Bulb baskets.

[cheops]

I have long thought of using these but have always had reservations. Now my interest is piqued again as I see Van Meuwen have a current offer of 10 baskets for £10. Does anyone use these baskets? My understanding is you put a layer of soil in a basket, plant your bulbs then bury the basket at the correct depth. Say we plant tulips. They have finished blooming but now there is a lot of foliage. If I lift the baskets now I presume a lot of roots have grown down through the basket. I now can put the basket of bulbs and foliage out of sight for the foliage to die down and nourish the bulbs for next spring. But WILL the bulbs be still nourished if the roots hanging from below the basket are no longer in the soil.

[mothhawk]

The bulbs will probably be OK, but what will you put in the hole you've left?

[cheops]

Hi Mothhawk, - I would imagine there would not be much of a hole. I would have to initially dig a depression to take the basket and would have spare soil left over because of the basket, some compost and bulbs. I could store the spare soil in an old bin till I lifted the basket. That’s the theory anyway. With the basket and spent tulips out of the way bedding plants eg could replace the tulips.
Maybe I need to really think this out.

[bazzaboy]

Good question, cheops. I use them and first came across them via the Sarah Raven site which was advocating them for pots (including “lasagne bulb planting”) and subsequently in the herbaceous border
(see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=vByDPOaH_JU )
The basic idea of using them with pots/containers is that you can ‘easily’ re-use the pot (which of course you could do anyway but the basket supposedly makes it easier to take one lot out and slot another one in and to that extent is kinder to the extracted bulbs….). The baskets come in various sizes (from different suppliers), the ones currently on offer by Van Meuwen (also on offer by T&M, identical wording but different prices) are only one size and quite large (26cm diameter) so would only work with quite hefty-sized pots and perhaps are more appropriate to herbaceous border usage (which I don’t do).

As to the bulbs surviving the experience – well they do but I think it pays to be judicious in which bulbs you choose. The demonstrations are usually with tulips that tend to have a one/two year cycle so disposable, not many folk these days dig up, dry off and replant narcissi (I do where used in containers so it makes that process a bit easier), small stuff like crocus, muscari seem to cope with being hoiked out coz they’re fairly undemanding, the larger the bulb the more patchy the result in my experience (e.g. larger alliums didn’t fare so well, so those I now leave intact in their containers and move the whole container).

The other problem (needing advanced planning lol!) is where you put the baskets you’ve extracted post-bloom….. they will need a space and a little care and attention through the summer months if they’re to be reusable for the following year. I tend to empty the baskets and let the bulbs dry out in wicker trays and then replant in the baskets (any time soon). Unless you’re precise and organised they tend to get muddled up, I replant according to size so have ended up with what can politely be called “mixed planting” which sometime works and sometimes looks a mess…. Limiting your initial colour choice can help out in this regard. For next year I’m about to try smaller lilies and irises in baskets and stick to the blues, purple, mauves and occasional white.

Purpose-made “bulb baskets” only seem to be produced as round but some of my containers are rectangular so square ones would be useful - I suppose I could use smaller cheap plastic storage baskets as a substitute, not sure how well they’d fare….

Two other thoughts if using with pots…. I always think pots look better if something’s trailing – if everything is shooting upwards it tends to give too much emphasis to the pot. But I don’t know of a trailing bulb, is there one? I tend to use lobelia which doesn’t so much trail as flops around, I’ve also used ivies…. Both of those will last a full season – i.e. have to be planted separate to the bulb basket but of course the roots don’t observe these borders…. So I sometimes think it would be easier to do plastic flowers set in the bulb baskets in concrete and just switch those around seasonally…. Easy! Would anybody notice the difference?

[bazzaboy]

Purpose-made “bulb baskets” only seem to be produced as round but some of my containers are rectangular so square ones would be useful - I suppose I could use smaller cheap plastic storage baskets as a substitute, not sure how well they’d fare…

I see Sarah Raven (and probably other suppliers) are now offering rectangular ones.....