Planting Individual Flowering Bulbs in the Garden

Everyone loves to see beautiful flowers any time of the year.  Flowers from bulbs can produce lovely blooms and early, middle, and late in most seasons.  Bulbs are an easy way to get blooms, if you plant them correctly.  In my last post, I covered planting bulbs in groupings to get many bouquets all over the landscape.  However, most larger bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, amaryllis, and etc. often should be planted individually.  If you have never planted bulbs before, you may want to check the previous post for rules of thumb for bulb planting or review the earlier post on buying bulbs.

Supplies for Individual Flower Bulb Planting

Before digging, determine where bulbs are to be planted.  The packaging should tell you whether it is a shade or sun-loving flower.  Take that into consideration first.  Consider the height of the resulting flower to make sure you do not place it behind something taller where you won’t be able to enjoy the blooms. Now arrange the bulbs on top of the ground where you plan to plant each one.  This will give you an idea of how the collection will appear in the garden. 

Using a bulb planter or hand spade, dig a hole where each bulb is to go.  The packaging should tell you how deep the hole should be. Using a bulb planter instead of a spade can result in a perfect diameter hole and they usually include a depth size on their side so you know when you have gone deep enough.  In the bottom of the hole, sprinkle a little bone meal or bulb food.  This will feed the roots of the bulb as it grows.  Be sure to place a small amount of dirt over the food or meal to keep the bulb from sitting directly on the chemicals.  Put the bulb in the hole, being sure to place it right side up.  Typically most bulbs have a flat side which is the bottom where the root comes out.  The top is usually more pointed and may even have a shoot coming out of it. Put a little bit of the dirt from the hole back in to completely cover the bulb.  Before replacing the remaining dirt from the hole, mix a small amount of bone meal or bulb food into it.  Then fill the hole up completely. 

After all bulbs are in the ground, immediately water deeply the area in which they were planted.  Then you will water the area on a regular basis if it does not rain.  Depending on temperature, this may be once or twice a week, unless the bulb packaging specifies more frequent watering. In a few months later, you will enjoy the blooms!