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Reader S.O.S.: Best bets for bulbs

Posted on September 28th, 2007 – 1:35 PM
By Jaime Chismar

From GG Reader Annie:

Jaime, I need your helpful advice! My Dutch bulbs just arrived in the mail yesterday and I’m nervous about planting them in these mild temperatures. Is it still too warm to put them in the ground? Will they send shoots up prematurely? This is my first time planting bulbs in the fall and I don’t want to waste or ruin them. Thanks!

You question is well timed, Annie. Ivana Marzipan just gave me some killer tulip bulbs last night.

“I bet your the kind of girl who like flowers, but never buys them for herself.” She is so right. I *do* love flowers, but I know very little about flowers, let alone when to plant them.

Last year, I waited until the end of October to plant my garlic. Is it the same for other kinds of bulbs? I’ll do a little research, in the meantime, I bet one of our readers can give us a hand (wink, wink).

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Flowers + Grasses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to "Reader S.O.S.: Best bets for bulbs"

Robyn Dochterman says:

September 28th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Most advice I’ve seen says to plant between Sept 15 and Oct 15 because roots need to develop before the ground freezes. That said, I usually wait until October for the same reasons Annie fears — that the warm weather will cause top sprout.

Annie says:

September 28th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

Robyn, wise as always. Thanks for the tip! I’ll just have to exercise some patience and hold off getting a little dirt between the fingers. :)

eliz says:

September 29th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

Top sprout is not really a big deal. Whatever comes up now because of warm temps will not prevent the real show next spring.

I’ve had it happen and it did not hurt anything.

I’d plant them now, when it’s still comfortable to be outside.

Peter Hoh says:

September 30th, 2007 at 9:51 pm

Consider the soil moisture. If it’s too wet, you end up shovelling mud. Not good. I did some transplanting and bulb planting late last week, and the soil was pretty moist. After today’s rain, I’m sure it will be too wet to work until it has some time to dry a bit.

deb w says:

October 1st, 2007 at 6:43 am

If you just can’t wait to get the bulbs in (I have a problem with rot when I get iris) then you can pot them up in pots and sink the whole works in the ground when the quicksand effect has abated. I have to agree with eliz that working in cold temps has little appeal. And if you wait much longer than the middle of October then the spring show is delayed while they get some roots.

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