Bulb layering time

ishyam79 · September 2020

Hello All,

This is my first time in planting spring bulbs and in addition to planting the bulbs in the ground, I am going to try and pot bulbs in layers (tulips, tete a tete and crocus). I believe the optimal time for planting these bulbs are different. I have heard for tulips it is November and for the crocus and tete a tete, it is earlier (October). Given this situation, when do you recommend I should pot these bulbs?

Appreciate your guidance.

Shyam

Fairygirl · September 2020

Tulips are usually best left till later because of tulip virus. If you're worried, you can plant them in pots of their own. Tulips tend to have different requirements to daffs and crocus, so it's a good method anyway. They like a drier medium to grow in. It will depend on your general conditions and climate over winter though.
However, you can leave them all until a bit later if you want them all planted together. Just keep them somewhere cool and dry so that they don't rot

spookess · September 2020

I recently received my tulip bulbs, ordered from Farmer Gracy's, and the exact advice I was given is "You can plant them October/November no problem. They will be happy in pots too. Once planted, keep them outdoors and there is no need to water them, rainfall or just moisture in the air/compost will be enough to keep them happy. If you water them as well they will certainly get too wet. They won't need any frost protection, they are fully hardy and do best when they are cold over winter."
I didn't ask about if the advice when layering would be different however.
Hope that helps.

Dovefromabove · September 2020

I believe the theory is that because of the risk of virus in the soil, tulips going into open ground should be planted late.

However, as bought in potting compost should already be sterilised, there’s no risk of virus in the soil and tulips can be planted earlier into pots and containers.

Bulb layering time

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