Flowering bulbs offer the gardener beauty, a wide range of color, flowering times, and height. They give you tremendous pleasure for very little effort, producing flowers with glorious color from early spring through fall.
Make a sketch of the different areas in your garden you would like to add bulbs to. Make sure to take into account the bulb’s height, bloom time, light and soil requirements, and color. As a general rule the bulbs you plant in the fall are hardy and can be left undisturbed to multiply in your garden for many years. Bulbs planted in the spring are usually tender and will need to be dug in the fall and stored before the first hard frost.
Well-drained soil is essential to good bulb culture. In heavy wet soils bulbs will rot. Mark out the area you are planting. Combine course sand, compost, green sand, bone meal, rock phosphate, and dried blood. These are all organic soil improvements that will benefit your soil for the next 3-5 years. Dried blood is also useful to discourage small rodents from disturbing or chewing on your bulbs. Turn the soil with a spading fork to loosen and blend the soil amendments. Finish by raking the area flat. The depth that you plant bulbs depends on their size. If you use the general rule of planting the bulbs three times the circumference of the bulb you should be fine. On average small bulbs will be planted 1-2″ below ground level and large bulbs 6-8″ deep. When planting large bulbs in the south raise them about 2″. Also for southern planting make sure that your bulbs receive the necessary chilling hours to flower properly. If your climate doesn’t provide this naturally, you can refrigerate your bulbs prior to planting or buy pre-chilled bulbs.
The spacing between bulbs will depend on the effect you want to create. It is best to plant bulbs in drifts, using small loose oval or kidney shaped areas to provide a nice splash of color. You can add interest and extend the color display by planting several different types of bulbs in the same area. Starting with the bulbs that bloom very early commonly referred to as the minor bulbs, progressing to mid spring and then the summer flowering bulbs like Dutch, and English iris, ixia, and lilies.