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Planting bulbs in December
SweetPea93
Posts: 446
Bought some reduced bulbs today in a GC for my dad. Mainly tulips. They said that its ok to plant up until December, will he still get some results if planting after Christmas? They've been stored in a cold dry area so far.
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Hi SP
My garden is full of reduced price bulbs, bought late, they'll be fine, bung 'em in
In the sticks near Peterborough
I've heard of people planting tulips in January. I still have a packet left to plant.
Hello SweetPea, haven't seen you for a bit. How is your new house and garden?
...I've planted Tulips as late as February and they still come up o.k.... some smaller garden centres give them away free at that time...well that's how I got them...
Thanks for asking that question, I was going to ask the same!
The bulb will do fine in its first year, as all the goodness it needs is already in the bulb. Unless it is very special you may wish to treat it as an annual, and not expend any effort or dosh on trying to get it to repeat. If you do want it to repeat feed it as it grows and then the foliage it makes becomes the foodstore for year 2 after the leaves die back. If the bulbs look anything other than pretty perfect I would treat as annual only.
I've been up in the greenhouse today potting up some bulbs I found in the shed - part of the collection I have every year of bulbs that get dug up during the year when I'm planting something else. I pot them up in multipurpose compost with a little gravel on the top and pop them in spare corner in the garden. If they have good flowers I place the pots where I can see them in the spring' If I only get leaves then I feed them until the foliage dies down. I'm often surprised by what comes up!
If you don't plant them, what else would you do with them?
All plants have two chances.......
I planted my own that I bought around that time, and they've started coming up in the last two weeks, the mini crocuses have turned up and flowered, they only lasted a couple of days. Something's been nibbling at the others!
I've not heard from my dad, but I imagine his have started to show up too!
Result!