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How quickly do bulbs reproduce?
Garden noob
Posts: 260
in Plants
How often do bulbs tend to multiply? My crocuses are doing well and multiplying nicely, but the bluebells, snowdrops, daffodils and tulips seem to be lagging and I've not seen much change in 2-4 years. I was hoping the displays would thicken up but perhaps I was too optimistic. What are your experiences?
I've since read about chipping daffodils so I'll give that a go this year to speed things along.
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I've always found daffodils increase happily with no help from me.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the feedback. Bluebells and daffodils numbers seem to be consistent. A few of the bluebells have multiplied, but probably less than 20%. I expected more from these.
I think we were a bit slow to plant the snowdrops in the green last year, and the ground may not have been free-draining enough for them, so we lost a lot of plants. But of those that did come back, I think only one had divided. Perhaps I should feel lucky that they came back at all. I've dug in sand and decomposed manure, planted new snowdrops in the green and replanted the existing ones - hopefully next winter will be better, or the year after that if they take time to get established.
I'd like to keep my expectations in check. The crocuses seem to have produced about 1.5-2x as many bulbs each year and I thought it may have been similar for the others.
Snowdrops, I have thousands. All from a small clump that was here when I bought the house. I dig them up and spread them around when the clumps are too congested.
Daffodils I use in tubs first year, then throw them in the garden to recover. The rarer and more expensive the bulb, the less likely it is to survive , let alone increase.
Squirrels eat the crocuses. It is an expensive way of feeding them.
Tulips generally deteriorate each year, I keep topping them up.
Mine probably increase happily as I tend to go for native or species types. They're used to fending for themselves
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Do crows eat bulbs? We planted hundreds out the front and not many have popped up. I am convinced I saw a crow pull a bulb from the grass.