Follow some easy fall bulb planting tips to keep bulbs healthy and safe from critters. Come spring, you will be treated to incredible blooms.

Why Plant Bulbs in the Fall?

Fall bulb planting, one of the simplest means to an instant spring garden, offers huge rewards with minimal effort. Select an appropriate planting site, choose your varieties and take some easy steps to pest protection. The bulbs will soon herald spring’s arrival with beautiful blooms, which will return for many years. Read on for design ideas, planting tips and ways to keep bulbs safe from critters.

Designing Your Bulb Garden

Most spring flowers that grow from bulbs prefer full sun, so choose areas that get at least six hours of sun daily. Bulbs also need well-drained soil. Many bulbs will naturalize; that is, they’ll multiply and come back year after year — so keep that in mind when choosing sites. Here are some tried and true tips for creating spectacular designs:

*Enjoy continuous blooms by planting early, mid, and late spring blooming bulbs. Early spring bloomers include crocuses, snowdrops and aconites. Mid-spring you can enjoy chionodoxa, scillas and early anemones. Plant some late spring classics such as daffodils, hyacinths and tulips.

*Consider one or more style: formal, meadow-style, scattered, within beds and borders, rock gardens and even under trees.

*Plant some early bloomers, such as crocus and snowdrops under trees. These beauties will get plenty of light to bloom before the trees leaf out. Just be sure to avoid planting near roots.

*Place early blooming flowers behind later blooming varieties. When the early bloomer is finished, the later bloomers in front will hide the spent foliage.

*Cluster some bulbs for greater visual impact.

*Dress up some containers with bulbs.

Tips for Fall Bulb Planting

Try to buy your bulbs close to your planting date, whether you do so online or at a nursery. When you purchase your bulbs, keep the labels intact until the bulbs are planted, so you know which colors and varieties are going where.

The best time to plant fall bulbs is about six weeks before the first frost date (ground freeze) in your growing zone. Why plant them so late in the year? Because many bulbs need cool weather in order to mature. In fact, if you live in Planting Zones 8-11, you’ll have to pre-chill them, because those zones may not get the frost your bulbs need.

Clear the planting area of weeds and rocks, loosen the soil and add some peat moss or compost. Plant your bulbs when the evening temperatures range between 40- and 50- degrees Fahrenheit. The general rule is to plant the bulb three times as deep as the bulb is tall, with the pointy side facing up. If the point isn’t obvious, plant it on its side. The bulb will right itself underground. There’s no need to fertilize the soil until the bulbs begin to flower in spring.

Before putting your bulbs in the ground, dip them in our Bobbex R bulb solution, which will protect them when they are first planted and throughout the winter. This solution creates an aromatic barrier that keeps burrowing herbivores from sniffing out and digging up your bulbs.

Pest Protection When Bulbs Become Blooms

People aren’t the only ones who love spring-flowering bulbs. Many animals will happily eat bulbs emerging from the ground and those in full bloom. To help prevent this, lightly spray Bobbex Deer Repellent on the plants, including the emerging blooms. It’s perfectly safe, eco-friendly and will keep deer, the biggest fans of spring bulbs, away from your treasures.

Plant Now For Spring Sensations!

One of the surest signs of spring is flowers exploding into color soon after the cold weather passes. And one of the easiest ways to create such beauty is by planting spring blooming bulbs now, during fall.

Follow the design and planting tips in this article and safeguard your plants from bulb to bloom with Bobbex. It’s easy to use, eco-friendly, and completely safe… but the critters will detest the taste!