Bulbs That Succeed

I’m a big consumer of bulbs. I buy thousands (every year) and plant them everywhere: in pots, in flowerbeds and even in the lawn. I don’t understand how other gardeners can tolerate a spring with few or no flowers: I like it to be as flowery as my summer. The bulbs do me proud: most of them come back faithfully year after year, in some cases spreading out to make even bigger colonies. However, I haven’t always been so successful.

My First Bulb Purchase

I remember my first purchase of bulbs. I was 10 years old. Right at the entrance to the supermarket, there was an extraordinary display of boxes of bulbs at more than tempting prices. The packaging was adorned with a photo showing an incredible quantity of magnificent daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocuses. ‘Rainbow mix: 150 multicoloured bulbs’, it said. According to the label, there were 150 different colours in this one box! And a whole range of shapes, from single to double flowers, large and small.

I managed to convince my mother that we absolutely needed these bulbs and I proudly carried them home. There I eagerly took out my bulbs. The box had instructions on how to plant them and at what depth. It looked easy enough. But there was a catch: more than half the bulbs were completely dried out. Even to my novice eyes, this didn’t look promising, but I planted them anyway, assuming and hoping that they would swell up again under the soil.

All winter long, I waited impatiently to see my 150 bulbs in rainbow colours. But I was disappointed. First of all, the packaging seemed to promise that all the bulbs would flower at the same time. But this was not to be. Now I know that the crocuses appear early, the daffodils come later and the tulips bloom after the daffodils… I was very disappointed at the time. What’s more, there weren’t 150 plants, but barely 50, and rather than a mixture of colours, I had exactly three: yellow daffodils, red tulips and purple crocuses. Not a single hyacinth showed its nose! Did I tell you that I was disappointed, very disappointed indeed?

How Do I Buy My Bulbs?

Now I know how to buy my bulbs. First of all, I don’t buy any more mixes, because these are simply the leftovers that the merchant throws into a large chest, regardless of colour or shape. He makes no effort to perfect his mix and does not ensure that it contains equal proportions of each colour. If, in any given year, there is a surplus of ‘Red Emperor’ and ‘Pink Beauty’ tulips, that’s what goes into the heap. Each batch on top of the previous one, without mixing them. Even if you get a certain mix, there’s no guarantee that the flowers will bloom at the same time. With tulips, for example, there are early, mid-season and late varieties. You may well get three or four colours… one after the other.

I’ve discovered that if I want a mix in my flower beds, I have to do it myself, by buying different colours of bulbs of the same category (as Triumph or Fosteriana tulips, for example), all the same height. The effect is prettier if I don’t mix the bulbs, but plant them in groups of 10 or more, with each heel next to another. The result is a multicoloured carpet rather than a motley mix.

A Few Tips

I’ve also learnt never to buy bulbs in sealed boxes. They contain second-rate bulbs, because the customer can’t see them. The best bulbs are sold loose. In this way, the customer chooses each bulb individually. If the bulbs are rotten, shrivelled or broken, they won’t buy them. They’ll look for the biggest, plumpest bulbs without scratches, and rightly so.

Other top-quality, but slightly smaller bulbs, go into net or plastic bags. You can see them and even touch them, but it’s difficult to be as selective as when you buy bulbs in bulk. Check them carefully, though: sometimes the bag contains more dried bulbs than live ones!

Another trick is to buy as early in the season as possible. The situation would be very different if bulbs were stored in controlled-atmosphere refrigerators: in a cool place, bulbs keep for months. Instead, the bulbs are put on display in the middle of an overheated shop. Yes, the bulbs were top quality to begin with, but they lost points every day. After mid-October, unless the merchant has got into the habit of keeping them cold and taking out only a few at a time, the bulbs that are left are not worth much. It’s better to buy them early and store them yourself until planting, in a fridge, cold room, basement, garden shed or garage.

Blame It on the Bulbs!

Not had good results with your bulbs in the past? Don’t take it as a failure. In all likelihood, the real problem was the purchase of poor-quality bulbs. This year, buy early and buy wisely: you’ll see a remarkable difference in the results!

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Larry Hodgson published thousands of articles and 65 books over the course of his career, in both French and English. His son, Mathieu, has made it his mission to make his father’s writings accessible to the public. This text was originally published in Fleurs, plantes et jardins in October 2000.