Planting & Caring for Flower Bulbs

There is nothing quite as welcome as beautiful display of spring flowers that seems to emerge from nowhere to welcome the arrival of spring. Most of the early spring flowers we all love are the result of bulbs planted earlier in the fall. Bulb-type flowers are unique plants because they spend most of their days resting quietly beneath the surface of the soil. Then right on schedule, up they come, full of bloom and vigor, and then almost as fast as they came, they go—except for the green leafy part of the plant that tends to linger longer than we would often like them to.

Despite their short bloom time and unattractive foliage after the blooms are gone, they are still a wonderful addition to any landscape. But how should you care for them? Flowers of all kinds often create the best displays when planted in groupings. Plant them in mixed large groupings for a breathing-taking display. Plant a variety of bulbs with staggered bloom times to ensure a continual display through the spring and summer season.

Prepare the bed for planting flower bulbs

Depending on the appropriate planting time for your bulbs, you should start thinking about where you would like to create a bed for flower bulbs early. Prepare the bed by raising it with good rich topsoil, and if possible add some well composted cow manure. Do this in the spring while you are in the gardening mood, you may not be in the fall. Over the summer fill the bed with annual flowers to keep the weeds down, and to pretty up your yard for the summer. Come fall all you have to do is pull out the annuals and plant your bulbs to the depth recommended on the package.

Protect your flower bulbs

If you think you could have a problem with squirrels digging up the bulbs and eating them, you can also wrap the bulbs in steel wool leaving just the tip of the bulb exposed so it can grow out of the little wire cage you’ve created. Or you can just plant the flower bulbs and then cover the bed with chicken wire or plastic fencing until the bulbs start to grow in the spring.

When the bulbs come up in the spring and start blooming, clip off the blooms as they start to wither. This keeps the bulb from producing seeds, which requires a lot of energy, and you want the bulb to use all of its available energy to store food in preparation of the flower bulb’s resting period. Once the bulbs are completely done blooming you don’t want to cut off the tops until they are withered and die back.