The single best favour you can do for your spring display happens before a single bulb goes into the ground. Bulbs dislike sitting in cold, waterlogged soil over winter; they rot quietly and never send up a shoot. Choose a spot that drains freely, or improve what you already have. On heavy clay, fork in two or three handfuls of horticultural grit per square metre, along with a bucket of well-rotted compost. This lifts the soil, opens up the structure and gives roots something to grip. A sunny border is ideal, though many bulbs — snowdrops, crocus and snakeshead fritillaries among them — will cope with dappled shade. If your garden is a boggy patch, plant in raised beds or containers instead. The rule is simple: if puddles linger for more than a day after rain, plant somewhere else or dig in grit until they don't.
Plant each bulb at three times its own depth. That means a 5cm tulip bulb goes into a hole 15cm deep, measured from the base of the bulb to the soil surface. A tiny crocus corm, roughly 2cm across, sits about 6cm down. Large daffodils and alliums prefer 15–20cm. If you are unsure, err on the side of deeper rather than shallower: bulbs have enough stored energy to push through a little extra soil, but a shallow planting leaves them exposed to frost and foraging wildlife. The pointed end goes up and the flat, rooty end goes down. If you cannot tell which is which, plant the bulb on its side — it will right itself.
Loosen the soil to the required depth with a fork, removing stones and old roots. Use a trowel or bulb planter, and set bulbs upright. Space them so they do not touch — crowded bulbs compete for nutrients and produce smaller flowers. If you are planting a drift of daffodils, gently toss a handful across the border and plant where they land; this avoids military rows. Backfill with soil, firm gently with your hand, and water gently after planting. A light sprinkle settles the soil around the bulbs and helps roots establish before winter. Do not soak the ground; soggy soil is the enemy of dormant bulbs. Finally, label the area with a discreet marker. Spring bulbs are invisible for months, and it is easy to forget where they are when you are planting winter pansies in November.
If you have a generous border, try lasagne planting. Dig a hole deep enough for the largest bulbs, then set them in layers. Put tulips at the bottom, cover with a few centimetres of soil, add daffodils or hyacinths, cover again, and finish with crocus or snowdrops just below the surface. Each layer will flower at a slightly different time, giving you colour from late winter into early summer from a single patch of ground. Water the whole area gently after planting. This technique works beautifully in large containers, too, where drainage is easy to control.
Squirrels and mice are the most common thieves of freshly planted bulbs. They dig by smell, so a layer of chicken wire pegged just above the bulbs can foil them — the shoots will grow through the mesh. Alternatively, plant bulbs deeply and mulch with sharp grit or holly leaves, which are unpleasant under paw. Frost is less of a problem for hardy bulbs, but newly planted containers can freeze solid. Raise pots onto feet, wrap them in bubble wrap or hessian, and move them against a sheltered wall. In the open border, a loose mulch of compost or bark chippings after the ground has cooled will insulate the soil without encouraging rot.
Once shoots appear, water only if the weather is unusually dry. When flowers fade, deadhead them — unless you want the seed heads of alliums or fritillaries for winter structure. Do not cut the leaves. They must photosynthesise for at least six weeks after flowering to feed the bulb for next year. Let them yellow and collapse naturally, then tidy them away. If you planted in a lawn, resist the urge to mow until the leaves have died down. A light feed with a balanced fertiliser as the leaves emerge will help, but do not overdo it. With well-drained soil, correct depth and a gentle watering at planting time, your border will reward you with a reliable, colourful spring for years to come.
The Seasonal Plot shares practical, down-to-earth guidance on british seasonal gardening and outdoor living for readers across the UK.
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