When Are You Planting Bulbs This Year?

Yes! and i did! (with the help of DH) everything is planted except 16 alliums, and a buncha anemones i don't even know if i'll bother with.

this afternoon we planted:
5 QON
17 maureens (9 in pots)
20 darwin mixed
12 atlantis
2 candy club

7 daffodil salome
8 ipheion rolf fielder
4 chianodoxa

i know it sounds like nothing next to 7000 bulbs, but hey, to me it is a LOT!

Good luck!

The allium do very well planted more closely than recommended so just digging up a tear drop swirl of soil (and planting them) would be a lovely May display.

amethystsm, yes, but I am a lay about and not in school taking exams like you. Well done and I am so glad you got your much wanted Maureen's planted. I bought some after you mentioned them and am looking forward to them as they sound so stunning. I planted them in a hosta bed as they have a great return rate. Fingers crossed. I would poke those anemones with a finger after soaking them over night on their side. I was amazed at how they popped up with my less than careful planting last year. I forgot to plant them and found them some time later, so that is what I did with some one on DG good advice. It worked. Patti

I have always longed for anemones, but they've never come up for me. But I've never soaked them. Good luck to all - I hope it's still above freezing by Wednesday, as that is the next day I will be able to do anything! (Still have crocuses outstanding,,, the crocus - lover in the family was NEVER around to help.) xxx, C

Thanks Patti - last year i planted a bunch of anemones, both blanda and de caens and got nary a one. these blandas were SO CHEAP though, i couldn't resist buying them - i think i got 45 for about $2. The maureens i got were ordered late from bulbs direct. They are rather small, and quite a few are sprouting, so i don't have incredibly high hopes. (Then again, they sent me more than i ordered, so maybe that's the reason.)
Thanks for the allium recommendation, pirl - the alliums i have aren't the giant ones - i just have 12 very small pink ones and 4 purple sensation. Do they smell like onions when they come up? i don't want to put smelly plants near my lavender, which would be anice place for the tall ones otherwise. i could have planted them today if i could figure out where to put them!
o, i have 4 pink oxalis "bulbs" too.
Thanks for the encouragement everybody!

No onion smells so don't worry.

Anemones never come up for me either.

my crown imperials stink like skunk.... but far enough away from the house

:)

I was told anemones should be treated like annuals here in Z6, and planted in the spring. Has anyone had any luck with them? Pamela Harper says anemone nemerosa is the one most likely to return.

In my previous house in Guilford, CT, they came up for me and returned. But each year was less of a return.

I know I said it before, but I didn't find a noticable difference between expensive deer repellant and stuff I made on my own.They all need to be reapplied just a little more often than I remember to do it. Although this house is a piece of cake compared to my old one.

Dave47, what your deer don't like cake? Mine will eat anything, we call them all Mike-y. Patti

Funny!

maybe i'll try to plant some anemones now, and some in the spring. i mean i have 45 of them. (realizing i am saying this to people with hundreds of one thing... never mind.)
i think cleomes smell awful, but i have a friend that was so surprised to hear that. She said she had never noticed any smell. So go figure!

No, I have found the expensive ones last longer, Dave. Homemade ones generally need to be reapplied every time it rains. Who has time for that? Also, you have to use a mix of things and rotate them. A family coyote is even better.

pollyk I tried to leave anemones in twice... didn't return.... not sure which ones I planted... it was a few years ago

I think maybe they just don't do well here. I'm glad, at least, I'm not the only one.

I get really irritated when I can't grow stuff other people nearby can. My daughter lives 8 miles away, and has 6 ft tall delphs that come back every year, and mine are deplorable.

Hi, thanks very much for all the answers to my question. You didn't scare me away I just haven't had time to answer, been working insane hours. Yesterday and today would have been perfect days to plant, I'm sure the ground has softened a bit but I couldn't get to it. After reading all the suggestions I figure I'll try a combination of all of them. I have window boxes on my balcony that aren't doing anything for the winter, pots all over my place and down at my mom's where the garden is (Middlefield), and plenty of unused space in the garden that's not prepared for planting but would be ok to put dirt over to plant them.

I have probably 200 grocery store bulbs that I planned on putting around the building I live in here in Hartford, but first I needed to move a large bed of Iris that have been in the same space since I moved in 6 years ago and probably many before that. They are packed in so tight that even the weeds can't get through. But that didn't happen and now I have all those bulbs sprouting. Sure makes me wonder why I commited to taking care of the landcaping here :). Then I have probably as many that I bought on-line, more "exotic" kinds which are for the garden in Middlefield. Well, I'll do my best to get them all in dirt somehowl. I think I'll also do some more digging to see if some of the latter can be stored until spring. Again thanks for all the suggestions. Oh, I also answer to Mike, so if there are too many Dave's I can switch.

Polly - I have had checkered success with delphs too.

Good luck Papabear!

Dave (47), do you live in Guilford, or in Guilford? xx, C

Both. My summer house and my winter house. (Am I missing something?)

You just said my old house, which was in Guilford, and I glanced at your name thingie, which says you live in Guilford, and i got mixed up. x, C

Oh! I lived in a house in Guilford and moved to another house in Guilford 6 years ago.

Aha! It's all crystal clear now. xx, Carrie

Victor, checkered success? I like that. I've had no success at all.

In fact I have so little success with things that are supposed to be so easy. Lupines. I just can't grow lupines. Everyone grows lupines. All down the road are lupines, lupines in gardens, lupines growing wild. And I love lupines. Salvia, no luck. I could understand if it was meconopsis (which I have successfully grown, by the way), but salvia and lupines?

That darn Pirl grows everything well, including delphs, and lupines. I am envious of her.

Funny! "That darn pirl" has had enormous success with the tempermental lupine, which can grow in the same spot for 10 years or grow, bloom beautifully for four years and then a huge field will just not return leaving me vast vacancies until we plant more and they develop into something worthwhile. As for the delphiniums - this spring we'll find out how well they liked this winter. One did die quickly but that was probably due to the location.

As long as I can grow Japanese irises and lilies (thanks in part to a wonderful friend), dahlias and daylilies I don't complain.

I'm so grateful to my DG friends for all the beautiful plants I've received through the years.

I think lupines are short lived anyway, so I consider 4 years very successfull.

And on your last paragraph, me too.

Lupines are temperamental. If they dare get too damp for any length of time they resent it and die a pitiful death. They like similar conditions to irises...if you have any, Polly!!!!!

I've tried everything, Pirl, from dry to damp, I know they don't like wet. I'm really convinced that some things just like a heavier soil than we have, even though I amend it regularly. My husband just loves the lupines, so I've tried really hard to grow them. They never even get to blooming stage.

Irises of all sort seem to do well here, although with our sandy soil, I do have to water even the bearded, occassionally.

Pollyk, I love lupines but they don't love me back either. Sad. I keep trying and failing. I share your pain.

But Pirl is right, if you can have success in your garden with other loves in the plant world than a few dismal failures can be tolerated. And perhaps a good lesson in how old mother nature can do dismiss all our best efforts and yet reward us so generously with the winners that we grow. It is a humbling experience to garden. Patti

...and it shows we have faith and hope, too. Without hope where would we be?

This picture was taken back by the compost bins where Jack does the chipping. Some lupine stalks must have had seeds, which dropped and grew over the previous winter. I transplanted every one of them.

The result:

That's beautiful, pirl.

Happy new year to you!

Pirl, thats beautiful! Are those the red ones I sent you? Cause mine up and died last year and I may need a few seeds! LOL

Thanks for the compliments. The red one wasn't planted in with the masses, Pixie, and it didn't make it over the winter where it was planted. I do just happen to have a thousand extra seeds if you want any but they're a mix of the Russel lupines we grow.

So, can I assume that because we didn't soak the allium blanda bulbs, we probably won't get any sprouts?

A mix will do Pirl, mine only lasted 2-3 summers. What might I offer in exchange??

That's supposed to be true, Candyce. Sorry!

Pirl, splendid! Can I borrow Jack? I will try again in a different spot this spring. Patti

Another New Year's resolution. I will succeed with Lupines...Mother Nature willing and with good advice from my DG friends. I will, I will, I will.....