When Are You Planting Bulbs This Year?

vs NOT getting it there before xmas when i haven't been home in over 2 1/2 years..?
pretty cheap in a way...

Patti, your Mom is lovely, and you look like her, so I would expect you will have the same wonderful long life to look forward to. Do you have the recipe for her very potent rum balls? You gotta love a woman in her 90s who makes potent rum balls.

Oh yes!
Please share the recipe, if you can.

Wow, I can't believe I've been ignoring this thread because i thought it was just about planting bulbs!!!! Patti, thank you for the lovely complement; I feel like the next Martha Stuart - NOT. Your dinner sounds beautiful, and using a Phillips head screwdriver is brilliant.

Our tree fell over too this year, but BEFORE we had hung anything on it. Somehow it's just not the same this year. My DD#1 was diagnosed with celiac disease in January, so no wheat flour, so very few cookies, and so far, no home made cookies. :>( I usually have made at least gingersnaps by now.

xxx, Carrie

we got 12 maureens and 5 QONs in the ground in the last hour of daylight today, and i got 10 (very small) QONs in a window box and my 4 wendy love's in a pot which now i think is too shallow. i have never done tulips in containers before - how much dirt goes under them? and do y'all just use regular potting mix? and then mulch over them? do you bury the whole thing in mulch, or just on top?

Woo Hoo! Good for you Amy! I'm guessing that you wouldn't need more than 1 or 2 inches of soil under the bulbs. Potting mix should work fine. I don't think you need to bury the whole thing in mulch, just the top should do... HOWEVER, I've never done that with tulips either. I think pirl has.

I've done it with lilies but not tulips.

If there is not a lot of soil beneath them, the roots will just grow sideways. Tulips will need to be transplanted after bloom anyway if you want them to return.

Even then with tulips it's so iffy.

You mean about them returning, I assume? Yes, I have lousy success with them for returning. That, plus the deer, are why I've stopped planting them. However, I did get a few from that B & B sale this year. I'll treat them as annuals.

When Are You Planting Bulbs This Year?

Next Tuesday I hope to have had them all planted last year, which is this year. But maybe I won't get to it and I'll plant them next year, which will be this year when I plant them nextTuesday.

If we have a freeze, all bets are off.

Highs in the low 40s thru Tuesday, so it does appear I'll have time this year.

But maybe not. Got 90% of them in though!

Good luck David!!

David - either way you're a winner.

Victor - yes, I did mean tulips are ideal to look at as a nice annual, provided the deer leave them alone.

Try Darwins. Much more reliable though not as exciting.

Even they're not as reliable as the least reliable daff or crocus.

I agree. Pink Impression has come back, reliably, for 12 years now. I did add more to the same field a few years ago and now there are about 50 in the plot. To indicate where you want to add more just use golf tees. You'll be able to spot them come planting time.

I'll take 12 years!
I have more daffs than anything, but I like having tulips too. Especially at this house where I get to see them bloom.

The daffodils are just the opposite as they expand more and more until you're left with a big clump to divide. Last year I divided one clump (in place for 12 - 14 years) that weighed 52 pounds - yes, I brought out a scale and yes, I took photos of it. THAT was a major job. I got many plots of 36 bulbs out of the clump.

I think I remember seeing a picture of that? Amazing!

I remember that photo too. I have not had to divide any daffs yet. I did not have that kind of success with Darwins. Does that make me a Creationist??

Pirl, I bought the 2 fritillaria crown imperial on the way up to pick up my mother on Friday. I planted them on Xmas morning after I finished getting the last of the 6999 others planted, so now all 7002 are in the ground and I am truly done for 2007. Where can I buy golf tee's by the thousand? I think that is a brilliant idea. Happy new year all. Patti

Maybe a defunct golf club?

Good work, Patti! We're all anxious to see the display in the spring as you must be.

Victor - plant them deeper and you'll have more success. I think that was a Ralph tip.

Pirl, I think I will just try really, really hard to not neeeeed so many spring bulbs next year, so maybe I can hold off on trying to find a defunct golf course. But I think I will use your idea excellent idea of golf tees for marking good placement for new Lily bulbs jn the fall. This year I just left in the stalks of the old ones much longer than I would have liked so I knew where they all were and would not stab them with the auger when planting new ones. That worked well but was ugly. Marking where I want new ones would be far better than where not to plant. Thanks, Patti

I used them in front of each newly planted lily so I wouldn't make the mistake of digging where I shouldn't. The tip came from someone but I don't call who it was or where it was. I only can claim credit for remembering it and sharing.

How many thousands of lilies are you going to plant, Patti?

I think Patti is waiting for the final lily count from the nurseries so she can order all of them - ha!

What a showing 7002 lilies would be! Get ordering, Patti.

And reinforce that deer fence!!

Patti did you get bit by the lily co-op the same as me?? Where am I going to put all these? I an in 2 co-ops..both lilies. DD has a new house and land, guess Mom's going to 'dress' it up a bit!

I got bit by the lily bug, but I am being sort of reasonable. Honest. I have submitted orders to all three lily coops running. I have a rough total of about 250 bulbs ordered. That should be more than enough to add some zing to the summer beds. And some scent.

Victor, I am redoing part of the deer fence in the early spring this year. We are adding some heftier posts to part of it. Santa brought me a couple of bags of plastic wire ties to add more rabbit barriers to the bottom and to shore up the holes they constantly eat in the deer fence. I am ready to do battle. I will get the rest of the deer and rabbit arsenal ready to spray as soon as anything starts emerging. I was late with the first spraying last spring and we got hit pretty hard in one bed. I may put up a short rabbit barrier around it for extra protection until early June. But I hate the way that looks. Any ideas? Patti

What is the deer fence? The plastic stuff I assume. Rabbits are tough. I leave clover in my lawn to appease them.

Victor, I have a huge amount of clover on the other side of the 7' high black plastic deer fence just for them and you, if you want to come to Nantucket and graze in what is sort of a lawn. We call it the 'yard' as it is rather weedy and not irrigated. I am more than happy to share that part with the deer, rabbits and romping dogs, kids and anyone wanting to play a rousing game of badminton. But the rabbits want tulips, lilies, hosta and my DL's on the other side of the deer fence. I win mostly, but not always. I would think they would get tired of chewing on the plastic every night. Patti

Do your deer sprays work against the rabbits? I find Liquid Fence to work pretty well, as long as you keep up with it.

Yes, but DH uses a bunch of different ones just to keep them confused. We think they may acquirer a taste for one if we don't mix them up. Probably doesn't matter. All that stuff is pricey. Patti

Oh yes - you do have to rotate it. They get used to anything. It is pricey - I buy the larger sizes of the concentrate.

Victor, He buys most of it online at the best price he can find including the shipping or at Agway in NH if we have the truck off island. But we would not have any garden if he didn't spray and we had no DF.

We have a min of 35- 50 deer in the square mile around our house according to the deer census on Nantucket. I have given some of them names as I can recognize some of them. They don't even move if I pound on the window when they are in the front yard a 100 feet away. They only run if I physically go out and chase them. Not a pretty sight. An old, slightly over weight, gimpy, crazed women running amok in her yard. Patti

I know the feeling. I have sprinted at them and they only move when I'm about ten yards away. I swear they laugh at me. One morning, a few years back, I came downstairs and glanced out the back LR window. Four or five were actually LAYING down! I almost felt compelled to bring them a drink. Of course it would have been laced with arsenic.

Wish I could join in the deer conversation (and conservation), but the only problems I seem to have are moles, voles, and black bear.

So,,,, now that it's ABOVE freezing, can we finish planting bulbs? With gloves/ mittens / snowsuits on, of course! xx, Carrie