Planting Tulip Bulbs for Spring

Nothing could be easier to do than planting tulip bulbs during the fall. A few hours spent in the yard on a crisp fall day will be rewarded in the spring with waves of gorgeous colors and spectacular views as your landscape awakens from it’s long winter nap. I know that most of you have planted spring flowering bulbs at some point in your life, dig a hole plop in the bulb and cover it up. Simple right. But to take it to the next level and get the biggest show from your flowers there are other ways to plant that will greatly increase the display of your tulips and other bulbs like muscari and daffodils.

Click here for your FREE garden and landscape journal- the first step to gardening success!

Here’s a couple of suggestions that Longfield Gardens have to help the property owner get the most out of their plantings…

• Use shrubs like evergreens as a background to bulbs like muscari, the greenery of the shrubs frames the flower head and really makes for a nice display.
• Plant tulips of different flowering times together to extend your display through the entire spring. A combination of early, mid and late spring flowering tulips will last for a month or more.

One technique that I’ve used for many years which is gaining popularity is to stack your flower bulbs. Doing this gives you several advantages. The first and best is an amazing show when they bloom, and it also enables you to squeeze more color into smaller places for a dramatic look. You can do this with many different types of bulbs, using tulips, daffodils and muscari are the most commonly used. Let me show you how it’s done.

Stacking Flower Bulbs

First, do a little planning before you order your bulbs. Check out what might be on sale, you’ll want to do a little looking around and match the maturity of the different bulbs you’re going to plant. Longfield Gardens has a great selection and it’s easy to navigate around their site and order just what you want. A good rule of thumb is to determine the quantity of bulbs you think you will need and then increase that amount by 50 percent. Trust me you’ll plant all of them and wished you had ordered more.

Once you have received your bulbs is always a good idea to get them in the ground as soon as you can. Most people prefer to have their bulbs planted no later than the middle of November in our area but I’ve planted as late as the 1st of December with snow on the ground. Just be sure to get them in before the ground freezes.

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty. Every package comes with a label with all the information you need to know about that particular bulb. Look for the planting depth and and start digging. Most tulips need to be planted between 5-6 inches deep so dig an area large enough for at least a dozen bulbs.

Set the tulip bulbs in the bottom of the hole with the pointy tip up and fill with just enough soil to cover the tips of the bulbs.

Then place the muscari on top at the recommended spacing and fill in with any remaining soil.

There is one thing over the years that I have learned. The more flowers you plant in your landscape the easier it is to forget where and what you planted so I always keep a rough sketch of the landscape beds showing what and where I’ve planted my bulbs. It comes in handy more times than you think, like next fall when you’re trying to remember the name of that gorgeous tulip in the spring.

Tamp the soil firmly and give it a good soaking and your done. You can leave it alone or cover with mulch, either way is fine. Now all that is left to do is enjoy the beautiful blooms come springtime.

This post is Rocky approved. Until next time….. Happy Planting!

You can find Longfield Gardens on…

• Twitter: @LFGardens
• Facebook: Longfield Gardens LLC
• Pinterest: Longfield Gardens