Gardening Magazine

Bulb Planting Time

By John Markowski @jmarkowski0

I am going to take you through my recent bulb planting in rapid fire fashion because, well, that is also how I put my plan together before I started.
Here we go:
1)Narcissus 'Jack Snipe':  
Bulb planting time
Quick logic behind location (see photo below):
  • These are early spring bloomers so my daughter will have something nice to look at out of her playroom window.
  • That is actually all I got.
Negatives after evaluating my location decision:
  • Once these stop blooming, the spent flowers/foliage will be front and center without any attempt at hiding it behind emerging perennials.
  • These are so small (10 inches) that they probably cannot be seen from within the house.
Bulb planting time
Bulb planting time
2)Narcissus 'Tahiti':
Bulb planting time
Quick logic behind location (see photo below):
  • I found an actual open space.
  • I may be able to have these blooming at the same time as the purple Campanula 'Joan Elliot' in front of them.
  • When spent, these Narcissus may be hidden relatively well
Negatives after evaluating my location decision:
  • I think the height of the blooming Narcissus and Campanula are exactly the same so one will actually hide the other.
  • Do I even like these Narcissus? Not really sure yet. 
Bulb planting time
3)Allium 'Grateful':
Bulb planting time
Quick logic behind location (see photo below):
  • I found an actual open space.
  • I found a space that was open.
Negatives after evaluating my location decision:
  • Unsure if the bloom color will work with the neighboring Lady's Mantle and peonies. 
  • The spent foliage will be in plain view.
A potential positive spin after even further review:
  • Spent Allium blooms are kind of cool and can lend a bit architecturally.
Bulb planting time
4)Allium 'Globemaster':
Bulb planting time
Bulb planting time
Quick logic behind location (see photo below, will be in the middle of the bed):
  • I planted only one bulb as a trial run so location wasn't a concern.
Negatives after evaluating my location decision:
  • None that I can think of yet. But give me time.
Bulb planting time
And then to top it all off, since I have failed numerous times in the past to successfully grow tulips in my wet soil, I figured why not give them a shot in containers. I will just store them in my garage over the winter. I've done it once before with moderate success so I am optimistic that I can pull it off again. And since I used bulbs from Martha Stewart, nothing can go wrong:
 
Bulb planting time
Bulb planting time
Bulb planting time
Bulb planting time
Wish me luck.
John

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