Bulbs coming up through turf

I'm currently in need of some expert advice--oddly enough I can't seem to find an answer for this particular question. Over the past two days I put in four hundred tulip bulbs in various spaces in my lawn and did not replace the sod because I was worried that the tulips wouldn't be able to work their way through the sod next spring. Is this something I need to worry about? I have four hundred daffodils that I need to put in and I'd like to put them in in a more "naturalized" way, that is having clumps here and there. I'd rather just be able to put the sod back if I can. Is this something I can do? I'm really new at all this and obviously have no clue what I'm doing. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks! :D

I wouldn't think that tulips could push through a root mass of turf planted directly over it. I would not do it myself. It would have to fight its way through or around the masss and that might spoil its beauty and hinder its performance.

I would just let the grass around it cover the open soil as much as it can and not cover with any rooted plants.

Our lawn is 'Bermuda Grass' which spreads by rhizomes and would cover over the open soil and root in as it did. I have some small bulbs that can deal with that, Muscari for instance. Tulips might do OK in it since all it takes is a small growing point getting by the rhizomes. Don't know how solid the mass is on your turf, but under a cluming grass like fescue, tulips would be hard-pressed to get through.

Just my 2-cents. I'm not an expert, either.

Robert.

What happens when you have to mow the grass?

Ditto on the grass cutting. I wouldn't plant in grass because I would want my tulips and Narcissus to have all the time they need to mature, cause next year's flowers depend on the bulbs being fully nourished this year.

Who prefers to have an overgrown lawn for all those weeks? Not me.

Robert.

Narcissus like to be overplanted and ours have always had grass (mix of bermuda and fescue) planted over them. You have to let the foliage die of its own accord if you want them to bloom well the following year. It doesn't look good to have the grass growing up so high for so long but I've found if it is on the edge of the yard it doesn't look quite so bad or if you have a type of grass that doesn't get so high. Something like creeping red fescue would still look good but the bermuda grass is pretty unattractive for a while.

I don't know about the tulips, I've never had good luck with them, little too far south.

I have a lot of older relatives that plant their short-season bulbs in the lawn. I originally got all my oxblood lillies twenty years ago from an elderly lady who grew them just that way. I think it is a practice that used to have more popularity. I see folks all over Houston that have their Zephyranthes citrina's growing this way. Of course, they are such an easy bulb to grow and reproduce that they probably do a lot of the action for their owners--lol. I have a fairly slow commute to work and intentionally go thru some of the older, well-established neighborhoods just to see whats going on; rather than taking the more normal, uninteresting commute. Both take the same amount of time.

I was talking with someone at work who naturalizes crocuses on his lawn. He just throws the bulbs up in the air and wherever they land he digs a hole for them. He says that they don't have any problems growing through the turf, and by the time the grass gets high enough to have to mow, crocus season is over.

That's crocus, though. Don't know about tulips and daffs.

Thanks everyone--as I mentioned before I planted the tulips in the lawn, but kept the turf off of them. They are in beds within the lawn, fairly close to the road. The daffodils I have started to plant in the lawn individually, and I have put the sod back over them. They are set back a little from the tulip beds, so I'm hoping that when the daffodils start to peter out the tulips will hide them from the road. When the tulips are done I hope to then plant some annuals in those beds to again hide most if not all of the daffodil remnants. Our front yard is fairly large so even if we don't mow where the daffodils are the rest of the yard will be mowed and will be fine. A few weeks of tall grass in one area of our yard won't really bother me--I think it will be a small price to pay for one of my favorite harbingers of spring. :)

I have planted tulips in my grass - they grew through the grass/turf w/o any trouble.
But the critters found them the second year so I didn't get to enjoy them very long.
But you can definitely put the grass back.

Tam

I just threw my crocus up and my son planted them where they fell. They will be gone before the grass is too tall. I think if you want to plant your flowers in the grass you should. It is up to each one of us as to what we like and thinks looks fine in are yard. I have always wanted a yard of wild flowers and tall grasses but rent so it isn't practicle to do so but some day maybe.

From experience I can say that as long as your lawn is healthy and not clogged with thatch, bulbs will be able to penetrate the sod.

I remember seeing a picture of tulip time in Highgrove, with Prince Charles gazing out over an amazing tulip meadow. the purple and red tulips were floating over the tips of the green spring grass- there were lots and lots of them, planted individually, not clumped, in a sea of green. I think the tulips are replanted every year, but what a beautiful sight!