It's that time again. It's time to plant those fall bulbs for our spring flowers. For me, it's a long process because I have over 2500 show and collector bulbs that have to go into those specially prepared beds that I wrote recent articles about, plus I have many more bulbs that have to go into the naturalized front entrance garden beds that were the subjects of my last two articles.
Prepare the soil and the beds for planting in a definable scheme.
The first step in planting daffodil bulbs is the preparation of the soil. Those of us with clay soils will not have long term "luck" with daffodils unless we do a lot of soil preparation. Daffodils like a rich soil with a high organic matter content and is well drained. The chosen daffodil bed should have a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight, however speckled sunlight will sustain bulb growth, flowering, and bulb propagation.
The Second Step in planting daffodils bulbs is selecting the bulbs to plant. My recommendation is to pick an assortment of bulbs, from the traditional 'King Alfred' yellow trumpets, to whites, like 'Mount Hood' or 'Ice Follies', to pink daffodils like 'Roseworthy' or 'Salome', and various other bi-colors, oranges, etc. However, don't forget to get the little bright guys like 'Tete-a-tete', 'Rapture', 'Quince', and any number of the species daffodils that are available. Most of all, in selecting daffodils to plant, plant the big tall ones in the rear, and the small, shorter ones, in the front.
However there is more to it than just going for the traditional daffodils. Read below.
What's In a Daffodil Name For those of us into daffodil showing, keeping track of the daffodil names is important. All bulbs look alike under the ground, so the question becomes, what is the name of the daffodil. It all starts with applying long lasting labels, at the time of planting. However, even for that process to work, the bulbs have to be planted so that they can be dug at a future date, without mixing the varieties. Clumps are the best method for the garden and helps maintain the daffodil by name.
The thrid and final step to daffodil planting is to answer the question, how are the bulbs planted? The general answer is that bulbs are planted to a depth of about six to eight inches, with the smaller bulbs planted a little less deep. A rule of thumb has been stated to plant the bulb two and a half times the length of the bulb from base plate to the shoulder. However, I put them all at about the same dept and it generally works.
