is out, yes, just for a rain. So that's my three. Sorry about that.

adapted to your conditions, it will be generations. I have daffodils in my garden that were in my husband's great grandmother's garden that we've that and so, you know, a candy bar here and there, as much as I love my candy bars, but you know something else, if you find the ones that really suit your growing conditions, you can dig and divide them after a few years and make you know, three clumps instead of one, and give

one to a friend. And that's the other thing. They're so rewarding, because even the things like the dahlias, if they do well for you and you can figure out how to overwinter in which I've put all of us in the book, all the tips and tricks that I've

learned over the years. Or if you decide not to owe with them, that's fine because of treatment as an annual, but if you do dig them up and divide them you know, usually from one plump, you get two or three plumps and then you can share with a friend, and the sharing with a friend is always the fun.