Planting and Caring for Flower Bulbs
Nothing is quite as welcoming with beautiful flowers in the spring that seemed to emerge from a place to welcome the arrival of spring. Bulb type flowers are really unique plants, because they spend most of their days resting quietly beneath the soil surface. Then right on schedule, until they came, and bloom vigorously, and then almost as quickly as they come, they go. Except for the green leafy parts of plants that will tends to linger longer than we want them. Despite the short time they bloom and foliage is not attractive after bloom is lost, they are still a great addition to the landscape. But how should you care for them? First let’s talk about how to use them in your landscape.
Flowers of all kinds are best when planted in groups. Many people buy 25 or 50 bulbs and just go helter-skelter around the yard planting. That’s fine if that’s what you want, but when planted in a way that they tend to blend with the landscape and really did not show up well at all. When you plant them in large groups is the showpiece of their hearts. In the early spring start thinking about where you want to make a bed for flowers. Prepare beds to improve with good rich topsoil, and if at all possible add some cow manure composts well. Do this in the spring when you are in the gardening mood, you may not be in the fall. During the summer fill the bed with annual flowers to keep the weeds down, and your yard beautiful for the summer. Come fall all you have to do is remove annuals and plant your bulbs to the depth recommended on the package.
If you think you could have a problem with squirrels digging up bulbs and eat them, you can also wrap the bulbs in steel wool, leaving open only the tip of the ball so that it can grow from a small wire cage you’ve created. Or you can just plant the bulbs and then cover the beds with chicken wire or plastic fencing until the lights began to grow in spring. When the bulbs come in the spring and begin blooming, you have clips from the blooms as they begin to wilt. This makes the bulb from producing seeds, which require lots of energy, and you want the ball to use all the available energy to store food in preparation for a rest period of the ball. After the lights really thrive done you do not want to cut off the top until they wilt and die back. Million-dollar question is how to treat the top until that happens.
Many people bend over and slip the rubber bands on them or in cases such as daffodil bulbs tie them with one long leaf. This seems to work because it is a very common practice among many experienced gardeners. However, Mike is about rain on the parade. I strongly disagree with this theory because back about 6th grade we learned about photosynthesis in science class. To recap what we learned, and not into the boring details, the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to make food for it. From sunlight absorbed by the foliage and the food manufacturing process begins. In the case of flower bulb this food is transported to the ball below the ground and stored for later use.
So basically leaves of plants such as small solar panels. Their job is to absorb the rays from the sun to start the process known as photosynthesis. If we fold them over and handcuff them with their hands behind their backs, they will not be able to do their job. It’s like throwing a tarpaulin over 80% of the solar panel. In order for the leaves to absorb the rays of the sun, the surface of the leaves must be exposed to sunlight. In addition, when you bend the foliage above, you restrict the flow of nutrients to the bulb. Veins in the leaves and stems a lot like our blood vessels. If you restrict them the flow stops. You decide. I’ve presented my case. Bending them over seems to work, but I’ve spent a lot of money for my lamp. I want them running at full speed. What I do is clip off blossom once they spend time, and only leave the top alone until they yellow and wither. If they are still not wilted when it’s time to plant my annual flowers, I just plant annuals among the bulbs. When dead taillight annuals tend to grow and conceal them.
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Tags: Flower, Landscaping, Plant
Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 4:09 am • Garden • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback
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