All About Planting Spring Flower Bulbs

Getting the most dazzling color and healthy flowering plants in the spring means planting spring bulbs in the fall and planting them right. Follow these tips to get the most from your spring flower bulbs like tulips, daffodils grape hyacinth and alliums.

Different Bulbs Require Different Planting Depths

If you plant spring flower bulbs to shallow, frost heave and winter snows will damage the bulbs. If the bulbs are planted too deep, it forces the flower to expend it's energy trying to reach the soil's surface.

As a general rule of thumb, dig the planting hole three times deeper than the height of the bulb. When planting different spring flower bulbs together to create a spring flower bed, each bulb still needs to planted to the proper depth, just plant the bulbs about two inches a part. Summer annual flowers can be planted in the soil right over top of the flower bulbs with out harm.

Which Side is the Top Side of the Bulb

Daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and crocus all have pointed ends, that is the top side and the point faces up. Other spring flower bulbs which do not have an obvious point will have traces of old roots on the bottom side. Look for those old roots to determine which side is up.

Too Late to Plant?

Flower bulbs will eventually lose their viability and become useless to plant. Plant bulbs that are firm and show no signs of mold before December. If bulbs are still in storage past mid-December, toss them out and buy fresh bulbs in the spring and plant.

Spring Bulbs that Naturalize

Not all spring bulbs will bloom year after year. Look for bulbs which 'naturalize', meaning they will return year after year. Most daffodils will naturalize, as with grape hyacinth, snowdrops, allium and crocus. Most tulips will only return for a couple of years and will not naturalize.

Removing Old Foliage

To ensure good blooms in the succeeding year, let naturalized bulbs keep their foliage. The foliage feeds the underground bulbs. For a tidier look in the garden, the drooping, dying foliage can be pulled up and held in place with a rubber band or piece of twine.

Prevent Wildlife from Eating Spring Flowers

The spring flowers are not only pretty, they make a tasty meal for wildlife. Prevent squirrels from digging up the spring flower bulbs by placing a piece of chicken wire on top of the soil after planting the bulbs. The squirrels can't dig through the chicken wire.

To prevent the deer and rabbits from eating the delectable flowers, plant the perimeters of the flower bed with daffodils, which are poisonous to most animals and wildlife rarely ever touch them and plant alliums in the perimeter. Alliums are in the onion family and wildlife find them distasteful. Plant the tasty tulips and crocus' inside the perimeter.