I managed to plant a cage full of tulips, several crocuses, and my last four rhizomes today. I've been planting every weekend for the past several weeks.
But I still have 30-40 daffodils to plant, another 20-30 crocuses, and about 30 more tulips, plus a ton of garlic. I'm worried about it getting too late to plant all this stuff, although today it was in the 50s and possibly 60s.
I'm running out of spaces to plant, too. I wanted to plant rows of daffodils and tulips by the fence, but I dug down, and the previous owners put down black plastic, then covered it with soil and bark chip mulch. That's before the new fence went in. I don't think I'll ever be able to plant ANYTHING there.
I could think about raised beds by the fence, but I'm thinking it's too late in the year to do that, either.
But there were so many pretty bulbs and rhizomes in the catalogs! And I think I went a little overboard. I will say, though, that all of my bulbs still look solid and healthy. The last of the rhizomes were more than a bit dry and crinkled, but I planted them anyway.
I've got a couple days off around Thanksgiving. Maybe I can invest in an ice pick and go out and plant while the turkey's roasting.
I bought way too many bulbs
Well, rest assured you are not alone. I think many of us are sitting here with the residue of our (over the top) bulb orders.
I still have lots to do. I am going to purchase some bags of planting mix and mix it with my chopped leaves and just pour it on top of my bulbs spaced out on the bare ground and tamp it down if I run out of time/energy or if the weather freezes. This method has worked for me before. I just read today of someone who poured wood chips on her bulbs spread on the surface of her garden bed and it worked just fine (in a pinch).
I also went to the dollar store and bought lots of big plastic pots for my tulip bulbs and will plant them with some leftover potting soil and the chopped leaves and set them outside under netting to keep the animals out and covered with leaves for insulation.. I hope this will work--I have not tried this before, but I don't know why it wouldn't work well enough.
Last year I was planting bulbs on New Year's Day, so in some ways I'm ahead of schedule.
Emergency measures, true, but what the heck. They're worth a try, I think. Good luck! t.
thanks, guys. I feel a little better about mine now. I thought I was careful not to buy too many because I knew I wouldn't be up to planting a lot. first it rains every day, then we get a snow storm, then I had to have oral surgery that knocked me out for 2 weeks, now it's dark when I get home from work, so it's weekends only. Last week I managed some Asiatic lilies, yesterday more lilies and some giant allium, today some free daffodils that I got with a perennial order. I still have some lilies and some species tulips and miniature daffs. weather is supposed to be decent this week and I'm working from home tomorrow, so I may be able to finish the lilies on my lunch hour.
t, you have a trick for everything. you amaze me. but I'm much too anal for that. I HAVE to get them all planted. I have a couple of days off before Thanksgiving, too, but I was planning on cleaning & cooking, not planting LOL
gram ~a girl~
Yep, lots of bulbs to plant still, and I am out of town for a conference next weekend. I expect I will be planting bulbs while the ham is baking on Thanksgiving day. The worst of it is that Muscari 'Valerie Finnis' were already sprouted when I recieved them. Those I will try to get planted before I leave on Thursday, even if I have to do so by flashlight.
Beth
I may be doing the flashlight thing before too long. Sun sets at 5. I get out of work at 5:30 and home about 7. Except for the evenings when I have class. Then I get home around 9.
I'm afraid they'll all either sprout or dry up before I get them into the ground.
But if I do manage to plant them all and they come up, next spring is going to be glorious!
After reading these posts, I am feeling better. lol. I was really carzy. I had no business ordering any bulbs, but the pictures were just too pretty to resist. :-) I have been planting them in my neighbors' yard and I am not half way done yet.
It is too dangerous to insert a trowel anywhere in my garden. I tried that yesterday. I heard this crunching sound everytime I did. Ooopsy daisy! More casualties.
Have any of you read Rob Proctor's "Naturalizing Bulbs"? He gave wonderful hints on how you can stuff thousands of bulbs into a small area. Have fun. :-)
Sympathies, Grampapa, on the oral surgery. I had to have a root canal a couple months ago. That was after I had to put a crown on where I cracked a filling. And that was after the tooth infection that I needed antibiotics and painkillers. And I still have to schedule an appointment to get this final crown fitted.
Not a good year for teeth.
And I just came home from karate class. I got my wrist sprained by an orange belt! That was really embarrassing. At my level, I'm supposed to be teaching these lower ranks a thing or two about martial arts. Mentor the beginners indeed! Someone protect me from them!
I can really feel it when I type, too.
thanks W_H. got by that, and still have a crown to get done. sorry about wrist and the accompanying embarrassment. now how are you going to finish those bulbs?
Pitimpinai, that's all I need, trying to stuff in thousands of bulbs LOL
All I have left now are 10 lilies, 10 species tulips and 20 mini daffs. should be able to finish this week.
gram
Here's my take:
1) Find a friend and offer them some of your extra's. Then when they do, you can smugly
say "well I got mine all planted before you did" (This is exactly what a dear friend did to me
last year. )
2) Pot 'em up and bring them out before the ones outdoors are blooming. You'll enjoy them
and you can plant them where they are needed in the spring. (They will be a lot cheaper
than the ones selling in pots at your local nursery).
3) If you get really desparate, send 'em my way. (JUST KIDDING).
WH - do you have someone to recruit in planting the rest of those bulbs? I don't see how you'll
be able to finish planting with a sprained wrist!
Tam
I was abt to brag that I'd gotten all my bulbs in (as of 6pm) and then ran into a couple bags of daffs & tulips that were hiding in the garage! I, too, ordered way too many bulbs & then spent DAYS thinking abt which ones would go where. I thought abt it while I,too, was having one root canal, being told I needed another, & finding out that I had a broken tooth, too! I hate to be paying off the endodontist when I want to be saving for the craft show the day after Thanksgiving :=( Yesterday my wonderful yard guy came & tilled three new beds. The soil is such heavy clay that it compacts right after you till it. So he tilled & then we scraped the soil off to the side---till again, scrape again. Till again, scrape again. Trip to HD to get more chicken wire, pea gravel, etc. Today, prepped the beds with gravel so the bulbs wouldn't rot until at least 20 minutes after planting. After all my hours of planning, I ended up with all three new beds being jumbles of tulips, daffs, & muscari, with alliums (is that the right plural?) & God only knows what else. Then added some compost, then newspaper & boxes on top, then leaves, soil, hair (to see if it really repels deer), then chicken wire, then logs & rocks to weigh down the chicken wire. All the while with this cold mist falling, shoes so mucked up I may just pitch them. Every joint in my body is screaming right now---- I want to get in the hot tub but I'm afraid I'd never make it out! BUT, at least most the bulbs are in, better protected than last year, AND the 6 bags of leaves that we shredded with the Flowtron leaf shredder one week ago were already starting to steam-- amazing! And I will have FLOWERS next spring! Yeehaw!
Picture of 3 deer survivors from last spring:
How exciting! (The new beds freshly planted ... not the root canals & broken tooth.)
I am so grateful not to have clay soil. Those darn rocks are terribly annoying but at
least they can be dug out and used for other purposes.
Your joints will be feeling fine when those bulbs are blooming. Good thing too as it sounds
like you'll be needing to chase away the deer. LOL (They don't eat muscari, allium or daffodils
so maybe they'll leave the tulips alone too. Keeping my fingers & toes crossed for you.)
Tam
It's snowing today, so no bulb planting. Next weekend should be clear and dry, and somewhat warmer. I'm glad I did outside errands yesterday.
WH - how's the wrist doing?
goshs -- Am I reading this right? You put newspaper and cardboard on top of your bulbs? What makes you think they'll come up through it in the spring?
Suzy
The wrist is actually doing much better. In hindsight, I don't think it was a sprain. I think it was just a bad strain instead. It was sore for a couple of days, but it seems better now.
I still have a ton of bulbs to plant, but at least I started planting some of the garlic.
D'oh... garlic! totally forgot about garlic!!!
Garlic...I really miss having garlic. I love seeing those pink shoots coming up in the spring. I'll put some in next fall for sure. I'm putting in a new bed next spring that will have room for that.
I still have bulbs to do. The weather has been awful on the days when I have time. The gorgeous warm days I'm working and have errands to run that can't wait. bummer. I took today and tomorrow off. They were predicting some sun (cold, but that's ok). Now it's saying rain both days. But it I don't get it done the grounds going to freeze soon.
Suzy,
This is my attempt at "lasagna" gardening. The newspapers were thoroughly wet down, & the cardboard was thoroughly scored with a mat knife & soaked to encourage breakdown. The chicken wire is to discourage the deer and the squirrels. The newspaper & cardboard should be disintegrated enough by spring to let the bulbs through, but I'll have to take the chicken wire off at some point. Hopefully, it'll be after I've put out the nasty smelling stuff that does seem to repel them (until it rains & washes off). Actually, I'm hoping to get a deer fence up by then; first I have to check the local codes and then I have to check the check the checkbook!
And in addition to the 40+ daffodils, 20-30 tulips, 50-60 crocuses, and 8 cloves of garlic yet to plant (cloves? bulbs? The big ones.), I found one lone TB iris rhizome hiding in the bottom of one of my bulb boxes. The leaves are a bit dry and shriveled, but the rhizome itself is firm and solid. I'll plant it next weekend, hopefully along with the 100+ other stuff I have to plant. I have good hopes for it coming up next spring. It looks healthy.
Next year, I won't overbuy. I promise. I wish I'd gotten my raised beds in front of the back patio finished this year, though, but time, obligations, and chronic fatigue kept putting that, and a lot of other things, off.
Promises, promises...LOL
I remember saying the same thing last year when I was putting bulbs in pots because it was so late. Then what did I do????
I finished planting 1,047 bulbs a couple of weeks ago. Whew...then I found 6 more that I have left so my grand total will be 1,053.
Are you impressed??? Maybe in the spring, if the gophers don't eat them all. Now THAT would make me mad.
Susan
=^..^=
I didn't overbuy earlier this year, but if they ever post the sale over at VanEngelen tonight, I may make up for it! I planted about a thousand bulbs last year and also the year before, but many of them were small bulbs, so it's a less impressive effort than planting a thousand daffs or tulips.
I didn't order many bulbs earlier this season because I thought I might not be able to dig this fall (was hoping to be pregnant and on restricted activity, but alas). I do have a hundred 'Rip van Winkle' daffs and a hundred blue anemone bulbs (again with the little bulbs) to put out front by the new little dogwood & azalea "island." And I did some planting of bulbs from Sam's when we were visiting my in-laws (about 600) and more recently at my parent's place (260... it was much harder going to get the bulbs in under the maple trees... really had to hack at those surface feeder roots to carve out little niches).
I may make up for the relative lack of planting here with some clearance purchases... I've already got a couple hundred bulbs on their way from BloomingBulb (including 30 "bigger" red crown imperial vole-chaser bulbs).... and so it goes!
critter, do the voles really dislike those? cuz I really dislike the voles LOL
We were discussing them last year, and the general concensus seemed to be that the crown imperial bulbs did chase away voles. Bleek very sweetly sent me two bulbs to try, and I put them in the front bed where I'd tried everything the year before to run off a very persistant vole who was eating my species tulips one at a time (there were several voles out there at first, but they were more easily spooked by kitty litter, pine sol, etc.). I did not see a single vole hole in that bed last year! So I am going to plant them around in some of my other beds this fall.
Actually, I don't much care for the bloom on a crown imperial (*ducks*)..... they seem a little "loud" to me... I may change my mind, LOL, but in the mean time it's just fine with me if mine don't bloom, as long as they keep running off the voles!
Kittymom, how did your bulbs in pots do last year? Did you keep them outside? Did you bring them in the house to force earlier bloom, or did you plant them out before they sprouted, or.... ?? (just in case I my eyes are bigger than my shovel)
I kept them outside and they put on a good show. I then dug them up (dumped them out) in August and let them dry a bit and planted them in the ground with all the others this year. I had about 10 pots of daffs, tulips and even some lilies. All did well, I sat them again the south side of the house and piled leaves all around. Then in about March/April I moved them out in the sun and kept them watered. They bloomed really good.
Susan
=^..^=
OK, thanks! If nothing else, I think I need to do a pot for a neighbor who moved this summer... She is lamenting the tulips she left behind... she's just 10 miles away, but they'll only be renting there for a year, so she's not going to tackle the clay there in order to put in any bulbs.
Did anybody buy a few too many 'Casa Grande' tulips?? Those were her very favorite... and they've been sold out where I've looked.
I am so glad that I tripped over this thread. What great ideas. I am ashamed to even mention how much I did not get into the ground yet. I got more than a little carried away with some co-ops. Perhaps there is still hope.
OK, *now* I've bought waaaay too many bulbs! Jeepers, I just added them all up, and I have 805 bulbs to try to get in before the ground freezes! Fortunately, many are small bulbs that will go in as I'm digging holes for larger bulbs. And I didn't buy anything without knowing where I would plant it!
I've got 40 oriental lily bulbs coming to put in along the back part of the lily bed where I've lost a few over the last couple of years. I'm also going to put some of my crown imperials there, in case the loss was due to voles, and the 'Eye of the Tiger' dutch iris will go in front of that bed where I planted out some Penstemon smallii (loved that combo in another bed last spring).
100 'Ice Follies' daffs will go in the front portion of the daff bed, hopefully to bloom at about the same time as the yellow jonquils behind them. 100 'Tricolor' crocus and 100 'Gordon' Iris reticulata will go in while I'm planting the daffs.
I've got a new little island in the front with 3 tiny dogwoods (planted closely so the white ones will intertwine with the pink one) and 3 'Encore' azaleas... that's where the 'Rip van Winkle' daffs (100) and 'Blue Shades' anemone (100) will go... I already have those bulbs, so I think I'd better get cracking and put them in before the others arrive!
25 'Woodstock' hyacinths and 100 'JS Digit' Iris reticulata will go in the main front bed around the pear tree, where (I think) I currently only have some spaced clumps of 'Geranium' daffs. 10 more Allium christophii will also be added to that bed, where I put 5 of them last year between some lilies, and 50 'Superstar' grape hyacinths will be added to the mix of Muscari along the front edge of that bed. 5 Allium schubertii and 10 'Little Red Riding Hood' tulips will also get tucked into that bed to see how they do.
I think (hope!) this will be do-able. It helps to have a plan, and once I start on an area I think it'll go pretty quickly. None of these are going into new beds that I still have to dig, and that's a big help!
Critter,
WE WANT PICTURES NEXT SPRING! LOL and probably a couple of you planting out in the cold and rain...you must have either some really nice weather there or a really fancy outfit to wear! I myself have a new waterproof ensemble that I got in the Wal-Mart sporting department. It goes on OVER my other clothes -- layers over layers in Indiana -- so I have to tell you, Audrey Hepburn I ain't! (If it were purple I would look like Barney.)
Suzy
Here's some of what was blooming last spring... view from my front step...
Here's a better shot looking up from the sidewalk... you can see there's some space in the middle there that needs filling in!
The daffs are so dense along one edge because they went in (with the lavender hedge) a year before the rest of the bed was dug.
Very nice..it belongs in House & Garden magazine.
Critter, That is gorgeous! If I squint I can see the places in the middle that are bare, but holy cow!, it sure looks nice as-is. Love the house, especially the shutters & their color - very unusual, and very elegant. One more thing I was going to point out is that the rock picks up on the color of the house. Some people around here use a pale grayish-white limestone that looks almost white against their houses and it looks, well, not awful, but as if they couuld have gone to a little more trouble to get something that matches their house a bit better. (Don't think I'm anti-limestone, anti-white stone or anything, ladies & gents; in front of some houses, the limestone looks great, so I'm not against it, just that any rocks or stones should complement the surroundings.) I also think using a bench instead of foundation shrubs is very nice -- and I don't recall ever seeing it before.
Your picture reminds me -- I have to go downstairs and get my wreath. LOL!
critterologist, I can't wait to see it again in the spring with your new additions. What do you overplant it with for the summer? I would love to see a picture. Patti
Critter, your organization just blows me away. My planning consisted of, "Ooooh! Pretty!" And some of the places I'd planned to put bulbs won't work as is. Too much black plastic and bark mulch in the way.
Next year, I'll have more places created as flower beds.
Funny you should ask.... LOL
I do have a photo a little later in the year when the lavender is in full bloom, which I'll post below.
There's a 'Knockout' rose that pretty much takes over the area where the red tulips are in the first photo.
I put in various annuals where the grape hyacinths are -- one year, it was a bronze speckled leaf lettuce, which made a really elegant border, and almost nobody twigged to the fact that it was a veggie. Also, just behind the grape hyacinths I've put in irises, but they haven't bloomed yet.
The tufts of foliage marching up the center of the bed are a burgundy lily of some sort from a friend. I fill in the center with edible ornamentals like purple pepper varieties (leaves have purple on them, and blooms are lilac, too cool) and with scented geraniums (pelargonium; they're tender perennials that I overwinter inside).
The walkway to the door has dianthus on one side ('Microchip Mix', which was very short for the first 2 years and then got taller!) and creeping thyme along the other side. I plant Torenia in the shade under the bench, and in addition to the hostas that you can't see in front of the windows I grow Balsam Impatiens that come back from seed every year.
LOL at how far off topic I've gone here... I'll have to post some of this over in the new Cottage Garden forum! I'm trying to learn to think in "sweeps" and "layers" of color, with repeating elements, rather than my usual style of trying to cram together every plant I fall in love with and bring home.
Thanks for the compliment about the house colors... the builder had particular shutter/door colors chosen to go with each house color... DH really liked this blue (me too), but it was "supposed" to go with a very light siding color, and the darker siding that I liked was "supposed" to have forest green trim... so we did a "custom change order" and voila! :-)
WOW! Just magnificent. The house is lovely and the garden is perfect for it.
And so well planted.
Tam
Thanks! I've been out digging for the last hour or so... It's too wet to really plant today, but I wanted to strip some sod from around the edges of that little island bed in front... There was a limit to how much digging DH would do for me this summer to get those little dogwoods and azaleas in, so as a result everything got planted out to the edges of the bed! The sod comes up easily right now, though, and I won't have to dig very deep to get the dwarf daffs etc. out toward the new edges. Then a little mulch on top, and I think the island won't look awkwardly small anymore.
I also scraped a bunch of mulch off the daff and daylily bed where I'm putting in a hundred huge 'Ice Follies' bulbs... hopefully that will let the bed dry out a bit so I won't be planting in total muck (not nice for me or for the bulbs).
ALL of my bulbs from VanEngelen and Bloomingbulbs came today, via UPS & USPS. WOW. In previous years, I've managed to put in 1000 bulbs, but I did it a couple hundred at a time.... The sight of something like 850 bulbs (Bloomingbulbs sent extras) in my front hall is rather intimidating! I've sorted them into piles depending on which bed they're gong into, and hopefully I'll get a bunch of them in this weekend.
I think I need a hot bath...
LOL, I know what you mean. I had all 1,053 bulbs sitting in the garage at one time. Just started carrying boxes a few at a time and planting them, 'trying' to plan as I went, so I hope everything looks good in the spring.
Didn't have to worry about wet here, in fact since we don't get rain here anymore, I had to run the sprinklers the day before to soften it up enough for me to plant at all.
Susan
=^..^=
The soil will be plenty soft for me. Tomorrow it's going to rain. Good for the plants, not so good to have freezing rain running down the back of my neck when I'm trying to plant bulbs. Brrr! Makes me shiver just to think about it.
I really want all the bulbs in the ground this weekend. I've thought that I might build a couple little circles out of the bricks the previous owners left behind. (Not bricks, exactly, but those semi circular things.) Then I can put garden soil inside the circles and plant the bulbs inside of that.
This morning there were about 4-5 squirrels out in my backyard looking very interested in my beds. Hmmm. Squirrel stew for Thanksgiving, anyone? These squirrels should be fat enough. They've had a rich diet of bulbs and rhizomes.
Psst! Too many bulbs? Tired of digging holes? I just sent Badseed a whole box full of extra bulbs. lol