Bulb Planting

 The mint cutting is coming along nicely

Coming along nicely

My mint cutting is coming along extremely well.  It’s been two weeks since I plopped in unceremoniously into a vase full of water and the roots are growing at a fantastic rate.  It doesn’t take much to entertain me so looking at the roots on the kitchen windowsill is just enough excitement for me as I wash the pots.  Small pleasures.

I had a comment this week about how the roots in water don’t seem as strong as conventional soil grown roots.  They are right; the roots that grow in water haven't come across much resistance in and have just glided through the smooth liquid without a care in the world.  A thick gel might help a bit to get them accustomed to a bit of opposite force or just planting them into the soil when new roots appear.  But I have found that as a rule these cuttings are generally grown for the enjoyment of just watching the roots grow, children especially fid them fascinating. Get one of the Buncrana Camera Club to film the process in stop motion and it’s nearly as dramatic as the Swilly hotel fire video Adam Porter took last week!

Just as you thought there was a bit of time left to sit back and relax in the garden, I am here to bring you down to earth with a bump and remind you that it’s time to get the spring bulbs in.  If you are like me and can only plan one day ahead then be prepared for a shock as bulb planting means having to plan 6 months ahead!  People manage it though and the fact that garden centres have got them stacked floor to ceiling certainly helps to remind us that the time is now. 

Planting Bulbs for Spring

I’ve brought in James Kilkelly from the gardenplans forum to give the heads up about successful bulb planting. James also runs a Garden Design Diploma Course check out the Academy of Ireland website.

“Plant spring bulbs now and you can be sure of colour in the New Year” James tells us. "It’s almost unheard of for a healthy bulb not to flower the first season after planting."

Encourage good soil conditions.

James continues. "Almost all bulbs that you plant for spring flowering require a loose, open, porous, well-drained soil to prevent bulb rot. To reach this ideal bulb growing soil, you can take the step of amending it through the addition of soil improvers.

Start by working your soil over with a garden fork, digging in coarse sand or grit throughout the top twelve to eighteen inches of soil as you go. Do not remove any pre-existing small stones from the soil while you work it, these help water movement, providing drainage as well as warmth to the soil during winter. Along with sand/grit, the addition of organic matter such as homemade compost, peat moss or wood shavings when worked through your soil will aid bulb root development and improve drainage greatly on heavy clay soils.

Plant at the correct depth.

Too Shallow. Beware planting your bulbs too shallowly as you may experience premature emerging shoots, these are ones which are easily burned by frost. Another downside is frost heaving, where the bulbs are pushed up out of soil by freezing temperatures, if you have ever seen bulbs on the soils surface in spring, well that’s frost heaving brought on by planting too shallowly. Aside from frost, jackdaws, blackbirds and other round feeding birds can also damage shallow bulbs by rooting them out and pecking them.

Too Deep. Planting too deep can be even worse, with bulbs possibly not emerging at all due too the long trip to the surface for their new shoots.

Depth. Bulb packaging should have optimum planting depth instructions printed for you to follow, but occasionally you will come across bulbs without planting depth instructions. In this case you can usually get away with planting at a depth that is twice the bulbs height.

This planting depth is measured from the base of the bulb, resting on the soil in the hole to the existing topsoil level. Don’t forget, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, snowdrops etc must be planted with the root plate pointing downward and the pointy top or nose of the bulb pointing upward. This gets the flower growing in the right direction from day one, and prevents the shoot from having to take a wrong turning.

Ways of planting.

If you have just dug over your bed with a garden fork, then it is possible to press each bulb down into the fluffy soil and then cover it with soil. This is a quick and easy way to go about your planting, but you must ensure the ideal bulb depth is used and that the bulbs are not damaged in the pressing process.

You may instead opt for a bulb planting tool. With its graduations down the side, this shiny digging implement is a good aid to ensure correct planting depths. However when I was starting out, a trusty hand trowel and a length of stick cut to the desired planting depth were just as good, and one less tool to buy for a cash-strapped gardener.

No matter what you use when creating the individual planting holes, you should always loosen the soil below which the bulb will sit on, adding a shake of sharp sand to aid drainage. It will also benefit the initial root development of the bulb to mix a slow release fertiliser into the soil at the bulbs base, fertilisers such as “Bulb Booster”, or “Super phosphate” are perfect for this purpose. Press the upright bulb down firmly onto this mix and cover with similarly fertiliser and sand amended soil.

If you follow the rules as to soil improvement and bulb planting depth, then you will be well on your way to flowers next spring, and the year after, and the year after that."