So you just saw a 50-percent-off bargain on left-over tulip, daffodil, and hyacinth bulbs at the box store. Or you found a pack or two of bulbs that you bought weeks ago but never got around to planting.
Are they over the hill and good only for the trash can?
Not quite. November isn’t too late to plant spring-flowering bulbs, the ones that send up their leaves and flowers in late winter through spring and then go dormant over summer.
These cold-tolerant plants will put down their roots even in November’s cold soil and get adequate chill time to emerge and bloom normally next spring. Usually.
The exception is bulbs that dried out so much that they’ve died, or that were damp enough that they’ve rotted.
You can tell quickly by examining the bulbs. If they’re disintegrating, noticeably light in weight, and little more than papery shrouds around what used to be a fleshy orb, they’re goners.
Likewise, if they’re soft or mushy (or discolored and headed in that direction), they’re also goners.
But if the bulbs are still firm and fleshy, they’re still capable of growing into the plants you see on the package.
If you’re not sure about ones you’ve already bought, go ahead and plant. The worst that can happen is that you’ll have wasted time.
Get bulbs in the ground ASAP, though. The sooner you can get them in the ground and trigger root growth, the better the survival odds.
Also, if you wait too much longer, the ground could freeze, and then it’s going to get a lot more difficult to plant them.
October is the best month in central-Pennsylvania’s climate to plant spring bulbs. November is still doable, but a slight drawback is that late-planted bulbs are often later to emerge in spring and sometimes stunted in height.
Whether planting bulbs in October or November, the process is the same:
1.) Loosen the soil to 10 to 12 inches deep, and incorporate one to two inches of compost, chopped leaves, mushroom soil, or similar organic matter. Fertilizer isn’t needed.
2.) Plant bulbs to a depth that’s two-and-a-half to three times as deep as the bulb’s height.
Space small bulbs such as crocuses, snowdrops, and Siberian squill three to four inches apart, larger ones such as tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths six to eight inches apart. The pointy end goes up.
3.) Smooth and soak the ground after planting to settle the soil around the bulbs.
4.) Top the soil with one to two inches of bark mulch or chopped leaves. (Note: Factor the mulch layer into your planting depth.)
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