If you want a burst of color in your garden, now is the time to plant your summer bulbs!
Summer is approaching, so if you want a burst of color in your garden for the season, now is the time to start learning how to plant your summer bulbs. A bulb is a plant that stores its complete life cycle in an underground storage structure. Bulbs are much more convenient to plant rather than regular plants because they store energy from one growing season to the following one, which explains why summer bulbs are planted during spring.
The moment a bulb begins to flourish, it makes use of the stored energy in order to develop roots, shoots, leaves, and flowers. Planting a summer bulb basically depends on when the soil begins to warm up and how warm the weather is. If the weather starts to reach 15 C, know that it’s time to start planting. Some of the most popular summer bulbs include tuberose, begonias, caladium, dahlias, gladiola, gloriosa lilies, elephant ears, liatris, nerines, oxalis, pineapple lilies, and tigridia.
Planting Summer Bulbs
When you’re choosing the location, check if the soil is well drained except if they are adaptable to muddy conditions. Generally, bulbs are planted approximately three times as deep as their diameter. That means, if you have a bulb of 3 inches around you’ll have to plant it nine inches deep. The bulb’s packaging usually provides you with the exact planting depth for your bulbs. In order for the plants to grow properly and flower freely, assure that the bulbs have enough space around them when planting them. Once you’re done, cover them up with soil and make sure the soil is solid.
What to Avoid
The only problem when planting summer bulbs is that you don’t want pests close to the area where you planted. In general, those to look out for involve aphids, bulb mites, slugs, snails, thrips, bulb flies, borers and leaf-rollers and several others. Spraying the planted area with a chemical pest is best thing to do in order to avoid this problem and for your plants to flower in the finest way.
Tips for Maintenance
The moment you have planted your bulbs, you should be watering them regularly. However, make sure the soil is dry every time you are watering it again. Fertilizers is another thing to take good care of your plants because summer bulbs like strong soil, but it is not required. In case you choose to use it, purchase a fertiliser that is low in nitrogen. You don’t want to blemish your plants by giving them too much food, so carefully follow the given instructions on the fertilizer package.
Yes, planting a bulb will probably make you stick around for weeks and at times months for the outcome, but we can assure you it’s worth the hang.
