Never had bulbs...have a question, please.

I have a new house with no landscaping. Last spring, after my mom had planted about 250 bulbs in her planters, she still had about 30 left over...daffodils, tulips, and...um...something else?!?! They were beginning to sprout in the net bags in her garage and she asked me if I wanted them. I took them, stuck them in the ground next to a walkway by my garage (without any kind of soil prep or anything...a very poorly planned planter), and many of them sprouted and bloomed (I clearly remember the daffodils and tulips). At any rate...here it is, January, and many of them are coming back; however, I want to make it a "real" planter by putting in edging and compost/soil/etc. Some of the sprouts are still fairly low to the ground, some not. Would it harm them if I were to "bury" them in new soil by building it up? Don't want to fry the little buggers, but sure would like to make a nice planter out of the area. Who knew they would actually grow? Any advice would be greatly appreciated from this very wet behind the ears newbie. Thanks!

This message was edited Jan 6, 2008 7:47 PM

I do not have an answer to your ? but wanted to let you know many of us have planted willy-nilly, in a hurry, and decide to redo a year or two later. You are not alone.

When you talk about planter, do you mean a "bed" or do you mean a "container"?

If a bed, what I have done is let them be until after they've flowered, then when leaves are yellow, take everything out, add soil amendments, then replant. What you can do right now is dress the bed with some compost (1-2") in prep. for spring 08. Then sometime later on, when bulb show is over, work on your redo.

If your bulbs are in a container, I don't see much risk is taking things out now and redoing with better soil, more bulbs,e tc.

One final thing, tulips may or may not come back. Most of them need a certain amount of cool weather and will not rebloom if your climate does not provide enough chill. I am just telling you that in case yours don't return. I don't want you to think that it is because something you did or did not do.

Thanks for the info. No problem with chilly climate, we've had plenty of freezing weather here this winter and still going. There are at least 2 of the tulips coming back already, greenery poking about 1-2" above the soil. By planter, I do mean bed, but an undefined one. I have a 26' foot walkway beside which I planted the bulbs last year. What I want to do is define the bed and add some soil but if you think it can wait until after blooming, I too can wait. My concern is harming the new sprouts if I raise the bed with soil about 3". This would bury some of the new growth below the new soil and I don't know if that would hurt then plants or not. Thanks again.

3" of soil/amendment won't hurt the plants. I got the impression that maybe you were thinking about regrouping bulbs, adding bulbs, that kinda thing. But if not rearranging, just improving soil quality, you can probably do that right now. Adding compost, about 3" would be ideal. that will improve your soil quality. Adding some mulch on top of that, about 2" will be a decorative way to define your bed.

You could also wait until they are a little bit taller, about 6" and add your 3" of soil or compost. But beware, with this crazy weather, many a plant starts sprouting when they're not supposed to, only to be killed with the next freeze. They start resprouting once the weather starts warming up for real, but just don't be surprised if this happens to you.

Thanks...helped a bunch. I will be adding more bulbs this year as well but the ones in there are pretty well spaced and I don't see that it should be a problem.