Can someone enlighten me about bulbs? (Warning: Spring Post!)

Hi all,

Hope you are all well and have had some sun this week! It's been a rather dismal summer eh.

I've rather given up on summer planting now, and I'm eyeing up bulb packages to plant in September/October.

Last year I put 1000 crocus bulbs through the grass. This year, I want to plant a mixture of things in my pathway border leading up to house.

In there currently are perennials, mostly flowering from June/July, plants that grow from ground up after winter.

My question is - can I plant grape hyacinth, normal hyacinths, tulips etc packed around where my existing plants root balls will be, without them making a negative impact? By the timings, I assume the spring bulbs will have died down enough in time to give primacy to the perennials? Or is that not how it works.

Can someone please enlighten me, or even show me pictures of your set up - it'd be much appreciated!

 

Hi all,

Hope you are all well and have had some sun this week! It's been a rather dismal summer eh.

I've rather given up on summer planting now, and I'm eyeing up bulb packages to plant in September/October.

Last year I put 1000 crocus bulbs through the grass. This year, I want to plant a mixture of things in my pathway border leading up to house.

In there currently are perennials, mostly flowering from June/July, plants that grow from ground up after winter.

My question is - can I plant grape hyacinth, normal hyacinths, tulips etc packed around where my existing plants root balls will be, without them making a negative impact? By the timings, I assume the spring bulbs will have died down enough in time to give primacy to the perennials? Or is that not how it works.

Can someone please enlighten me, or even show me pictures of your set up - it'd be much appreciated!

 

Yes, the bulbs will be fine, without affecting your dormant perennials @RoisinMcGuire. The only thing to bear in mind is that it’s best to leave the foliage of the bulbs to die down after they’ve flowered, normally for about six weeks, so try to avoid planting the bulbs too closely to your perennials in case the dying foliage blocks out light, although this won’t deter most perennials!

 

That's brilliant, thank you very much incidentally the exact news I wanted to hear haha.

 

One last note - if you have them, do you relift tulips every year after they're done?

 

No, I leave them in but that’s because I have dry sandy soil and winters are quite mild here. It really depends on your soil, location and climate. Many tulips don’t repeat flower reliably but l’ve found that the lily flowered varieties like Ballerina do here. Species or botanical tulips are better at repeat flowering but the choice is a little limited. I like to change the colour combinations sometimes so often treat them as annuals and dig them up when I want a change. This year’s colour combination was a mistake so I’ll have to do some serious planning.

 

Tulips won't tend to last long - especially the 'usual' types. Only a handful of those are reasonably reliable, as already said. Even the species ones can disappear here due to wet conditions. I only grow them in raised beds, and also pots. I mainly treat the bigger tulips as annuals, and just accept that I may only get one or two reappearing.
The biggest problem will be getting them in without damaging the roots of the perennials, but it depends on the size of the bulbs. Small ones aren't put in as deeply, so they're easier. Hyacinths are big, so you'd just have to be more careful with those. Most perennials can stand a bit of disturbance though, without it having a long term effect on them.

Just be aware that the blue grape hyacinths can really take over....

 

I think you've duplicated your query @RoisinMcGuire - some of us have already replied on the other thread

I'd say this is more like a normal summer over here in the west, rather than those horrible, very hot, recent ones, but it's also been much warmer over the last four or five months, so the wet days have been more pleasant!

 

Most tulips need to bake in the sun in summer if they're to have any chance of coming back the following year, so they don't do well in amongst perennials which grow up and shade them in the summer.
For me the big exception has been Tulip bakerii "Lilac Wonder" which has been spreading through my border amongst perennials and small shrubs for probably 30 years since I first planted a small supermarket packet of them. I have high hopes for T. "Little Beauty" but that's only been in for a couple of years so I can't say how it will do in the longer term.

 

I think the main problem with planting up herbaceous borders with bulbs is it makes maintainance difficult. The bulbs get damaged during weeding and planting replacements.

 

Tulips here get grown in pots for the first year, so it's easier to get a good display and then I plant them out in the garden, cramming them into any space I see. Some come back, some don't, but you get a hint of colour here and there.
If I'm planting in grass or for a more perminent planting then tulips don't get much thought because the blooms aren't as reliable as that of other bulbs.

 

Thank you very much I'll check out Ballerina.

 

Thanks fairygirl the blue grape variety I looked at is a lighter blue than the normal, I'll need to check if they are equally prolific.

 

Thanks for doing that! My internet did glitch a bit when I posted. Didn't realise it'd done that - my apologies.