Planting and Caring for Flower Bulbs

There's nothing quite as welcome as those handsome spring flowers that appear to appear from nowhere to greet the arrival of spring. Bulb type flowers are actually unique plants, because they spend almost all of their days resting quietly underneath the outside of the soil. Then right on schedule, up they come, full of bloom and vigor, and then nearly as quickly as they came, they're going.

Excepting the green leafy part of the plant that has a tendency to linger longer than we'd like them to. Regardless of their short bloom time and plain foliage after the blooms are gone, they remain a wonderful addition to any landscape. But how should you care for them? First let's chat about the best way to use them in your landscape. Flowers of all sorts are best when planted in groupings. That is fine if that is what you need, but when planted that way they have a tendency to mix in with the landscape and truly don't show up well at all. In the spring get thinking about where you want to form a bed for flower bulbs. Do this in the spring whilst you are in the gardening mood, you may not be in the autumn. Over the summer fill the bed with yearly flowers to keep the weeds down, and to pretty up your yard for the summer.

Come fall all you have to do is pull out the annuals and plant your bulbs to the depth counseled on the package. If you suspect you might have a proble with squirrels digging up the bulbs and eating them, you may wrap the bulbs in steel wool, leaving just the top of the bulb exposed so it can grow out of the small wire cage you have made. Or you can just plant the bulbs and then cover the bed with chicken wire or plastic fencing till the bulbs begin to grow in the spring. When the bulbs come up in the spring and start blooming, you must clip off the blooms as they begin to wither.

The million buck question is ways to treat the tops till that occurs. Many folks bend them over and slip an elastic tie over them, or in the case of bulbs like Daffodils tie them with one of the long leaves.

This appears to work because it's a common practice among many experienced gardeners. However, Mike is preparing to rain on the parade.

I strongly disagree with this idea because back about 6th grade we learned about photosynthesis in science class. To sum up what we learned, and without going into the dull details, photosynthesis is the method of the plant using the sun's rays to make food for itself. The rays from the sun are absorbed by the foliage and the food making process starts. In the case of a flower bulb this food is transported to the bulb underneath the ground and stored for later use. So fundamentally the leaves of the plant are like small solar panels. Their job is to soak up the rays from the sun to start the method known as photosynthesis. If we fold them over and cuff them with their hands behind their back, they don't seem to be going to be in a position to do their job. It's like throwing a tarpaulin over eighty percent of a solar panel. In order for the leaves to soak up the rays from the sun, the outside of the foliage needs to be exposed to the sun. If you restrict them the flow stops. You decide. I have presented my case.

Bending them over appears to work, but I have spent lots of cash on my bulbs. I need them running at full speed. If they're still not shriveled when it's time to plant my yearly flowers, I just plant the annuals between the bulbs. As the bulbs die back the annuals have a tendency to grow and hide them. If one shows thru I clip it off. It appears to work best for me.