Fall Bulb Planting in the Midatlantic

so glad! anything for 'my' froggie buddies

Oh, Ladyg--you got a broken wrist?? I guess that is a good reason not to plant bulbs!! I nearly broke mine doing all those tulips a couple years ago, but I also used a power drill with an auger thing that saved me a lot of work. But one bed had a lot of rocks, so I had to do 100 tulips there by hand. Ouch!!

Sallyg--you got dibbs on the peach irises. I have all the dug-up plants in pots, waiting to see which ones are which. I gave a bunch of the peach Florentines to another friend last year, but I didn't get all of them. They are vigorous and sturdy and are ideal for a rugged place where they can expand en masse.
.

Thanks! course I will share ,don't mean to imply I want to hog them all.
You know, its occurred to me that many of my iris expand en masse and the whole garden will look better if I manage them more, as they say, digging out those bad centers and replanting the good divisions, to avoid that bomb-blasted dead iris patch effect you get in July.

Foxy, Your plantings sound lovely. By foxtail lilies, do you mean Eremus?

I'm still planting bulbs, but it's going slowly because of the leaves. About 80% of them are down now and I keep trying to get them out of the beds.

Sallyg--you're right about the July iris slump. I think that usually happens with once-bloomers. I'll see if the re-bloomers hold up better through the season. It'll be my first try with these.

Stormyla--yes, the foxtail lilies are Eremurus. Brent and Becky's has some lovely ones. I got the Himalaicus, a beautiful white one. It bloomed beautifully the first year in 2008, but didn't this year. I also got the Spring Valley hybrids. They didn't bloom the first year but did this year!! They are also nice, but not as lush and defined as the Himalaicus. On the Bulb forum, people were saying Pinocchio was good. It is a short yellow one, but I haven't grown that one yet.

Foxy, I tried Cleopatra and one of the yellows twice. Nothing came up. It could have been those dadburned voles. I'm not ordering any more bulbs this year, but I may try some again next year. Other people have told me they've tried 3 or 4 times before having success.

Stormyla, looks like you are doing some major bulb planting! I did not plant any this year because I redid a couple of perennial beds, and I need to see how they look, what I have to move etc...
Suggest you get yourself a good drill , an auger and a male teenager. Unless you have a very rocky bed, the teen ager will be happy to run the machinery and all you have to do is drop the bulbs in the holes. We planted near a thousand bulbs three years ago. My husband was coming home from deployment the next spring, and I wanted something cheery to welcome him home.

Yes, I'm still at it. Last year it took me almost till mid December. I should be finished by early next week. I'm not planting as many as last year, but I'm also dividing and moving some. I do have someone who helps me from time to time. I tried using the auger, but I plant among a lot of tree roots and rocks and it really kicks your arm and shoulder when it encounters any.

Mostly I dig a 10" hole and plant 5 bulbs in it. I need to do this for a lot of the bulbs as they need to be planted in grit to deter the voles. I do use my dibbler a lot for the small bulbs.

I've planted a lot less Tulips this year, so don't really know how the beds will look this spring. Most years I plant well in excess of 1500 bulbs. I'll probably continue to do so for another few years.

Villiers thanks for menitioning the augur. I do have a teen male who would probably love that! And a tough bed in which I have room for bulbs.

Sally, do you plant bulbs under your Maples? It's a great spot for them. With the dryness, they never rot.

Stormyla, I cannot believe you have the energy to plant new bulbs every year! I stick to the perennial and species tulips and they last a few years.
So far I have not had any vole problems. Mac, my bengal, takes care of them.

Villiers, I can get several years out of some of the Tulips as long as I protect them with Grit. I had a lot to replant this year and last as some of my older plantings were unprotected and those varmints got them!! Guess I'll keep up with the tulips until it becomes too much effort. I did cut back on them this year.

They even ate my older giant purple alliums.

Wow, I thought nothing would eat the alliums! I guess they ain't afraid of garlic breath!
I have stayed away from alluims as I never know how to camouflage their foliage. One year I tried to put 'Fireworks' behind some 'Stella d'Oro' but of course they were too short to show behind the daylillies! But I admit alliums can put a a great show!

I love them. Villiers. My yukky neighbor put up a 6' white vinyl privacy fence all down 250' of my tree line. I did a combination Allium planting every 6 feet along it.

Yuck, they are not fun neighbors! But think it could be worse, like bamboo!!
Does it block the deer too?
I am always amazed how some people block the view of a wonderful garden by putting a fence. Maybe they are jealous, or it remind them of all the fun they could have in their garden if they wanted to get to work???

V--bengal, as in the tiger LOL?

Villiers, There are massive electrical towers about half a block away. The deer won't cross through those towers. Even though I'm an eigth of a mile from the nation's largest deer population, they won't come here, thank heavens! The deer here are very domesticated. They tolerate us!!

Sally, here is my vole helper.

Whoa Villiers!! He looks fierce!! Do you rent him out???

He will work for (live) food. He is the most gentle cat, but loves to hunt groundhogs, mice, birds..(he is 16lbs, skinny and long in legs and body)
He now wears a bell and I raised my feeders to seven feet. I saw him catch a bird in mid flight close to six feet high. I wish I could keep him indoor but he has figured out the dogs door.

Wish you had a photo of that catch!

Handsome kitty!
I have a cartoon posted by my cat's food bowl. A cat is sitting by his food bowl, with a sign that says. "Will work for food, then take, like, two bites, and walk away"

What a great thread!
WOW jfleming That really is a lot of bulbs and I thought the 2-3 hundred I planted a couple of years ago was a lot. What do you plant in those beds in the spring? I have a much smaller lamppost bed filled with spring bulbs but I had a terrible time last spring trying to plant some perennials and annuals in that bed. Every place I dug I would find bulbs and trying to get those plants in on top of the bulbs was a real issue not to mention all the smaller bulbs like crocus that were only a few
FlowerJen, What beautiful pictures. I just love Katherine Hodgkin Iris and the other Reticulated Iris. I had a few KH planted a couple of years ago but they never grew then last year I planted a few blue ones they didn't bloom for me yet. I think I did get some KH from the swap this spring, did they come from you? We will see next year if they bloom. There was a beautiful display at the PhilaFlowerShow with about 10 different varieties of Reticulated Iris.

Talk about those blue and yellow combos. I remember seeing a pic somewhere (probably here in DG) with a big bed of yellow daffs growing with blue forget me nots. Just beautiful.
WOW Stormy you are really going to town and those pics from last year look great. I took notice of your dibbler at Critters. That is one nice tool.
Sally I had one of those augers years ago wish I knew what happened to it. Bet your son would have a good time with that.
I really like the idea of planting crocus bulbs with the daffs and tulips as a marker.
I planted quite a few daffs in that new bed down by the veggie garden. Mostly they came from the daff swap and most will be yellow daffs as I didn't have any in that area. I also picked up a few extra doubles and mixed colors for that bed. I am still planting daffs and crocus that I got from Critter. She added quite a few bulbs for me along with her order. I planted some of them last week but there are more to be planted.
I still don't have all my computer info back so I'm not sure which one this is. Last year in one of the DG Bulb Co-ops I noticed a fall blooming bulb. Well here it is blooming right now. I had never known that there were fall blooming bulbs like these.

Thanks, Holly. It is Muscari that we are planting with the Tulips and Daffs. Ran out of them today, but see lot of places have them for sale now. I love my Dibbler, got it from one of the bulb mail order companies I've never seen that flower you posted before.

Speaking of Callas, look how much mine are up now..

Your callas look very healthy. Nice work with the labels too! I gave up on those since they always seem to come up when I rake the leftover leaves in the spring. I rely on my (unreliable) memory. You must be a very organized gardener!

Hi everyone! I've been shopping the sales this year. Most years I get 1000-1200 bulbs
from Van Engelen but this year I ordered in the spring and got some really nice fall blooming
bulbs from Brent & Becky - several fall blooming crocus and a number of colchicum. Also
250 fall bubls.

Then I hit the sales - 550 more from Van Engelen at 25% discount and last night another
few hundred from Brent & Becky at 50% off. I'm heading out to clear an area to plant the
new ones. (Hard to believe but I am running out of space.)

Villiers - have you been to Jon Londsales' website?

http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/

He calls his feline hunting crew his Homeland Security.

I highly recommend John's website to all of you. He spoke at our rock garden society
chapter meeting a few weeks ago and he talked "only" about his favorite bulbs, tubers
and rhyzomes. Amazing. And he has wonderfully informative articles on his website too.

Tam

Thanks for the info Tammy. I will check out his web site later tonight. It looks pretty nice outside the sun is shining and the outside thermometer says 45 bet it will be a bit warmer in the sun. I'm going to try and finish my bulb planting today. Those bad chickens pulled the markers out of the ground yesterday. I had planted window blind markers with the daffs and put them in really deep with just a little bit showing so they wouldn't blow away over winter. I went out earlier to leave them out for the day and found my markers laying everywhere. Bad Bad chickies.

Oh its so refreshing to hear someone else with chicken stories. Mine dug out
my freshly planted and very expensive terrestrial orchids a couple of years ago.
I guess that's why the make chicken wire 'eh?

Its glorious out here - 60deg and sunny. I'm digging out multiflora roses today.
I'm so scratched up already! Maybe I should have put on my rose gloves. Oops.

Tam

LOL Tammy, Here is a link to some threads about our chickens. They have been an endless source of amusement.
This thread is on the Poultry Forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1033341/
This thread is on the MA Forum
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/996320/
Please post a few of your Chickie pics. on either thread.
Well, I finished up planting the daffs and planted about half the crocus. Dug up the rest of the cannas. Wouldn't have finished the job but Ric offered to dig the ones left out back by the pool. He spent most of the day cleaning the pool and working on the ponds. It was a beautiful day outside.

Thanks for the link to John Lonsdale's website. Pretty impressive. I have to find a way to see the garden. I leave only 15 minutes from Exton; I used to go to Waterloo Gardens quite a bit when they had unusual plants.
Keep planting, it is supposed to freeze on Tuesday night!

I looked like I tangled with a bear! I made a good dent in the brambles growing on
a hill I've been trying to tame for years. I managed to jam my pinkie and am just
covered in scratches (forgot to put on my rose gloves at first. Duh).

Here's a chicken shot. They enjoy the bird feeder.

Tammy, They are beauties!!! Do you think they help with vole control?

I have my vegetable garden fenced so they don't go in there - which is where the
voles are right now. I do think my own feline "homeland security" force help.
We have five cats - two indoor and three that go in & out (two stay in the barn
at night 'cause they weren't so nice about their litter habits). All three are just
wonderful hunters!

I have seen chickens eat mice but I hadn't thought about them eating voles too.
Maybe I'll let them in there in the spring - they'd help scratch out all the weeds. :-)

Tam

They are beauties!

I finished planting all my bulbs today. Yeah!

Way to Go, Holly !!! Can't wait to see spring pictures of them in full bloom!

I lost a day to the rain. Should get it finished tomorrow before work, maybe.

The bulbs I got on sale should be here in a few days. This really is
the last batch. :-)

Looks like we our second frost last night. Been awfully warm so far
this fall.

Tam