Do I have to plant bulbs in pots? No. Daffodils or narcissus don’t need protection from predators; they are poisonous, and rodents avoid them: though young, foolish deer will sometimes eat their tops. Other pest-resistant bulbs are alliums, tritelia, and, in my own experience, hyacinths.
Dry-summer treatment may even allow you to plant tulips in the ground without having them eaten up by your local rodents. I’ve had stands of species and large garden-style tulips stay for years. Gophers tend to like the fluffy moist soils in the watered garden, but they aren’t as interested in dry soil, especially hard dry soil. Making the ground less attractive to burrowing rodents with castor oil spray probably helps, too. But when I really want to keep a tulip, I put it in a pot.
Pots can also help with the problem of dying foliage and its scruffy looks. You have to keep the foliage, because it’s feeding the bulb to make next year’s flower; cutting it off will mean no flowers for you next spring. Bulbs in pots can be moved when they stop looking so pretty, to make room for coming attractions.
Which of those bulbs will do well in your area? Your own climate will play a part in deciding what bulbs you plant. Climates above zones 7 or 8 will have a hard time growing the tulips and daffodils most people think of. There are species of tulips and narcissus that do just fine in hotter climates, but they look different than the typical garden-variety ones. Hotter climates can often grow South African and Mexican bulbs with ease (tigrida and amaryllis – yes, you can grow amaryllis right out in the garden – are only some that you have to choose from).
In my climate, it rains fall through spring (when we’re lucky) and not at all in the summer. This is the kind of climate many South African, Mexican, and Mediterranean bulbs were born in. That means I don’t have to water my bulbs to enjoy enormous floods of flowers in spring. I just have to plant them and enjoy them.
Lady Derby Hyacinth
What are the advantages of planting bulbs in pots? Because we have gophers in our area, and because gophers love tulip bulbs, I plant my tulips in pots. (The first time I ever planted tulips, I got a cheap mix of 50, hauled sand and soil, built a bed, and planted them. The gophers got 49. After that I hated gophers. Passionately.)
Some native-plant experts, like Las Palitas Nursery, say that bulbs should receive no amendments at all, so they can adapt to the local soil. If you’re looking at establishing a native landscape using native bulbs, you might want to try the no-amendments solution. All I can say is, I’ve grown bulbs amended and I’ve grown bulbs not amended, and I get a bigger bang for my buck with amendments.
What kind of soil do bulbs like best? Whether you plant in pots or not, be sure your soil has good drainage. Your bulbs will rot if you don’t (that’s the voice of experience speaking).
Bulbs aren’t heavy feeders, but they do need some compost-like material in the soil, and they do much better with minerals. Rock dust and azomite give all-round mineral nutrients, and don’t forget the calcium, which comes in the forms of oyster shell powder or lime (plus a foliar feed, if you’re devoted). Your bulbs are much more likely to be healthy and long-lived if you give them their minerals and vegetative matter. Just like you.
Lady Jane Tulip
Sweetheart Tulip
Thalia Narcissus Tulip
What’s the bonus gift you get for saving water on bulbs? One of the great bonuses of saving water on bulbs is that it’s a perfect way to get more bulbs. Since a dry dormant periods is what these bulbs are born for, they often respond by making more bulbs.
SomOf course, it means learning more about raising bulbs, if you want to get them to the point where they’ll give you more flowers. For instance, my “Fantasy” tulips have made lots of baby bulbs, but in this, their second year, have very few flowers. Will the small bulbs grow into flowering size? If they got more sun, would I have flowering and bulb division? Maybe so, because the “Queen of the Night” tulips from last year, which get even more shade, are splitting into small bulbs and not flowering at all. But the jury’s still out on this one.
Species and older garden varieties have done well coming back for me, but one of my best-recurring tulips—with absolutely no help from me—is “Rosalie”, a modern, highly-hybridized variety. Does this mean “Rosalie” has more staying power than, say, “Pink Diamond”, planted next to it? Or is “Rosalie” in a spot that’s somehow just that much more favorable? These are the mysteries that keep gardening interesting.
*bonus pointer: all daffodils are narcissi, but not all narcissi are daffodils. (And “narcissuses” just looks silly.)
FOR KNOCK-OUT COLOR IN A LOW WATER GARDEN, CONSIDER BULBS
helping people plant right, water less and garden more
Pomona Belvedere’s love of gardening all started with the siren call of plants. “My earliest memories contain blazing pyracantha berries, springy green dichondra, and tough, scruffy grass.” Passionate about all things garden related, in addition to sharing thoughtful advice on her blog Tulips in the Woods, Pomona is an avid reader of gardening books. Some of her favorites are:
©copyright 2009, Pomona Belvedere. All Rights Reserved.
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When does using less water and spending less time in the garden give you more flowers?
Dutch Master Daffodil
What bulbs do well in dry-summer gardening? Most of the bulbs in your fall catalogues: tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and narcissus*; allium, calochortus, bulbous iris, dichelostemma, tritelia and brodiaea, and a number of other bulbs. (Note: lilies usually like some source of water).
If the bulbs originally come from the Mediterranean (tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils), Mexico, Texas, South Africa, or California, chances are they are adapted to dry summers. You can usually find this out by looking at a catalogue, a bulb book, or googling the bulb name and adding the phrase “country of origin” or just the word “origin”. It’s best to double-check the particular bulb variety: some close relatives of dry-loving bulbs do like to be watered. Most catalogues and bulb books will tell you about water requirements. If they don’t, get better catalogues and books.
American Beauty Tulip
Iris danfordiae
When you follow the natural inclinations of spring bulbs and don’t water them over the summer. If you’re willing to experiment, you can have year after year of trouble-free flowers.
