Summer Bulbs are a great addition to any garden as they will provide colour year after year and can even provide additional flowers to be divided and planted in another part of the garden. Unlike normal flowers these flowers do not need to be planted each year, they are hardy in nature, and there is a colour, size or shape that should suit any gardening need.
Summer Bulbs are one of the easiest types of flowers or plants to nurture and cultivate. For the next season, the best types of bulbs to grow to include true bulbs such as Asiatic and Oriental lilies, corms like gladiolus and crocosmia, tubers, examples of which are begonia, caladium or dahlia, and rhizome crops such as agapanthus and canna.
If it’s your first time to plant and grow summer bulbs, here are some useful tips you should follow:
Make sure you will plant the bulbs in the best area in your garden. Make sure you will be planting the bulbs in areas that have the ideal conditions. This is especially true for perennial bulbs or the ones that hardy in your zone. For instance, many of the tropical summer bulbs thrive only in really warm, sun-bathed sites. Other species, such as canna or elephant ear, flourish better in moist areas and will even grow in shallow standing water. There are also some bulbs that won’t grow when planted in clay soil.
Never plant bulbs into the garden soil until it has warmed adequately. If you live in a cold area, start planting only when the spring air temperature is warm enough since bulbs planted in cold soil tends to rot easily. You can consider using black nursery pots to absorb the sun’s heat and warm soil if you can’t wait to start planting. However, don’t transplant the bulbs into the garden beds until you’re sure the soil is warm enough.
Always plant bulbs right side up. The roots should always be on the bottom of the planting hole. Although it can be tricky to tell which end is up for some bulbs, it is important to do this. One tip you can follow to determine which part is the bottom is to look for the part where there are roots attach to the bulb – this is the bottom part. Although plants can recover if you tuck bulbs into the soil upside down, you’ll still have better results if you get things right at the start.
If the plants need staking, insert stakes at planting time It is important to insert the stakes during planting time so that you can avoid accidentally spearing the bulb later in the growing season.
Planning your bulb garden is important for antithetic purposes. Put the taller bulbs in the back and the shorter ones in front. If you have a garden that can be viewed from all sides, then put the taller bulbs in the middle. Since most bulbs only bloom for a few weeks, you need to include bulbs with all different bloom times in your garden. Buy bulbs that bloom in early spring, late spring, early summer and end of the summer and plant them all in the same area for colour all season long. You can plant them next to each other or even in the same hole. If you time things perfectly, you will have one plant starting to bloom as another is ending.
Keeping your bulbs healthy and lively is easy. Remember to water them per instructions and fertilise them yearly. When your flower is done blooming, do not remove the leaves until they have turned brown – the green leaves are gathering nutrients to be stored in the bulb for next year’s flower!