Can I plant spring-flowering bulbs in the spring?

[LadyWellian]

I'm planning to lay a lawn (turf), which I know is best done in spring or autumn to prevent it drying out while establishing.

I'd really like to naturalise some bulbs (daffs, hyacinths, crocus, maybe snowdrops) into one end as I currently don't get much early spring colour.

It would definitely be easiest to plant the bulbs in the soil before I lay the turf.

But a) I know you're usually meant to plant them in the autumn, so would planting in the spring confuse/kill them?

And b) would they be strong enough to come up through the turf?

Can you even buy spring-flowering bulbs at this time of year?

Thanks

You probably can't get hold of many spring flowering bulbs at this time of year. But there may be a few bags mouldering in the back of the garden cantres! They usually need a frost to make them start growing - so if you do get some and they are dry/dormant then maybe freeze them for a few days. May be best to look on a gardening website for how long for each species though. I was told the other day that snowdrops are best planted "in the green" - i.e. whilst in leaf (now). The ones I planted 3 years ago as bulbs have only flowered once so that may well be true.

Yes they can come up through turf - it's not a woven mat - just roots. You see bulbs all the time on grass verges. And as for planting without freezing. I think maybe they'd either grow but not flower this year or lay dormant til a frost.

Sounds like a lovely lawn. Have fun.

Thanks Bonzo. I don't want them to grow until next spring anyway, so the frost thing should be fine as long as I can find some. (Though we've certainly had some frosts in London these last few days.)

Maybe snowdrops aren't a goer, then, unless I can plant them in the green and then drop a lawn on their heads!

I went to Homebase today to buy some white spirit and then (as you do) found myself trawling the gardening aisles. They currently have miniature daffs in module packs. So although you can't buy bulbs qua bulbs at the moment, you could buy them in flower and then make slits in the turf for them to grow through. I think Homebase had other bulbs in flower too but I wasn't really looking as I already have a ridiculous number of pots of bulbs. (The drawback of this approach, though, is that if you wait until autumn and then buy dry bulbs from a website or catalogue you almost certainly will have a far wider choice than the few varieties on sale in garden centres).

Interestsingly, I read recently (RHS magazine, perhaps) that the thinking on planting snowdrops in the green has now changed, as planting in the green may wreck the roots and so dry bulbs may in fact fare better.

If you naturalise bulbs in grass you shouldn't mow the grass until the leaves have died down, and that can mean June for the daffodils so it can end up looking a bit messy.

Any spring flowering bulbs you buy now that aren't growing too tall to plant under turf aren't worth the money. Lay your turf this spring, then in autumn buy lovely plump bulbs in varieties of your choice and a long handled bulb planter and plant them then. It really isn't that much work and you will get a better display.

Nor should you tie the foliage into knots as you wait for it to die down.

If the LadyWellian garden is on heavy London clay, it may be too much for the bulb planter (unless the long-handled planters are more robust then the hand-held ones). My bulb planter lasted about 10 minutes before the London clay got to it.

Thanks guys. Oldenough the end of the lawn I'm thinking about already has a well established peony and also a pond that ought (I hope) to draw the eye away from any yellowy daff leaves.

How long-handled would the bulb planter need to be? I think we've got one that's about a foot tall from top to bottom, though I don't think it was expensive so can get a new one if necessary.

But if I plant the bulbs in autumn when the grass is more or less dormant, will I not get holes in my lawn where I've planted the bulbs?

Haha Maud our bulb planter is a bit bent from the East Dulwich soil in our old garden.

However, thanks to our apparently higher than normal flood risk (I'm, ahem, banking on the railway embankment to save us), we're likely to be at least a bit alluvial.

Added to which, the previous owner, from whose children we bought the house after he died, was obviously a keen gardener and the soil quality, perhaps because of him, seems pretty good. Certainly everything I've dug so far hasn't seemed as 'London' as my previous garden.

I'm really doing my best to incorporate the lovely things that are here already (particularly 5 fabulous peonies) into my overall vision. I've had the privilege over the last two years to work for a company that has sponsored a garden at Chelsea (sadly not this year) and it's given me lots of ideas that I now have to do justice!

Long-handled bulb planter, intended to save one's back and knees. The theory is that the bulb planter cuts out a plug of turf and soil that you then bung back on top of the bulb. As I said, my experience was the clay stuck to the bulb planter like glue and the plug disintegrated as I wrestled it out.

East Dulwich? Say. no. more.