Planting Fall Bulbs for Spring Beauty
Fall planting can be tedious after a long season of gardening, and most people just want to call it quits on the garden. But I assure you, if you take a few extra hours and plant some of these bulbs your future-self will thank you come springtime! These bulbs will all perennialize in our zone (6a/5) and if you do not cut the flowers off, will continue to bloom for years to come.
Tulips: Tulips are one of my favorite flowers to grow on the farm. There is something about when the tulips start to poke through the snow that gives me a little of life after a long winter. They come in a array of colors and styles and thrive in long, cold winters. They actually need a certain number of cold weeks in order to form a flower bud. If your tulips start coming up short, deformed, or with aborted flower buds it is almost always an issue of not enough cold weeks.
If you decide to cut your tulip and keep inside as a cut flower, just know that you are cutting the food source off for that bulb and it most likely will not flower the next year. This is why cut flower growers have to buy in thousands of bulbs each year, they cannot rely on the bulbs from a past crop to bloom again.
Some of my favorites: Columbus, Apricot Parrot, Black Hero, Mango Charm
Daffodils: Daffodils are really underrated as a flower. Most people think of the highlighter yellow, wild growing daffodils that you see in fields around our area. But the species of flowers has tons of different varieties with different shapes, colors, and scents. These are the first flowers to bloom in the field, and really just scream springtime to me. The scent alone puts me in a better mood!
Daffodils perennialize quickly, so you will want to space these bulbs out when planting to give them room to grow and give you more flowers each year.
Some of my favorites: Sir Winston Churchill, Apricot Whirl, White Lion
Alliums: As a member of the onion family, you wouldn’t think these guys are anything special, but don’t judge them too quickly! They produce these long stems with purple puffs on the end and remind me of something out of a Dr. Suess book. They have great vase life for flower arranging and make a great pollinator source for bees in your landscaping. There are lots of varieties big, small, white, dark purple, light purple, tall, short, the options are endless! Last week I just planted a few hundred of these guys in our perennial bulb area to really get our spring flowers going in 2023!
Hyacinths: These highly scented flowers are an Easter season must have. Coming in all the pastel colors and just knocking your socks off with scent they are the perfect addition to the fall bulb/spring flower garden. I do not use these as a cut flower, but you can if you would like to. These look best in garden pot plantings but can also be planted in the landscape.
Peonies: Last but definitely not least, peonies! Another huge crop for me on the farm, these are my June love language. Like clockwork these wonderful perennials start blooming in early June and bloom for around two weeks at the farm. They are huge flower heads, in a variety of colors and some have more scent than others. You can spread out bloom time by getting early, mid, and late season varieties. The best time to snag these at a local nursery is fall. The foliage will not look nice, but peonies die back to the roots every season anyways, so as long as the root looks healthy you are good to plant!
All these bulbs can be planted in our area anytime the ground is not frozen. Optimally you want to get things planted before mid-November in our area. This allows for the bulbs to root and hold themselves in the ground when we get the inevitable freeze-thaw cycles in the wintertime.
If you have any questions on fall bulbs feel free to reach out!