Bulb help

We just bought our first home and I would like to plant some bulbs but have no idea how. I love hyacinth, tulips and daffodils but I don't know when or how to get started. We live in Western Pennsylvania so the winters are pretty bad if that makes a difference. Help!

All the bulbs you mentioned are spring blooming bulbs which need to be planted in the fall.

Doug

Tulips and daffs are very hardy. Plant them in the autumn with the top of each bulb about six inches below the surface. Hyacinths are not really hardy. They won't survive in our zone 4 winters. Crocuses are also hardy. They should go in more shallowly - say about two inches.

But can't you dig them up and store them for winter somewhere warm? How does one do that?

I don't know what zone you're in but I would try the hyacinths anyway without digging them up each year, I've had one in the ground for several years and we've had some really cold spells in the last few years (-0) and they have come back up each year. If you do have to dig them, do it after the foliage dies completely back then store them in a COOL place such a a basement, not a warm place. You don't want them to sprout on you during the winter!

Doug

Yes mayapapaya28, you can dig up your hyancinths and store them packed in peat in a cool (not a warm) place and replant in the spring; but they do tend to deteriorate over time and it's not really worth it. They're not expensive. Forgive me postmandug if I have small laugh at your idea of really cold. The temperature outside at the moment is -25 Celsius! However I expect my daffs, tulips, snowdrops and crocuses to survive and thrive.

Here in Z6 Grape Hyacinths grow well too i've planted them about as deep as daffys. There are so many differant varities of daffys in shades of yellow,white and pink big flowers tiny flowers, fragrant,that i never run out of ideas on how to arrange the beds for tham.

patgeorge, better you than me!!! Hope it warms up soon.

Doug

Terve !

We live on the Oak Ridges Morraine, Southern Ontario (zone 5A).
The ground is frozen solid all winter. Our first spring bulbs (snowdrops) come up maybe mid March. The succession begins snowdrops, species crocus, regular crocus, Chionodoxa (Giant Pink/Pink Giant), then the first of the perennials (maybe pulmonaria (lungbane)). I do not use a lot of tulips, but like the small (species) ones (several of these are pretty hardy).
I use daffodils (in part because they are poisonous and the mice (voles?) dont eat them). These mice love crocus and can mine out hundreds in a bad winter. I think I now have a winning strategy, distracting them. This has worked for the last two years: I put out lots of shelled bird seed on part of the lawn, throughout the winter. Quite a lot of the wild life seem to appreciate this. The hardiest daffodils (notably King Alfred), which I don't use, can apparently become a nuisance. They eventually form large dense clumps above which nothing will grow. Daffodils leaves, which can't be cut while green, also flop down after the plant has flowered, apparently to knock off the plant competition around them. They are green into July. Some of the newer varieties of daffodils are much less hardy and only hang around a few years before they fade away.
I would warn against Chionodoxa forbesii (luciliae), glory of the snow, the common Chionodoxa. I like what I take to be neat gardens (sound like an idiot!). Chionodoxa forbesii spreads, by seeding, all over the place. It takes two years from seed to flowering bulb. Having planted them in ignorance, I now fight them every year and am winning. I got a horrible shock last year, when a friend told me Chionodoxa 'Giant Pink' is also a bad spreader. It does not, however, seem to spread by seeding. It has stayed where I initially put it, although there is getting to be too much of it.
Somebody mentioned Muscari (grape hyacinth). I use the most common one. Little bulbs grow off the parent bulb. Excellent bulb plant, blooming when perennials have come out. I also find that Puschkinia libanotica, which does spread by seeding, is less of a carefree spreader than the Chionoxa species. Several bulb Iris species are very nice and last some time. I just started using hyacinths for last year. They were lovely.
Re: planting depth, it was pointed out to me that the planting depths on labels may be for Holland, England or the like, and may not be deep enough for some of our climates. I plant 12 inches for a large bulb (e.g. a daffodil) and 4 inches for a small bulb (e.g. a crocus).
One more thing: in our area at least, avoid Scilla siberica like the plague. It spreads all over the place. It is unusual for a bulb, because you can mow the leaves off and it does not weaken the plant = Scilla siberica through your lawn!
Am sure a lot of folks would disagree with my hostility to Chionodoxa forbesii. Gardeneners tend to do their own thing. That's good. After all their plants certainly do! There may be more agreement about Scilla siberica, which is still a pretty plant.

My thanks to everyone for all the great advice! I am disappointed that I will have to wait until next year but I guess I'll have to admire my neighbor's flowers until then.

If you want flowers for the summer there are millions of options for you--if you want those specific bulbs you will have to wait until next year but there's no reason you can't plant some summer blooming bulbs or some colorful annuals/perennials that you'll be able to enjoy this year. A garden with only spring blooming bulbs is pretty boring anytime except spring so I would think you'd want something else there anyway.

Here's a good source to browse/shop for summer blooming bulbs http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/summer/
And for perennials, pretty much anything Bluestone sells ought to do well in your area www.bluestoneperennials.com

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Bluestone too. I just placed an order last week.

Doug

I have to ask if Daylillies grow in your zone. I inter plant daylilies with daffys and they seem to grow well together. the daylilies hide the ugly old follage of the daffies and take over blooming about June here. The leaves of the daylillies come up fairly early also.

Hi Cando1,
Great idea. I never used to use daylilies much until three years ago. At that time I decided to beat the lily beetles by simply switching to daylilies. I've grown to really like the shape of daylilies. Who wouldn't like their flowers? They do very well here and I have June and later flowerers. I noticed, in a local garden, giant alliums growing with daylilies. Your idea suggests this too was to hide unattractive (allium) leaves.
I like your daffodil-daylily strategy even better.
Thanks,
Sunny

Sunny Borders, I had to smile when you mentioned that Scilla siberica can become a problem. I have tryed to grow it 3 times, it blooms nicely the first year and never comes back. Maybe I should count my blessings.

I too have intermingled my daylilies with bulbs. They do a nice job of covering the leaves. Made a mistake, sort of, I planted Lilies in with them also. So I end up with the flowerless lily stems poking up among the daylilies, not a pretty sight.

One combination of lilies and plants I really like is the tall lilies with the tall regular purple coneflowers at the back of the garden. Then I have a clematis on a trellis next to the house for even more height.
toofew

Hi toofewanimals,
The disappearing scilla siberica. Take it as divine intervention! It's a real pity that lily beetles dont live off scilla siberica. They could have left this world together.
Believe it or not, I don't hate this scilla. There is a huge clump of it, growing
in the lawn at the botanical gardens by Niagara Falls, Ontario. I see it in April
and it is very pretty. I like blue flowers and it is very attractive. The large botanical garden, with the large lawns, seems to provide the scale for the big clump. I would admit that one person's "invades" is another person's "naturalizes". But the kind of perennial gardening that I do, needs a lot of policing by the gardener, even though it looks as though the garden looks after itself. Love purple coneflowers (very well behaved and the monarch butterfies really use it) and clematis. Latter, takes several years to really get going.
Sunny

Day lilies certainly thrive here in 4B, in spite of the long cold winters.

Very interesting patgeorge
If you use spring bulbs, when do the first ones usually bloom?
Do you use other perennials? When do you usually see the first ones flower?
Sunny (only zone 5a and we thought we were tough!)

I think you still can order bulbs for spring blooms. try bloomingbulb.com and see if they have pre-chilled bulbs for sale. If they are pre-chilled, and your ground isnt too frozen to work with, you may still be able to plant daffs, tulips and crocus this year. you'll have a later blooming for this year, but next year they should bloom at the right time.

Its too warm here in the winters, so I will have to pull my tulips each year and store them in the fridge for 6 weeks before replanting. But I leave daffs, crocus and hyacinth in the ground year round.

also, the depth of planting depends on the zone and what you are planting. I'm in zone 9 and crocus are planted 1/2 inch below, daffs and hyancinth are 2" below and tulips are 3" hope this helps :o)

Hi SunnyBorders

I've only lived here for three years. This is my third winter; so I'm still learning! Last year's diary shows crocuses and snowdrops just showing colour on April 15th and in full flower by 21st. By the 30th tulips and daffs about 4 inches high. Daffs showing colour by May 11 and in flower by 13th. Interesting how crocuses so far in advance of daffs. I reckon this is because the ground is frozen several inches deep and thaws from the top down, releasing the crocuses first.

Very wide range of perennials grow here. In my garden I inherited, liatris, ligularia, bergenia, dicentra, phlox, mint, as well as the bulbs. Some lilies also. Heucheras and day lilies seem very popular. I've seen alchemilla mollis, which looks so delicate, flourishing in Lapland 200 miles north of here.

Last winter was the mildest on record. This one has been more like average, although the coldest temperature in our garden so far has been only minus 25 Celsius. In our first winter here it was minus 37. Last year snow cover was also thin. I gather this is a bad thing, as the snow acts as an insulating blanket and keeps the plants snug.

Temperature is not the only problem. The season is short. First air frost last year was on September 2nd, killing my salvias, tagetes, courgettes and cucumbers. Also the long dark nights in winter and the total absence of night for about six weeks in the summer mean photoperiodism plays a part.

Still, learning keeps you young.

Hi patgeorge. I looked on-line at Nurmo (Finland - Suomi!). You're a degree or so north of Anchorage, Alaska!
Judging from your spring bulb information, your growing season seems to start about when ours does. It's the fall (taking it as September and October) which seems different. As you say your season is short. We don't typically have killing frosts in September. Our fall is a great time for perennial gardening: comfortably cooler than summer: there are many large and showy fall perennials (e.g. asters and hardy mums): no mosquitoes! Almost everything is done by November when the surface of the ground is freezing.
I have been told that the ground remaining frozen is often a key to perennial winter survival here. Thawing (which breaks dormancy) and then refreezing is the problem.
The perennials you mention are tough here. Liatris says sun. Lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is a useful shade plant. Mints tend to run amuk, even on our clay. Something like Siberian mint, however, provides a long lasting (with trimming) block of color which is easy to control.
The fact that you "inherited" these plants, indicates they are survivors. I have been told (and am beginning to see) that the newer cultivars are generally less hardy than the perennial old timers.
Like you, I like learning. I think it is a gardener thing. Plants don't tend to make it easy!
Sunny