Planting Bulbs Video Tutorial

We realized after we filmed this that we went a little fast, so forgive us. Next time we'll slow it down. The basics covered here are: Make sure the bulbs are nice and firm. Squeeze them, if they feel soft at all, they are bad bulbs and will not flower for you in the spring. The top of most spring-blooming bulbs are points and the bottoms will be rounded, sometimes with roots, although the Anemone bulbs look almost like buttons (you have to look for the tiny roots in one of the dimpled sides). The next bulb basic is that you want to plant the bulbs at a depth three times their height, so if the daffodil bulb is two inches high, your hole should be six inches deep. The final basic we cover in the video is: firm those bulbs in! Padding down the soil around the bulbs will discourage squirrels and chipmunks from digging up your newly planted bulbs.

A couple things we didn't cover: You want to wait until after the first frost to plant bulbs. Many times they are available in September, but wait to plant them until there has been a frost.

Also, you can sprinkle in some bulb tone into the hole if you are planting somewhere other than a nice fertilized garden. When we plant bulbs that will naturalize (spread) at the edge of a wooded area and a lawn, we alway use bulb-tone in the hole as we plant, to feed the bulbs in the first year, and then we sprinkle the ground with bulb-tone each fall after that. If you are planting bulbs in a garden that you fertilize with organic material (fish emulsion, aged manure, compost) than no extra fertilization is necessary for your bulbs.