There is something utterly magical about bulbs. Take a handful of dry and shrivelled lifeless bulbs, throw them in the ground, wait a few weeks and, like the mythical beanstalk, they burst from the ground with a bounty of beautiful blooms. Flowering bulbs are more popular than ever and for good reason. The range of species available to us humble home gardeners has increased dramatically. Alongside the species there are a staggering number of bred cultivars with a truly bewildering array of forms and colours. Did you know there are over 3,000 tulips cultivars alone?!
Winter and Spring flowering bulbs, illuminating your borders and pots, bring an early sense of cheer as we slowly meander our way out of winter. Even though they’re tiny, those first snowdrops, cyclamen, aconites, and crocus are worth more than their weight in gold. Loved by us gardeners desperate for life and colour outside those foggy rain-drenched windows. Loved even more by emerging bumblebees, drowsy and famished after winter hibernation.
The miracle of bulbs
Technically, a ‘bulb’ is an umbrella term that covers a range of underground food storage 'organs', but they're not seeds. Bulbs differ from seeds, as a seed is an embryo inside a seed coat, whereas a bulb is a mass of dense tissue layers, with an immature plant structure within, all wrapped up, flower bud, leaves, and stem. Everything the plant needs is stored in this organ. It is no exaggeration to say the unassuming bulb is a miraculous thing! But, don’t worry. That’s it for the biology lesson.
There are many shapes and sizes of bulb, from the massive Crown Imperial fritillary through to alliums, tulips, and daffodil (Narcissus), right down to the diminutive muscari, crocus, snowdrops and aconites.
There are 'true bulbs', like allium, narcissus, tulips, hyacinth, and snowdrops. 'Corms', which can look similar to bulbs and include crocuses and gladioli. 'Tubers' are generally brown and gnarly without the flaky skin or tunic and include (wood) anemones and cyclamen. 'Tuberous roots' are swollen roots - just think of dahlias and ranunculus. Lastly there are the 'Rhizomes' which are swollen stems, probably the most recognisable being the Bearded Iris.
On the whole, bulbs are very easy gardening. Essentially, you can buy bags of them (in their dormant state) from nurseries, garden centres and online retailers, or even direct from the growers. The simplest process: Dig a small hole, pop them in the ground or in a pot with compost. The following spring, you have flowers! Voila! But, to have a great container display, try to buy quality bulbs and quality compost, or make your own if you can. Bulb spacing in pots makes a huge difference, along with punctual planting. There are nuances applicable to each species, but it's fundamentally simple, rewarding gardening.
What are the spring bulbs?
Autumn planted, flowering bulbs are a range of plants that flower from late winter to late spring and on into June. In this category we have the classic spring bloomers: Snowdrops, Crocus, Narcissus, Tulips, and Alliums (There is a more comprehensive below).
You can plant any of these bulbs anytime in autumn, even midwinter if the ground isn’t frozen. In the northern hemisphere, I would recommend anytime from October to December. Over winter, the bulbs will initially establish a root system from the basal plate of the bulb, before the shoot emerges from the top. The shoot is surprisingly strong, easily capable of pushing through snow, frosty ground, grit, or gravel. Slowly, the leaves unfurl and the flower stem rises from within. It really is remarkable!
Buying spring bulbs
Every September or October we order and plant our preferred bulbs, planting them in October and November. In December or January we also visit the garden centres to buy heavily discounted clearance bulbs. Cheeky, I know. But when they're 50% off it's hard to resist! We plant these a.s.a.p. with the 31st as a hard stop! Admittedly, the choice is rather limiting, but they still flower, albeit slightly smaller as they haven't had that time to establish a root system.
Farmer Gracy, Peter Nyssen, and J Parkers (for larger quantities) are all good suppliers, although we have had a few 'mistakes' from Farmer Gracy, especially. They've refunded the error, but it's all too late, having already potted them up and waited for those gorgeous apricot tulips, only to find bright, shocking red staring you in the face.
This season 2024/25, I am sourcing bulbs directly from the grower. DutchGrown™, a family run business, supplying whopping great flower bulbs, and they ship across the UK from their warehouse in London. I think I'm on to a winner there!
Some bulb packet instructions recommend planting from September, but those late summer heatwaves are increasingly more common. Far from the ideal bulb planting conditions. Besides, our beds and borders are still chocked full of plants, all in their late-summer splendour. Trying to plant amongst them is just nonsense. I wait and let nature take its course, letting the border plants succumb to frost. Once they’re cut down and cleared, I have the space and room to plant bulbs, without damaging the perennials.
Spring bulbs worth considering...
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Galanthus (Snowdrop) 🌱 🐝
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Eranthis hyemali (Winter Aconite) 🌱 🐝
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Crocus 🐝
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Scilla
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Chionodoxa (Glory of the snow)
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Iris reticulata 🐝
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Iris × hollandica
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Narcissus (Daffodil)
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Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) 🐝
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Hyacinthoides (Bluebell) 🌱 🐝
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Hyacinth
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Tulipa spp (Tulip)
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Fritillaria ➕ 🐝
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Camassia 🐝
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Allium ➕ 🐝
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Convallaria majalis (Lily of the valley) 🌱
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Allium siculum (Sicilian honey garlic) 🐝
🌱 Establish best when planted in the green. However, as this is relatively expensive, try planting 'dry bulbs' into module trays or 9cm (4in) pots to get them started, then plant out in spring.
➕ Wide range of cultivars with extremely different plant heights and overall sizes
🐝 Flowering bulbs favoured by bumblebees.
"Which should you plant first?"
There’s no overriding rule stating which bulbs needs to be planted first. All spring bulbs can be planted any time from October onwards right up until January. Winter and spring flowering bulbs all need a period of cold (vernalisation) to perform at their best. If you're container gardening, then in theory, you could plant them in September. Tulips, Narcissus and Alliums will establish really strong root systems, if they’re in the ground by November. It's also a question of practicality. Garden borders tend to be emptier by November!
A question from Instagram by @traceymegananderton
Are bulbs perennial?
Almost all spring bulbs are reliably perennial and they will flower year after year, meaning they are a great investment that will steadily grow and spread as they divide and seed about. Although it is worth pointing out that some bulbs like snowdrops, bluebells, and winter aconites actually establish far better when planted ‘in the green’. You buy them in full leaf, normally just after flowering. They are relatively expensive compared to a bag of dried bulbs, but with a higher success rate.
A good option is to visit local plant fairs in March, where there should be nurseries selling them in bunches. Once they've established, you can lift and divide clumps, moving them around your garden. Alternatively, buy dormant bulbs and plant them up in module trays or 9cm (3in) pots. If and when they successfully grow, plant them out in spring in full leaf.
The one major exception to the perennial question is border tulips. Species tulip are perennial, but those large showy blooms that we all love often fail to reflower (properly) in subsequent years, or if they do, they are often a sorry shadow of their former glory. Read on to discover why...
Tulips. Perennial or not?
Perennial 'species tulips' evolved in the Steppes of Persia and Himalayan foothills, where they experience baking, arid summers and freezing winters, all with sharp drainage. Literally an entire world away from our modest gardens and temperate climates.
Dutch growers overcame those species tulip's ecological necessities by mastering climate control, heat, cold, humidity, plus perfected soils, and irrigation. Contemporary 'border tulips' are grown on an industrial scale, specially bred and hybridised, carefully harvested at their peak, primed to survive the first winter in your garden as a fully-fuelled bulb, flowering triumphantly the following spring.
However, by the time spring has passed, the fat tulip bulb you planted in autumn has been literally emptied. All that remains are the empty scales and the emergence of a new bulb. Continued bulb and leaf growth is now powered by the established roots. Once the bloom has faded, the leaves power the continued formation of a new bulb and bulblet (aka offsets).
Those poor tulip bulbs are then at the mercy of our 'less than ideal' soils, not to mention the UK's temperate mild and soggy maritime climate, where winters are ruled by rain and flood, rather than ice and snow. The diminished 'parent bulb' and tiny offsets throw up feeble leaves and an underwhelming bloom, if any. There's a combination of factors at play here:
- The 'species tulip' genetic environmental adaptations.
- Contemporary breeding and hybridising.
- The vastly different growing conditions in gardens.
- The natural lifecycle of the tulip bulb.
In a perfect world, those little offsets would build and 'recharge' over the years, forming another garden-worthy bulb and sometimes they will. If you have cold dry winters and sandy soil you may well find tulips are perennial as it's closer to their ideal habitat.
Understandably, the lack of reliability means that many gardeners simply treat tulips as annuals and after that first fancy bloom, they are unceremoniously ripped out and tossed onto the compost heap. Honestly, it seems a real waste considering both the financial price and environmental cost of buying them and growing them industrially.
The good news is that there are particular tulip cultivars that are recognised as being more perennial than others. Darwin hybrids, Fosteriana tulips like ‘Purissima’, and Viridiflora tulips like ‘Spring Green’ are all said to be ‘more perennial’. There are also tips and tricks you can try to get your tulips to bloom the following year:
- Plant tulip bulbs extra deep. In many gardens, the deeper soil is drier and the added depth seems to inhibit the creation of smaller offsets.
- Avoid watering too much and once the leaves yellow, stop watering altogether.
- Avoid planting them in ground that is liable to waterlogging. Remember, tulips want sun and good drainage! Excess water is the enemy!
- Deadhead tulips immediately as soon as the petals start to fall. This conserves the plant's energy, redirecting it back into to the bulb.
- Summer warmth is good! They need warmth during dormancy as the new flower forms within. Well drained soil warms quicker than wet soil. Even more reason to plant in well drained soil, raised beds, or gritty sharp-draining potting compost.
"Are there any reliable tulips?"
In 2021, after the usual massive Garden Terrace display of spring bulbs, I planted-out all the spent tulips 'in the green' as an experiment. They were all planted into the Flower Garden borders, in clumps, just as they were in their various pots and planters. In Spring 2022, the vast majority of tulips returned, some just as beautiful as the year before, others significantly diminished. Over the following two seasons, many tulips have continued to fade away, but these have remained: Daydream, Negrita, Greenstar, White Triumphator, Sapporo, Mistress, Ballerina, Princess Irene, Angelique.
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