Four Bulbs For Early Spring Flowers
Daffodils, crocuses, primroses and snowdrops are four early spring flowers which let you know spring has come and they’re saying spring is here now.
The bulbs from which these flowers grow are planted in the autumn. But there is still a way to get spring flowers even if you didn’t plant your bulbs last autumn.
Daffodils
Crocuses
Primroses
Snowdrops
Planting
Each of these flowers are planted as bulbs in the autumn in the northern hemisphere, from late September to early November depending on where you live – the key is to have bulbs planted about 6 weeks before any hard frost.
Plant outside in clumps to get produce a bigger burst of color, one plant by itself looks a bit sad and lonely. As a guide plant the bulbs with the nose (the pointed bit) upper most and at a depth equal to the height of the bulb from base to nose. So if you had a 2 inch bulb dig a 4 inch hole.
When planting outside, space bulbs a distance roughly twice their height so a plant bulbs with a 2 inch height about 4 inches apart.
Choose a site where the flowers can have plenty of sunlight, ideally full sunlight for most of the day but part sunlight will do.
Bulbs like well drained soil, so if your soil is compacted fork over and add some organic material. Add a layer of grit at bottom of hole to improve drainage if you have heavy soil.
Spring bulbs look great planted in clusters in grass
Buying Flowers In Spring
Although bulbs cost about $1/£1/€1 for 3 in autumn you can buy flowering bulbs in spring for 2 or 3 times the price!
If you buy plants already in a pot there is nothing more to do than choose the spot for your pot!
Of course there’s nothing to stop you re-potting your flowers
Alternatively you can buy flowering bulbs in cells, which do need transplanting, either into pots or into the garden.
If your pot has a hole at bottom cover it with a piece of croc (broken pot) to retain moisture and stop potting mix leaking out.
Use a mixture of about 1 part grit to 3 parts potting mix.
In a pot you can plant much closer together to give a real burst of color.
Water well and your done apart from placing your pots.
You can place pots alongside flowers already planted in garden for an extra burst of color.
At End Of Flowering
After the flowers die the leaves will live on for 6 to 8 weeks and it is important you do not cut the leaves back. The leaves will be storing energy in the bulb so it can grow next year and produce another crop of flowers.
You can dead head (cut off) flowers once they are finished, this will stop seeds being produced which would divert energy from the bulb.
After the leaves have died back you can store the pots for next year, or take the bulbs out of pots and let them dry until next autumn when you can replant them in garden or in pots again.
In The Garden
Bulbs will last for many years and they produce more bulbs so every few years (3 to 5) it is worth while digging up the bulbs, splitting and replanting. So overtime your spread of spring flowers increases.
Almost all gardening advice is to split bulbs when they’ve died back. The only trouble is telling which is which.
If you were super organized you could label the plants whilst they were flowering. Alternatively you could ignore standard advice and split up plants whilst they are still flowering. People who have done so report success providing you wait until flowers have bloomed.
Don’t Forget Cut Flowers For Your House