How to enjoy spring flowering bulbs – although it is possible to have bulbous plants flowering in your garden nearly all year, most of us treat spring as the most important season for a flowering bulb display. The thing is, that whilst they flower in the spring, these bulbs need to be planted in the autumn as they time and cool weather to grow and bloom. Which means that now is the time to be planning and purchasing your spring flowering bulbs.
At Plews we don’t generally plant too many bulbs at one go. Planting hundreds in one day is a chore we leave to those who have park displays to organise. However, we do offer bulb planning and planting as part of our overall garden design and planting design services.
Designing and planting displays whether for seasonal variation or for a special occasion is always a pleasant task and one that many gardeners enjoy doing. But some, perhaps especially new gardeners, are unsure as to what they should be doing and when and how. My aim here is to help those gardeners who need some information and inspire all of you with ideas for a colourful spring garden.
How to Enjoy Spring Flowering Bulbs – a Bit of Botany
Flowering bulbs are perennials, and the bulb originally grew from a seed over a few years until it reached flowering maturity. Just to confuse the issue, some bulbs also propagate by developing bulbils or ‘babies’ against the parent bulb.
Despite their being perennials, it is of course fine to treat them as annuals if you want to change your display year on year. If the bulbs are not diseased, they can be added to your compost bin after flowering.
Strictly speaking, some of the flowering plants are corms or rhizomes rather than bulbs, but ‘spring flowering bulbs’ is the overarching term used for them. See the blog link below for more about these perennials.
Why do we plant bulbs in the autumn prior to the spring when we want our gardens filled with colour? Let’s take two of the most popular spring bulbs, daffodils and tulips, as an example. To get the best floral display, these need to be planted in a warm autumn soil and then experience cool winter weather. This enables them to break dormancy and send out first green shoots in late winter or early spring and then their flowering stems.
If the bulbs are left in situ after flowering, you may see leaves emerging during the autumn. This is fine, it won’t affect the number of flowers produced. The foliage may get frosted off, or it may not; this is still normal and, apart from removing any dead leaves, let the plant sort itself out.
How to Enjoy Spring Flowering Bulbs – Planning your Spring Bulb Garden
Rather than dashing into spring bulb buying and then regretting the result next year, make take the time to plan before you buy.
Some of us are organised enough to start planning a year ahead, when we can see what has looked good in our own gardens, friends’ gardens and on garden visits. We might make lists of flowering bulbs and styles of container to show them off to best advantage.
Then there are those of us who look forward to early August and bulb catalogues. We bookmark website pages and circle particular varieties with different coloured pens.
And then there is the garden centre trip in September, when, like children in a sweet shop, we want nearly all the treats we can see in front of us.
Whichever is your method for choosing spring bulbs, we’re all guilty of buying more than we meant to!
But ignore the bulbs themselves for a moment and ask yourself:
Will you planting in borders, containers, or naturalising in grass?
How to Enjoy Spring Flowering Bulbs in Your Borders
Be realistic as to how many bulbs you have the time and energy to plant. And do you have a garden kneeler? It can be hard on the knees otherwise!
Is there currently room in the border where you’d like to plant bulbs, or do you still have late flowering Rudbeckia, Helenium and Dahlias in full bloom? If your borders are still looking lovely, congratulate yourself on a having a fine late display of colour. And then to get around this issue, try one of these options –
- You could buy only later flowering bulbs such as Tulips and Fritillaries for May. These could be planted when your autumn display has gone over and still flower when they should next year.
- Buy the early flowering varieties you covet but plant them in plastic or bamboo pots. When your late flowering herbaceous have died back, cut the stems to make room so you can sink the pots into the ground where you want the bulbs to flower next year.
Where you do have room in your border, think about what plants will be visible when the bulbs are flowering. Planting them around the edges of herbaceous perennials often means that these are putting out new growth when the bulb foliage is dying back: a neat way to cover up! See other planting ideas below.
Spring flowering bulbs in containers
How many containers do you have or plan to buy and how big are they? Bear in mind both the size of the bulbs and the height of the flowers when choosing pots and troughs. If not planted deep enough, many of the larger bulbs will only produce a few flowers, or possibly none at all.
One of the advantages of growing spring bulbs in containers is that you can easily move them to a less visible part of the garden once the blooms have faded. As the foliage needs to die back naturally before it should be cut, it can look messy and if you have the space to tuck pots out of the way, it’s useful to do so. The foliage is left on to “build up” the bulb, which is a storage organ, so that it’s able to produce plenty of flowers in the following year.
Naturalising spring bulbs
Daffodils are the obvious choice and can look delightful planted in groups at one edge of a lawn. (It also makes mowing easier if they’re not spread all over the grass). However, tulips, those flowers we think of as being ‘formal’ and for cutting gardens, also make a wonderful display.
Meanwhile, shadier spots under deciduous trees and shrubs are ideal for a scented swathe of our native Bluebells. And the scent of them en masse is wonderful. If you mingle yellow winter aconite and Snowdrops there too, you’ll have a floral carpet for weeks from late January. See Woodland Edge blog link below for more on this topic.
Tips for Planting Spring Flowering Bulbs
How to enjoy spring flowering bulbs starts with getting the planting as well as the planning right.
The rule of thumb is to plant bulbs about three times as deep as the diameter of the bulb. This could be time consuming if you’re going to measure each one! The rough guide we use at Plews is that for larger bulbs, for example, Tulip, Daffodil and Hyacinth, we make a hole about 6-8” or 15-20cm deep. For smaller bulbs, for example, Crocus, Muscari, Bluebell, we make the hole about 4-5” or 10-12cm deep.
For most bulbs, there is one end which is slightly more pointed or elongated. That’s where the shoots will grow from and should face upwards.
Gardening Teacher Tips
If you’re planting a group of bulbs, one technique is to dig a trench, (long, round or square) of the right depth for the size of bulbs. Scatter the bulbs in the trench, stand them the right way up and then cover with soil.
Remember to protect your bulbs once planted, so the squirrels don’t dig them up. I’ve found that adding shallow rooted winter bedding over the top of the spring bulbs generally works and looks more decorative than wire or sticks.
How to Enjoy Spring Flowering Bulbs – the Display
Why not consider planting some of these to take you through from late winter and early spring past Easter and into late May? Approximate flowering times are given as it depends on your garden’s location and the variety grown.
| Latin name | Common name | Flowering time |
| Chionodoxa | Mar – May | |
| Convallaria majus | Lily of the Valley | Apr – May |
| Crocus | Feb – Apr | |
| Eranthis hymalis | Winter aconite | Jan – Mar |
| Fritillaria imperalis | Crown Imperial Fritillary | Apr – May |
| Fritillaria meleagris | Snakes head Fritillary | Apr – May |
| Galanthus | Snowdrops | Dec – Mar |
| Hyacinthoides non-scripta | Bluebells | Apr – May |
| Hyacinths | Apr – May | |
| Iris reticulata | Feb – Apr | |
| Muscari | Grape hyacinth | Apr – May |
| Narcissus | Daffodils | Feb – Apr |
| Scilla siberica | Siberian squill | Mar – Apr |
| Tulips | Mar – May |
Will you choose bright colours, clashing shades or soft pastels?
It might help if you consider where in your garden the bulbs will flower, and whether you want them to be the star of the show or part of the chorus line. For example, will they be in front of an old brick wall, a dark evergreen hedge or spring flowering shrubs such as yellow flowered Forsythia?
A group of lilac-blue flowered Iris or crocus for early display followed by rich orange Tulips would look good in front of all of these. Or try large pots filled pale Narcissus and deep purple tulips.
Other planting ideas for you to copy and personalise –
A tub of Snakes head fritillary next to a blue front door.
If the leaves will be visible both before and after the blooms, you could have Tulip ‘Red Riding Hood’ with variegated foliage to add extra interest.
For scent and soft colours, look for multi headed Narcissus such as ‘Bridal Crown’ and Hyacinth ‘Delft blue’.
And finally
If you would like help with how to enjoy spring flowering bulbs and learning more about your garden and gardening whilst you do so, why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden. We can help you learn gardening basics, carry out worm and other experiments and also show you how to plan an ornamental border or kitchen garden.
And for further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog
Bulbs, Corms, Tubers, Rhizomes – What is the Difference?
Forcing Bulbs for Christmas flowers
Particular Spring Flowering Bulbs
Daffodil Fact and Fiction plus Planting Ideas
Tulips, Tulip-o-mania and Tulip Virus
Inspiration
Snowdrop Days – Garden Visits – Chelsea Physic Garden
How to Create a Woodland Edge Habitat in Your Garden
Creating Small Wildlife Habitats in Your Garden
