Flower Bulb Growing Tips

Here are key flower bulb growing tips from The Old Farmer's Almanac.

• Turn the soil over to a depth of about eight to ten inches. Add enough compost to make it loose and crumbly.
• Don't plant your bulbs where you always see standing water in early spring. They like well-drained sites.
• Get your bulbs in the ground in September, October, or early November—before the last hard frost. Cover the bulbs with soil, water well, and provide two to four inches of mulch on top of the soil.
• Plant bulbs to their recommended depths: For daffodils, fritillarias, hyacinths, and tulips, plant six to eight inches deep; for crocuses, snowdrops, Spanish bluebells, and other small bulbs, plant three to four inches deep.
• Add a balanced natural organic fertilizer in the spring when the bulbs first appear and again after they have bloomed. It is not necessary to add fertilizer to the bulbs as you plant them, but you need to help them recharge their food banks after they have bloomed.
• Cut off the spent flower heads after your bulbs have bloomed, but don't cut off the foliage. The leaves help provide nutrients to what will become the next season's bulbs.