Is it too late to plant spring bulbs?

[Vince G]

I read on the Beeb you should plant bulbs in autumn before the first frost....which are forecast for tonight round my neck of the woods. I've not planted all my daffs so would like to get some more in.

[roitelet]

Put them in, they may be a bit late flowering but they won't flower in the bag!

[Guest]

I think you can still get away with planting although it is pushing it, just not today if you are expecting frost tonight. At worst plant in containers and cover or put in shed, greenhouse out of the way. I can't plant anything now - the wet has completely set in, even my ducks look unhappy

[mothhawk]

Just don't plant them when there IS a frost. I got a lot of bulbs in the GC sale in January (tulips mostly), planted them up and they all flowered beautifully.

[muddled]

This is very good news

I just found another box each of daffs and anenomes that I bought in the pound shop and forgot about

[Knight of Albion]

You can still plant them. Though planting them in a frost is not a good idea. According to the weather forecast this is only a brief cold snap, so things should be good to go later in the week.

And of course it depends how deep you plant them as to when they come up/flower. So you can recover the late planting by not planting them so deep.

[Alison]

I planted a load of daffs in front of our house a few years back while I was off work at Christmas / New Year. They were very late the first year and didn't last long (probably too warm by the time they flowered) but I gave them a good feed afterwards and they've been doing great every spring ever since.

[bend1pa]

October is the ideal month for planting daff bulbs, November the better month to plant tulips. But daffs do fine and flower on time when planted in a mild November. Only a minimal frost is forecast over some parts of England with no more frost due the rest of the week, so planting out any day this week is fine.

Make sure you plant at the correct depth regardless of when it is supposed to flower. Better to plant a bulb on the deep side than shallow Planting a bulb too shallow is a mistake as it could become blind in future years.

[Vince G]

Didn't know shallow planting caused blindness in daffs? Why is this?

I dug up loads of daff bulbs from one othe beds in our new house becuse there were very few flowers. I've stuck them down the allotment instead, planted at the correct depth, so could formerly blind bulbs now produce a flower?

[mothhawk]

Didn't know shallow planting caused blindness in daffs? Why is this?

I dug up loads of daff bulbs from one othe beds in our new house becuse there were very few flowers. I've stuck them down the allotment instead, planted at the correct depth, so could formerly blind bulbs now produce a flower?

If daffs are planted too shallow, they tend to divide, rather than produce seed (i.e.flowers), so you end up with a lot of bulbs from one bulb, all too small to flower.

I think that's also the reason some folks say they won't flower if they are overcrowded, and advise to dig them up and replant. They are overcrowded from being too shallow in the first place,and making more bulbs instead of flowers, so the solution SHOULD be - dig them up and replant DEEPER.

[Kristen]

I wouldn't worry about the frost - provided that: it is a light frost and you are not planting in loose soil. The bulbs don't want to get cold, and if you dig a hole with a trowel in loose soil you might mix frost/frozen soil in when you fill the hole back in. If you use a bulb planter and take a "core" out, then the bulb will be deep enough to be in a warmer layer of soil. If the ground is frozen solid, in a really cold-snap, then that wouldn't apply.

I was also taught not to leave planting holes open for, say, trees - the cold gets into the soil at the bottom of the hole, and the pile of soil next to it, and then when you plant the tree everything under and around the roots is cold. Better to prepare the planting hole, fill it back in, and then open it back up again when the tree is ready for planting.