citygardenguide: Plant Bulbs

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October 05, 2005

Plant Bulbs

Now is the time to think about bulbs, especially tulips and daffodils which deliver such a vital dose of color in the spring, and require no skill (or very little) to plant. Planting bulbs is one of the most satisfying of gardening tasks, and it's true gardening, in that you put something into the soil, and then wait. Real gardening is mostly about waiting. Buying an annual in bloom and putting it in a pot or in the ground is more like decorating...which is fun too, but not the same.
Tulips and daffodils planted in the next two months will bloom reliably in the spring. You can buy them at garden centers but it's far more inspiring to shop the catalogs, whether old fashioned paper ones or on line. The choices are vast, and the reputable catalogs are very reliable. If you order a red tulip and plant it, chances are that you'll have a red tulip just like the one in the picture blooming in your garden in the spring.

We thought we would share some of our favorite bulb varieties, this week we will talk about daffodils, next week we will discuss tulips.

Daffodils are great perennializers in our climate, which means that they will come back year after year, but only if - and it's an important if - the foliage is allowed to mature and die down. The foliage feeds the bulb so it's strong enough to bloom again the next year. Maturing and dying daffodil foliage is not a lovely site. It can be masked by daylily foliage or ferns growing up around it, but on it's own in is an eye sore for 6 weeks or so. When you plant daffodils keep this in mind, and either treat them as annuals which is what happens in big display gardens, or be prepared to live with the consequences.
Daffodils or narcissi, are divided in to 14 divisions, and each division has its own characteristics. There are long trumpets, split cups, cyclamen-flowered, etc. The classifications get complicated, and are most important to enthusiasts (and they are a legion). The crucial issue for the amature is period of bloom, so you can gauge what to plant with what. Narcissi bloom from the beginning of March in our climate to the middle of May for the very latest variety. They range in height from tiny 4"-6" to full and substantial 15"-20 ". For those of you who garden outside the city, one of the daffodill's great virtues is that they are deer and rodent resistant.

The following are some of Citygardenguide's all time favorite daffodils:
Early Blooming: Early April