Early bulb sprouting

allymountain13 · November 2018

Alium Sphaeracephalon!!!! and snowdrop bulbs planted in first week of October are 7" high!!! Will they die?

nutcutlet · November 2018

I doubt if they'll die. How deep did you plant them?

JennyJ · November 2018

I put some allium spaerocephalon in pots (so not very deep) and they are up too. Nothing to worry about - they'll stop growing when it gets cold and flower at the normal times. I'm planning to pop them in the ground (deeper than the pot depth) in spring when I can see where the spaces are. My muscari are up too but that's normal for them.

madpenguin · November 2018

No,if the weather gets colder they will stop growing.
Hardy bulbs have been coping quite well without human assistance for millennia!

allymountain13 · November 2018

I planted them about 4" deep

Fairygirl · November 2018

All perfectly normal, although I don't know how your snowdrops are that height. Mine don't reach 7 inches when fully out!
The allium foliage will look manky anyway by the time they flower, so it's best to have them behind something that covers the foliage. It's the one drawback of them.
Anything growing during milder weather will simply slow down as it gets colder too

allymountain13 · February 2019

Hi everyone. Really grumpy start to the year. Had the Planteo app. Every plant in my garden was entered with alarms set for reminders. Got a new phone. Can't transfer the app or the data. So have lost everything.
Also, my snowdrops, which have been green all winter because they came up 6 weeks after I planted the bulbs (as did my Alium) haven't flowered. Will be gutted if Aliums don't flower. Planted about 100 of them. Any answes greatly appreciated.

Kitty 2 · February 2019

Are there any stems with buds on your snowdrops?
Maybe they need a bit more time.

The alliums, yes the foliage pops up long before the flowers appear. I planted my first sphaerocephalon a couple of years ago, had masses of leaves. Fairygirl reassured me that it was normal... and she was right.
They went on to flower beautifully 😊.

Sorry you lost all the info on your app 😞.

JennyJ · February 2019

If the snowdrops are growing leaves but don't flower, maybe the bulbs weren't big enough yet. A complaint to the supplier might be in order if they claimed that the bulbs were of flowering size but they were actually not. Flowering the first spring after planting shouldn't really depend on the conditions (as long as the bulbs haven't rotted away or been eaten, which isn't the case as they've grown leaves) because the embryo flower should be already in the bulb. Same for alliums, but their flowering time is a few months away, and for many of them the foliage grows and starts dying off before the flowers appear.

DampGardenMan · February 2019

JennyJ said:

Flowering the first spring after planting shouldn't really depend on the conditions (as long as the bulbs haven't rotted away or been eaten, which isn't the case as they've grown leaves) because the embryo flower should be already in the bulb.

I planted a 1000 snowdrops in October 2017. They came up fine and flowered in Jan/Feb 2018. This year - hardly any, just a few leaves here and there but no flowers. Do you think they're building their strength back up ready for flowering next year? The bulbs were (foolishly?) bought in the dry. We got English bluebells from the same supplier and they were fine in 2018, and are pushing through now. All the bulbs seemed a decent size and were firm. Did the long hot summer do for them? Most were in the shade under trees or shrubs or hedges and of course it was awfully dry there. Maybe the newly planted bulbs just hadn't got their roots in well enough to survive?

JennyJ · February 2019

I think I'd be inclined to blame the dryness. The ones that are growing leaves are at least still alive so a more normal (ie wet!) summer might see them recover for next year.

Early bulb sprouting

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