Sara, I look up Anna Pavord's book for my bulb planting times and much more. It is called "Bulb" and available in the library. She advises what to plant them with, the best varieties, what to avoid and when they will flower for lots of kinds of bulb and the illustrations are great. She has also written a book on Tulips alone.
I am talking from experience - the bulbs come up early if planted now (around Nov/Dec) esp if it stays mild. That means the stalks are out during the worst of winter in Jan-Mar which often kills the flowering bit and thus you only get leaves for that year. I had a look online and if you mulch early stalks then that might mitigate any problems over the worst of winter.
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Sara, I look up Anna Pavord's book for my bulb planting times and much more. It is called "Bulb" and available in the library. She advises what to plant them with, the best varieties, what to avoid and when they will flower for lots of kinds of bulb and the illustrations are great. She has also written a book on Tulips alone.
I am talking from experience - the bulbs come up early if planted now (around Nov/Dec) esp if it stays mild. That means the stalks are out during the worst of winter in Jan-Mar which often kills the flowering bit and thus you only get leaves for that year. I had a look online and if you mulch early stalks then that might mitigate any problems over the worst of winter.
http://www.tulipworld.com/help/flower-bulb-help.html
can I ask will this apply to all bulbs or just tulips
James
Just Tulips, Most other bulbs benefit from being planted now, especially Daffs
Thank you Matt as it's raining I'm now going to plant some pot up with my Allium
James
I'm hoping to get some planting done later this afternoon when the rain clears. So much to do!