Bulb season's almost here. What are you planting?

Geez, I feel like a tight-wad. I got 50 pink Daffs at Wally world for $10 today.
I hope they are better than the junk I got at Home Despot a couple of years ago.
Andy P

Andy, For future referrence, try Van Engelen from Bantam CT. Their prices are great for good bulbs. Not always the nicest customer service but worth it.

Hey, thanks for your welcomes!

Emily, this year I used bone meal. I wanted to avoid it this year, because last time the bone meal attracted racoons that dug the bulbs up and then left them! Grrrr. However, It's all I had in my garage at planting time and I'm trying to stick to a budget. I think I'll lay chicken wire over the freshly planted bulbs.

Not that it's anything interesting, but here's where I put my daffodil patch. I would've made it deeper except the tree roots were EVERYWHERE! I had to pile on a few extra inches of soil just to be sure the bulbs were deep enough.

thank you for the welcome. i've stopped by here a few times and have been enjoying the company and threads.

trisodium phosphate is my fertilizer of choice. it doesn't burn the roots and stimulates those roots. perfect for me. i put down a regular n.p.k. in spring.

as for tree roots, i CAN relate. i got myself one of those little rototillers because of them. now at least i can go along the garden edge and kill the roots prior to them choking out the plants entirely. which they have done. i was wondering why that astilbe was dying. ahhhhhhh dahhhhh could it be all the tree roots sucking up the water. i pul a plant out of some of my garden beds and i have to remove all the tree roots, before i can see the root system.

i like your little bed and i would enjoy seeing pictures come springtime. :-)


i had a doggi dig up some plants i had used bone meal on. no more bone meal in my yard.

later alligators..................debi & franklin

Well, I wish I had waited until after I read your post debi, because last night my little (grrrrr) doggy dug up my bulbs. I was wondering why he was outside and quiet for so long. Today I have to fix it. I have some triple phosphate. I'll use that instead from now on.

I'd LOVE a rototiller, but it's just not in my budget right now.

This message was edited Oct 11, 2006 1:51 PM

Here's the little critter. He's been acting like a rebellious teenager these last few weeks. He's just too cute to stay mad at!

Cute dog!

I had a large terra cotta pot in my very root-filled shade garden. At the end of the year, I tried to move the pot to empty it. It wouldn't budge! Eventually, I found a tree root grew out of the ground into the hole in the pot and I had an 18"- 24" tree root in my pot in one season! Can't beat them roots (fortunately daffs have no problem growing between tree roots)

Dave

I have planted more bulbs in my newest beds in front of the house. My son made them especially deep and there's not a pebble in there larger than a green pea. It was wonderful to just kind of push the soil aside instead of having to chip and chunk it out. I like Holland Bulb Booster because of its all around formula. I have used it for years and I like the results. I am putting bulbs in some of my larger containers and will see what comes up next spring. I am using tete a tetes in these and crocus and muscari. I am also forcing a fair amount of bulbs this year as well.
Martha

Do any New Englanders have suggestions for growing anemones in our climate? I thought I'd prepared the soil appropriately for them, but only got foliage for 2 rhizomes and no flowers out of 24 planted. I originally thought the voles got to them, but when I was planting out some tulips today, came across the rhizomes intact and rooted. I'm not sure what happened.

I will be glad to hear any reponses to jjpm74's question about the suitability of planting anemone rhizomes in the NE, because I just planted 100 of them and I'm holding my breath (it'll be a looong time till they come up.) Maybe there's something I can do now to help. . .

Sofronisba, is that a Portuguese Water Dog? Or a Standard Poodle (my all-time favorite breed, except the PWDs are pretty neat, too.)

--Emily

John,
No tips for you.. I tried growing them 3 years in a row. I only got 2 flowers to bloom...ever! I gave up trying to grow anemones, it was to disappointing.

Yikes! I guess anemones just don't do well in our climate.

Thanks Dave. I love my dog. Yep Emily, he's a mini poodle, about 13 lbs. Aside from the fru-fru stereotypes, they're very intelligent and they don't shed! Not one hair!

That's incredible about the tree root! I believe it!

Martha, I think I'm gonna get the Holland Bulb Booster. I've heard good things about it. How nice of your son to till that bed for you.

I grew anemones. Every one did not grow but I had a good 50%. Maybe Pixie had a harder time due to her zone. Don't give up hope Cape Cod. jjpm there may have been some delayed success (I don't remember specifics, I planted mine 8-10 years ago in a previous home) so I would leave them & see if you have more next year. They are very pretty.

Thank you, Dave47, for the encourging words about anenomes. I'm such a novice to this climate zone that I plant away, clueless. I'll try to be patient with my anemones if I don't see a lot of results next spring. Right now, I'm stressing about the frost-warnings on the weather stations--I haven't "blown out" my sprinkler system yet, and I don't know whether a frost is enough to freeze the pipes, or if it takes more. . .of whatever!
Sofonisba, I presently have three little yappy dogs (a chihuahua and two terrier-mixes, all rescues from the animal shelter) but I have often considered purchasing a license plate that would say "My OTHER dog is a poodle." As far as I am concerned, having been the companion over the years of three minis and a standard--Poodles rock! But I notice that the Cape Cod folks seem to lean towards Labs and Goldens, or at LEAST Border Colllies or GSDs. Maybe I will be the block buster with a wonderful poodle. . .do you ever think that it is too bad that the breed can't lose the name for something less. . .frou-frou? How about "Wooly Warrior Dog"?

It takes several hard frosts and temperatures dipping well below freezing for your pipes to freeze. I still have my garden hose hooked up and just threw some burlap over the tender annuals. Something like this isn't usually enough to end the growing season. The lack of daylight as this month goes on is a bigger problem for growing than the frosts.

I hope we do get a frost. I want to plant out the rest of my bulbs this Sunday.

"Wooly Warrior Dog", that's cute! I say: go ahead! Break the Cape Cod mainstream! Poodles are great! LOL

I'm the mother of Noodles the mini "Devil Dog" dashhound who is right now yipping in her pen and won't settle down. It's worse than having new babies. Noods is 2 1/2 and 9 pounds of spunk. But I love her anyhow. Here she is in her finest bling!
Martha

jjpm, You always wait for a frost before planting bulbs?

I have had frost almost every morning now, and have been planting bulbs like crazy. I only have 17 more bulbs to plant...but they haven't been delivered yet. So I am waiting for them to get here hoping we don't have a freak snow storm like Western New York did!
Dave...you taken to writing at 3am now? Hard to get answer at that time isn't it?

Here is my Schnapsie - she was our dog when I lived at home as a young girl.

pixie62560, you can always dig the holes now, put the dirt in the garage and plant them when they come in. i've heard this works well, expecially when you order things like oriental lilies and they don't mature until the fall.

the leaves are falling like crazy here. i have woods in the back of my house, and every day i can see through the trees to more and more blue skies and brown tree limbs. the past couple of days there has been a big change.

your doggies are adorable. my folks used to live at the cape, and had 2 mini poodles. i'll tell you that boy marty was alpha. i was working on a table in the garage, and he walked back and forth across the entrance, making sure i was protected from all the big bad neighbors. LOL he was definitely feisty and so was his sister velvet. i thought they barked a lot though, far more than my pekingese does. he only barks, if the noise is close to the house, he sees someone close to the house, or a strange noise. he is a great watch dog in that respect.
forget those big doggies and stick with the little ones. :-)
we have lots of golden retrievers around here. they are considered a great family dog. bailey lives across the street and she is a sweetie. she loves to do a "houdini" impression. then her mom and brother are out looking for her. :-) that girl can escape from anywhere. :-) she is just a big happy gulumph.
:-)
debi & franklin

Dave,

Not always. It depends on what I am planting. My crocuses and fritillaria are already in. My bigger bulbs like tulips and daffs I usually wait to plant until the first full moon after a hard frost or plant during Indian Summer; whichever comes first. This is what I learned from my Grandfather decades ago. It seemed to work really well for him and so far has for me. I want to give the bulbs time to spread their feet and have a nice long winter slumber without worrying about them waking up too early.

Cheers,

John

This message was edited Oct 14, 2006 10:57 AM

Deb ~ Thanks for the tip...I may have try it! I see in your wanted list you like viola's. Do you still want them? I have a dark one that came back from last year, and a few other plain ones that I have had for years. D-Mail me if your interested, can send a pic if you would like.

John, You can't beat advice that's stood up that long!

I guess so, even as unscientific as it may be. ;-)

I have a problem with daffs that keep sprouting again in fall and then never bloom. The foliage never seems to die back either (probably because they dont' bloom). I think these were Golden Rain. the foliage finally died a few weeks ago. today i see fresh new sprouts. anything I can do, or should I just give up on them. I think I've had them 3 or 4 years and they only bloomed the 1st year.

gram

This is new to me. Weird!

Were those bulbs ever forced? The only time I've ever had narcissus bulbs try to sprout in the fall was when I planted some I had forced out when they were done blooming. If they're hybrids it's possible they were bred for a one time bloom.

This message was edited Oct 15, 2006 9:13 PM

Gram ~ This might help....

Bulbs Do Not Flower Because Of Shallow Planting
If daffodil bulbs are not planted deeply enough, they produce short, unattractive leaves and stems. Underground they split up prematurely and produce small, non-flowering bulbs. Plant bulbs 6 to 9 inches deep. Mulch their beds over the winter with 1 to 2 inches of organic material to protect bulbs from heaving to the surface when the soil is disturbed by temperature fluctuations over the winter
OR
Daffodils have healthy leaves but no blooms
My daffodils are up, tall and green and healthy-looking, but they have no buds or blooms. What is wrong?

Nonblooming might be the result of cutting the foliage too soon last year. The leaves help the bulb manufacture energy for producing a bloom. Always allow the foliage of daffodils and other bulbs to die back naturally. Other possibilities are that the bulbs need dividing, are in too much shade (they should have at least 6 hours of sun per day) or are in a spot that is too damp.

nope, never forced,jj.

they were regular garden daffodils, planted in the fall like always. they have tall, healthy leaves, Pixie, so I guess it's not shallow planting. they are always mulched. I never cut the foliage back at all until it dies back on it's own (no matter how ugly it looks). could be that they don't get enough sun.

my grape hyacinth sprout new leaves in the fall, too, but they bloom in the spring, so I don't worry about it.

maybe I should just dig 'em up and replant elsewhere. nothin' to lose.

Gram, I think not enough sun could result in no flowers. But that still doesn't explain sprouting in fall.

This message was edited Oct 16, 2006 7:34 AM

This is my first year planting bulbs in fall. I think I got a little over-excited. I got most of them from Home Depot, 80 King Alfred Dafs, 80 Ouelles Tulips, 40 mixed hyacinth, 120 crocus purple mix, 70 iris reticulata, 30 pack of lily tulips elegant lady and burgundy and 70 dutch iris sapphire beauty, hopefully they will come up. I got 50 pink daf blend at walmart and a 60 dutch iris mix. I placed an order with brent and brecky's because of their good rating and because of their great prices, I got 50 gladiolus byzantinus, 20 elegant lady & tulip linifolia. I also ordered lilies from Buggy Crazy, it was a pack of 10 rubrum, I got more like 14, the extras were small but I got 10 large ones like the pictures above. I also have an order from burgess, which from their rep. we'll see what happens with that. I placed the order the same time as the other two and I haven't even gotten a delivery estimate e-mail yet, while I already received and planted my other orders. I couldn't resist their prices on hardy gladiolus mix bulbs, and I wanted to try their tulip called blue lagoon, although it will probably be purple anyway.

I thought I was done with my planting - I forgot about the 300 bulbs I ordered from http://www.colorblends.com/ !!! Yikes!! I'm sure they will be coming soon.

Meredith, you're going to be a busy girl!

Anita, I've never ordered from colorblends, but I love their catalog. what'd ya get? tell! tell!

edit to add: my order from John Scheeper's has shipped. hope it gets here by the weekend in case we have a nice day or 2. but if they don't show up, I have my free daffs to plant. and I like that suggestion about digging the holes ahead of time.

gram

This message was edited Oct 17, 2006 2:16 PM

I ordered Calico/Celebration and Morning Glow.

this is probably a good question for everybody here. how many seasons do you expect to get out of your Darwins? what about species tulips?

I'm not sure - I never fertilized my bulbs, but I am starting to this year. I haven't had a great return in the past. I do have a few spring/short tulips that come back every year [Tulipa kaufmanniana] and they seem to do real well.

me, too. bad about fertilizing. but I've ordered bulb food from Scheeper's with my bulbs.