Early Care of Landscape Bulbs
Starting Bulbs Off Right
Properly planted bulbs need little post-planting care other than occasional watering and fertilizing to help them grow and bloom.
You chose strong, healthy bulbs [see: Choosing Healthy Bulbs]. You properly prepared and fertilized the soil in your landscape planting beds and containers [see: Preparing Soil for Bulbs and Soil for Bulbs in Containers].
Finally, you planted your bulbs in sites or containers suitable for them, always at the proper depth [see: Planting Bulbs Outdoors, Planting Bulbs into Containers, and Bulb Planting Depths].
If you followed each of those steps, there’s little more your plantings need until they sprout, except…
The Exceptions
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- Occasional Waterings. Recently planted bulbs should be watered regularly, especially if they’re planted in containers [see: Watering Bulbs]. An exception is landscape bulb plantings in cold climates, where snow or frozen ground insulate the bulbs. For those sites, no waterings are required until spring.
- Forced Bulbs. All forced bulbs—those that were chilled prior to planting so they’ll bloom out of season—need some special care for a few weeks to complete the forcing process [see: Caring for Forced Bulbs].
- Fertilizing Container Bulbs. Landscape plantings require no additional fertilizer until the bulbs sprout, but bulbs planted into containers, pots, or planters may exhaust their fertilizer or suffer leaching of nutrients, so topping them off is a necessary step. Tips on how to fertilize recently planted bulbs in containers follows, right.
- Staking Tall Species. Some bulb varieties, including dahlia and desert candle, grow tall flower spikes more than 5 ft. (1.5 m) in height. For such species, install canes or other thin but flexible stakes at the time of planting. Add loose ties from the stakes as the plants grow. Loose ties allow the flower stems to move in the wind but prevent strong wind gusts from breaking the stalks. Movement of the plant stems also prompts flower stems to build strong, woody tissue that stiffens them and helps the plants better resist wind.
Those are the most important exceptions. You’ll be able to enjoy some time off while your bulbs do their magic of putting down roots, swelling with life, and readying themselves to sprout and bloom.
Fertilizing Bulbs in Containers
Bulbs in containers quickly deplete their potting soil of its nutrients. Water-soluble compounds such as nitrogen leach from the soil each time the pots are irrigated.
Keep bulbs in containers healthy after planting and during their dormancy. Apply concentrated and balanced liquid organic fertilizer, such as 3–3–3 formulation, diluted to one-half the package-recommended rate, each time you water, usually weekly or semi-weekly.
Tropical and evergreen bulbs begin growing right after planting. They should be fed weekly or semi-weekly whenever they are producing foliage, flowering, or during other periods of active growth.