Too late to plant bulbs?

All,

I live in Zone 5b (Ithaca NY). I have a lot of bulbs that I have not been able to plant so far, and wanted to ask if it is too late to plant them now.

I was thinking of planting them into the expected depth, and covering the soil with about 3-4 inches of shredded leaves mixed with compost to keep them warm.

If it is too late, what can I do with the bulbs? Plant them indoors?

Thanks!

I've heard that as long as you can dig the soil, you can plant bulbs. Also heard that you can plant up until Thanksgiving. The soil shouldn't freeze much until the end of the year and they won't put on a lot of root growth until things thaw a bit in the spring.

And there's a feeling among Dave's Garden writers that if you DON'T plant them, you get nothing, so better to plant them too late than not to plant them at all. (I don't think it's too late at all, though.) The soil with shredded leaves will be fine. Even just soil alone should be fine, but the shredded leaves with compost will improve everything. I always plant daffodils as long as I'm digging things up, and hope they keeps away critters.

Love your name, not so dumb if you're asking questions

Not sure what type of bulbs you want to plant. I can only tell you that down here in Dallas, Zone 8a, what the nurseries are saying. Here's a quote from one of our local nurseries 'Now is the time to plant daffodils, start forcing paperwhites indoors, select pre-chilled tulips and hyacinths to plant after Thanksgiving and by the end of the year.'

Of course you are in a much different climate. But it still seems like this would be a good time to plant. And as Carrie has just said, if you don't plant them, then you get nothing. So go for it!

All, thanks for your advice, and sorry for the delayed response! I had to straighten out my account.

I took everyone's advice and ended up planting about ~220 bulbs - a mix of narcissus, fragrant hyacinths, muscaris, checkered lilies, some alliums, and some deer-resistant tulips.

I am worried because I planted the bulbs over several days as the weather got progressively colder (temperature was in the teens at one point) and poured water to settle the soil around the bulbs. I did cover them with a couple of inches of shredded leaves, and hope I did not end up killing the bulbs with ice formation by pouring water.

Some bulbs also had blue mold on them, and I did not realize I should have first dipped them in 1% bleach solution to kill the fungus. I hope they survived. I will find out in 2-4 weeks about what happened with all those bulbs, and will post an update to this thread.

Nothing will happen. They will make it fine . More troublesome are excessive rains that cause rot but I would guess you're not there yet

And if per chance they don't do anything this year , don't be surprised if they put a lovely show in 2916. Happens to me when I buy/ plant end of season bulbs

Make sure you don't forget to write back, and post here in 900 years.

We'll be watching YOU....

Ohhhhhhh, that darned auto correct on iphone. 2016

Chuckle snort hahahaha. :)

I'll be here all week...

All, here you go! Several of the bulbs I planted have bloomed! How beautiful they are!

The exception is a mass planting of various daffodils and checkered lilies on a north-facing shadow area where the leaves are barely starting to poke out.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice!

very pretty! congratulations

Nice!

Hi DumberThanThou (great name but how can we shorten it?)- What a nice show.

Don't be surprised if the checkered lilies (Fritillaria meleagris) do not do much this year, or even next year. I planted some several years ago-the first year I had almost grass like leaves, and one itty bitty flower about a half inch long! Each year since then the leaves are a bit taller, a bit thicker, and there are more of them. The flowers also have increased in size and number each year. I think there were 4 flowers this year.

Thanks Pistil! I did not know that about checkered lilies. There also seem to be some other blubs which aren't doing anything, and I can't remember what they are. I planted 200+ bulbs frantically. I will post another update as things progress further. :)