Winter annuals like pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) and snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are some of the best flowers for flower beds to add colour to an otherwise drab landscape throughout the winter months. Both of these plants can be put over the top of fading bulbs. In Mediterranean climes, snapdragons and pansies are both regarded as winter annuals. Even so, when cultivated as perennials, their hardiness varies. Snapdragons thrive in USDA hardiness zones 7 through 10, whereas pansies do best in zones 6 through 8.
Is it possible to plant above tulip bulbs?
Is it possible to grow another flower on top of my dormant tulips? The front of my house’s garden has some unsightly gaps in it. Thanks,
Thanita from Ashburn, Virginia
Mike: The reasons we Americans (as opposed to those in Holland) have trouble getting our spring bulbs to bloom year after year are, according to what I overheard you mention last spring:
- We drastically over-earnest the green, nourishing portion of the bulb and
- If we grow annual flowers on top of our bulbs, they receive an excessive amount of watering and fertilising.
Your recommendation was to dig up the bulbs once the greenery had withered back and layer them in a pot, according to kind, with alternating layers of peat and vermiculite to keep the layers apart. You suggested, I believe, that they should still be watered, just not more frequently than a typical rainfall schedule would allow. So I took action. However, when I went looking for confirmation on the Internet, the data I discovered suggested that it would just cause the bulbs to rot and serve as a buffet for neighbourhood field mice and/or squirrels (and deer if they found the container). I gave the collection one “watering”; after that, they only received rain. How did I do?
Hockessin, Delaware’s Tina
A. Tina, you mainly got it correct. The irrigation section was the one you misheard the most. I HOPE I mentioned to only let the rain hit the container they are in and NOT to add ANY water.
However, let’s go back to the beginning. One of the best interview guests we’ve ever had on the programme, British gardening writer Anna Pavord, gave us this piece of advise while she was on tour in 2000 in support of her stunning book “The Tulip,” which was published in 1999. I remarked during the interview that one of our most frequent inquiries was over the reliability of tulip returns. That’s because you Americans plant annual flowers on top of the bulbs and then water and Miracle-Grow the crap out of them, rotting the poor bulbs underground, she immediately said.
She explained that Spring bulbs have evolved to live in their native mountains of Russia, Turkey, and Afghanistan in a harsh and largely God-forsaken environment. The bulbs that have been hiding put up their shoots, flower, and absorb a lot of solar energy when heavy snow and freezing cold eventually give way to a rather comfortable Spring. After that, the above-ground growth fades away, and the bulbs hide once more, this time from a dry, sweltering summer.
Therefore, according to Pavord, their DNA does not understand the moisture and food of summer; instead, it understands scorching, dry, and desolate. They don’t respond well to beds that are watered and nourished throughout the summer to keep marigolds, begonias, or petunias alive for that reason.
She continued by saying that because she, too, had a small garden and didn’t want to leave her bulb beds vacant for the summer, she had to learn this lesson the hard way. She began lifting the bulbs, preserving them for the summer, and replanting them in the fall as soon as she realised what was happening. She assured me and my audience that it functioned admirably and had a good deal of room for mistake.
It worked the first time I attempted it that summer and every summer after. I never repeated it exactly the same manner. The first year, when the greens on the bulbs had faded, I pulled them out and moved them to the back of the garden, out of sight and away from the sprinkler. I hammered together a bottomless box out of scrap wood, filled it halfway with soil, then added a layer of one type of bulb, more soil, more bulbs, etc., until it was completely full. Only when it rained did it get irrigated. And I covered it with a tarp when we experienced protracted rainy spells. I removed them in the middle of October, planted them again around Halloween, and had fantastic results.
After a few years, the box completely rotted away, so I transferred to large pots that were initially just plain ugly and had never gotten any prettier. This also functions well. If I have it, I will occasionally add a considerable amount of peat, vermiculite, perlite, or a fine, light professional potting soil blend; if not, I will simply use my compost-enriched garden soil. I’ve never lost more than a few items to rot due to mice or squirrels invading, either (and they were probably already damaged by my tender digging-up style, which involves a lot of creative swearing). Although I adore the picture of Bambi digging through several inches of soil in search of hidden riches, I don’t believe that even deer are that stupid.
Here is how I intend to make my Spring bulbs bloom again:
- Remove the faded blooms and any developing seedpods when they have finished blooming.
- Feed the plants so they will grow new flowers for you the following year. There are numerous feeding instructions in our earlier Spring bulb Question of the Week.
- Wait until the greens have totally lost their green hue before touching them.
- Remove the bulbs. The ideal method is to slowly coax the bulb out of the ground after it goes tan or brown while gently pulling on the faded greens. Go digging if it breaks off, but exercise caution.
- The degreened bulbs should be kept outside in a container with excellent drainage, either in the sun or the shade, in soil, soilless mix, or a mixture of both. Do not water them, and if it is raining a lot, cover the container.
- In the autumn, replant. In the far north, that would be September; in the mid-Atlantic, October; and in warm climates, after Thanksgiving.
Is it possible to plant over bulbs?
Can I bury bulbs under plants? Absolutely. A terrific approach to start your display before the bulbs bloom is with winter bedding plants.
What is placed on top of tulip bulbs?
When planting your bulbs, fill the bottom of the hole with a layer of pointed rocks to deter voles from taking your bulbs. Place the bulbs on top of the earth, cover with more rocks, and then add more rocks. The gravel placed over the bulbs will aid in deterring other diggers. Completely cover the gravel and bulbs with soil.
Are tulip bulbs compatible with other types of plants?
Need some companions for your tulips? Tulips are beautiful in the spring, but the rest of the year they can leave the ground bare. Early in the spring and again in the summer when the foliage has died, the ground is frequently bare. It’s the ideal time to plant in succession! Let’s explore the ideal perennials to plant alongside tulips.
The ideal companion plants for tulips are low-maintenance, drought-resistant perennials like native forest flowers and foliage plants. Avoid perennials that require regular watering and fertilisation in the middle of the summer. During the summer, this “TLC” may cause your tulip bulbs to decay.
Here are ten excellent perennials you can plant with your tulips that bloom every year:
Perennials can be planted over bulbs.
In order to avoid accidently damaging the bulbs when gardening, it also helps to plant perennials right in front of the bulbs. a greater distance from the perennial The bulbs should be positioned close to the perennial if it is late to leaf out or is compact.
Can you combine other flowers with tulips?
It’s not necessary for tulips to function as a formal, stand-alone show in pots or borders. In mixed arrangements with contrasting and complementing flowers and greenery, they also look fantastic.
Tulips’ striking form and colours can be emphasised by other plants’ contrasting colours and shapes. Fresh new growth from lower growing plants will produce a textured background before the buds emerge. Similar or divergent colour schemes will highlight the colour of the blossoms while they are in bloom. Additionally, varied planting will help cover up unkempt foliage and fading blossoms once the tulips are past their prime.
Pick plants that can survive in the same soil and sunlight conditions as tulips. Plan for a succession of colour or foliage interest while also taking into account their flowering schedules. Play around with different pot combinations and border designs.
What can I grow over tulips?
A reader has the following inquiry:
Any recommendations for perennials that may be planted alongside spring bulbs this fall and that will appear after the tulips and daffodils bloom, cover their leaves, and then gradually turn yellow? Along the wall of my carport, in a south-facing area with plenty of sun and sufficient drainage.
Last year, I discussed Claudia Kolbe-method Hawthorne’s for creating waves of colour in her garden beds in the Cheektowaga neighbourhood of Cleve-Hill. Hyacinths, daffodils, and a profusion of vibrant tulips are among her blooms.
Around the bulbs, she grows perennials like columbine, dianthus, coneflowers, coreopsis, and sedum so that those plants can conceal the withering leaves. Visit this location to take a tour of her spring garden.
Do you have any other recommendations for perennial plants to place around your spring bulbs? If so, kindly comment below for Val.
So when someone asks me a question that I am unable to answer, I post it and rely on my viewers to contribute their knowledge. Please leave a remark below if you have any suggestions for Val. Check back later to read the comments if you’re interested in learning the solution to this query.
Asking Master Gardeners with Cornell Cooperative Extension or visiting your neighbourhood garden centre are more effective ways to have your questions answered.
Other counties also have useful Cornell Cooperative Extension offices. Here you may find the contact details for the cooperative extension office in your county.
The companies that sponsor this publication have highly educated employees. Click on the adverts on the right or go through our gardening directory.
Can flower bulbs be planted on top of one another?
Lasagna? Mmmm A tantalising aroma is rising from the oven: layers of pasta, a spicy tomato sauce, a creamy béchamel, rich ground beef, and a golden-brown crust of grilled grated cheese. Maybe there will also be a green salad and some- Wait, what’s going on? Wasn’t this a site about flower bulbs?
You’re still at the right place, so don’t worry. But today, rather than discussing how to prepare a lasagna that is a feast for your taste senses, we are going to discuss how to plant your bulbs in a lasagna-like fashion. The key to making the best lasagna is to layer the ideal ingredients, just like with the well-known Italian meal.
Planting your bulbs in containers and placing them on your porch, next to your entrance, on your balcony, on your windowsills, or really anywhere you think might use some floral delight is a terrific way to display them. Planting a variety of bulbs, from the very first Snowdrops to the grand finale of Alliums, will ensure that you have blooming flowers throughout the entire season. However, if you perfectly follow planting guidelines, there will be a lot of space between all of these bulbs, creating significant gaps between blooming blooms and giving your garden a sad and barren appearance.
The lasagna planting method comes into play here. You may make a container that blooms continuously from late February to mid-June by ingeniously layering a pot or dish with various species of bulbs. You plant them lower down the kind that blooms later. Use a container that has excellent drainage, as you don’t want the flower bulbs at the bottom to decay before they have a chance to bloom.
Choose three of your favourite tulip varietals, one for each flowering season, and prepare an all-tulip lasagna. As an illustration, you might begin with Tulip World Expression at the bottom, followed by Tulip Strong Gold, and Tulip Apeldoorn’s Elite at the top. Stacking layers of smaller bulbs on top of the bigger ones, all the way down to mini-bulbs like Muscari or Crocuses, is another fantastic “recipe.” Now is the perfect time to allow your creativity truly shine, so why not visit our website for some ideas? Bulb flowering times can be quickly sorted in the left-side bar.
You should have enough of drainage holes in your lasagna planting pot. Gravel can be added to the bottom of a pot to aid drainage if desired, but most high-quality potting mixes are sufficient for drainage on their own. Large, late flowering bulbs are placed first in the pot, followed by a layer of plain soil. Alliums and late-blooming tulips or daffodils make excellent choices at this level. The bulbs should be placed closely together, but you must take care to keep them from touching each other or the pot. Your late bulbs are topped off with the following soil layer. Ensure that the dirt around the bulbs is gently compacted. It’s time to add your next layer: Hyacinths, Daffodils, and Tulips in the middle of spring would all look fantastic here. You just need to add one more layer of dirt before adding the last layer of bulbs. You could pick muscari or crocuses here if you want your container to be very diverse. Wait for a gorgeous flower bulb season, then cover with the final layer of soil, water well, and enjoy!
Use the lasagna planting technique for simultaneous bloomers to combine different varieties of tulips or daffodils that bloom at the same time if you’re feeling particularly adventurous or want a true colour explosion. One further choice is to merely plant two layers, such as Tulips and Grape Hyacinths. The combinations will be more closely aligned with your unique preferences and style as you become more comfortable using the lasagna planting technique.
Ready to give lasagna gardening a try? On our website, you’re only a few clicks away from the key component. Order your favourites right away, and remember to send us a photo of the finished product in the spring!