Common problems, and easy solutions, for fall bulb planting | The Compleat Home Gardener

Plant yourself a spring surprise this month.

The middle of October is the best time to plant spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, tulips and crocus.

The soil is cool enough to promote root growth, but the days are short enough to stop the bulbs from sprouting, so dig in and prepare for a beautiful spring.

The most common mistakes and misconceptions about the most popular bulbs are corrected here. The month of October should be that light bulb moment when you suddenly realize planting bulbs is a sign of faith in the future. Planting bulbs now gives the whole neighborhood something to look forward to during the darkest days of winter.

Problem: I planted tulip bulbs last fall, and they never came up. Why?

Solution: Poor drainage could rot the bulbs or voles could be dining on the delectable tulip bulbs. The answer is to go to pots. Uproot the summer weary annuals from your porch or patio pots and poke the tulip bulbs into the soil six inches deep. You can arrange bulbs shoulder to shoulder but not touching each other. Make sure the drainage hole is not blocked and that the potting soil has been loosened up before planting. Set the containers where they will get rain and cold. You can even add some winter pansies on top of the buried bulbs as a frosting of winter color. Bulbs in pots are most always successful as they have well drained soil and are protected from underground thieves, two of the most common reasons for tulip failure.

Problem: I planted tulips in pots to use as an Easter display for my front yard entry. Deer came in and nipped the buds from every tulip! Putting up a deer fence is not practical on my property. Deer sprays make the area stink. Help!

Solution: Daffodils are the delightful answer to deer grazing. Not only are daffodils toxic to deer, but the bulbs are also avoided by voles and other rodents. You can choose daffodil varieties that bloom late in the spring to coincide with Easter or the month that tulips would be flowering. Daffodils do not just come as the familiar yellow trumpets that announce the start of spring in March or April. There are late flowering daffodils, fragrant daffodils and fragrant daffodil varieties that bloom in May. (More about these unusual varieties in next week’s column.)

Problem: I forgot to order bulbs from a mail order catalog and with all the Christmas merchandise out I no longer see bulbs for sale. Is it too late?

Solution: Visit a local, independent nursery to find bulbs in bins still for sale. The advantage of an open bin is you can pick out the biggest and most firm bulbs and avoid buying those that are soft or mushy. The bigger the bulb the bigger the bloom. You can also look online for local bulb growers that will ship your bulbs – just know many varieties could be sold out.

Problem: The open area where I want to grow bulbs is too hard to dig.

Solution: Lay the bulbs on the hard ground (just make sure it drains well) and then cover the bulbs with topsoil, potting soil or even native soil from another part of the garden. A general rule of green thumb is that you need to cover a bulb with soil three times deeper than the bulbs height. So, a bulb like a crocus that is 2 inches tall should be covered with 4 to 6 inches of soil. The bigger the bulb the more soil you must shovel on top of it. You can also set containers in this open area and plant your bulbs in pots.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.