Bulbs Gardening and Landscaping

Bulbs Gardening and Landscaping.

Bulbs are generally great plants, full of colour, and very easy to cultivate.

A lot of them have leaves that are green all the time, while others have leaves that after the flowering they ripen.

Once this happens, store the bulbs and next year start it all over again. While some bulbs are tender, others are hardy, but what means hardy from one region to another depends on their type of weather.

If you’re in a cold region, treat gloxinias, gloriosa lilies, calla lilies and begonias as if they were summer plants. This way you have where to choose from once spring comes knocking.

Part of the Dutch bulbs group are the snowdrops, the crocus, the winter aconites, scillas, leucojums, eranthis, chionodoxas, grape hyacinths, Dutch hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and snowflakes. They are quite resistant, but not enough to survive outside, when the temperature drops below freezing.

They need a cellar, a cold frame or a shed to keep them safe. Another option is digging a trench and putting the pots in it, while covering them with straws or marsh hay. If the temperature doesn’t go below zero, you can safely keep them outside in a container.

If you want great results, use firm, fresh and large bulbs once fall comes. Make sure the pot has good drainage and add light soil with some bone meal in it. Make sure it doesn’t dry out if you’re using pots made out of clay, as this can injure the roots. If the weather outside allows, keep the containers outdoors and let them flower. Once it blooms, keep the containers in a place where the foliage can ripen.

If you want the great fragrance, the Dutch hyacinths are what you need, great for raised beds or large planter boxes. Daffodils work best when in large shrubs, like forsythias or birches. You can combine tulips with violas, pansies, forget-me-nots, wall flowers, English daisies, annual candytuft or margueritas.

As mentioned already, when you’re in cold regions the Dutch bulbs can’t be planted and left outside, without any protection from the winter cold. But, you can keep them in boxes or large planters, with a lot of soil.

If you use containers, pick one that is two feet wide and the same in depth. Put the bulbs, cover them with six inches of soil, early in the fall, so they have roots by the time the soil freezes. This method has been used successfully before, but it also has some risks. The material that the containers are made of doesn’t really matter, only how much soil they can hold.

The thing that hurts the bulbs isn’t the freezing soil, but the pressure from the frost when it’s against the container walls. That’s how the bulbs are bruised.

Video - Summer Bulbs