The traditional times of bulb planting are expanding because of higher soil temperatures.
The weather has played havoc with gardens in the past year. In recent years, when it comes to planting spring bulbs, I’ve begun to veer away from the traditional times of February/March and looked at putting them in this month.
The reason for this is because as any number of gardening friends have discovered, bulbs they planted at the traditional usual time are now raising their heads above ground – long before they are meant to.
Such is the growing power of water and warmth in a sustained pattern. It needs to be remembered that soil temperature needs to be at just 6 degrees C for plants to grow.
Indeed, even some of my own that live year in and year out in the same big pots have reared their heads above the soil – three months earlier than usual.
So it’s not too late to plant the bulbs for crocus, daffodils, freesia, and anemone for the early spring flush of flowers.
Your mid-spring flowering bulbs can also still be planted this month, such as hyacinth, and ranunculus along with the later flowering gladioli, Dutch iris, and bluebells.
Tulips, which can be harder to grow, do need the traditional really cold frosts or snow over winter – which we haven’t had a lot of in recent years.
The best bet is to put them in the fridge for a couple of weeks and then plant them out to help them along. They also can still be planted now. I have a set of bulbs that tell me when the temperatures are not cold enough – they don’t grow much past 14cm in height with short, stunted flowers.
For early spring flowering that’s not bulbs, now is also a good time to be planting a wide variety ranging from alyssum, calendula, carnations, forget-me-not, hollyhock, Iceland poppy, the early sweet pea, polyanthus, primula, some early snapdragons, larkspur, sweet william, and viola.
For winter flowering, plant now much of the above as well as stock, cornflower, dianthus, lupin and ageratum.
In terms of winters that appear to be much warmer, and your fruit trees, I had it on good authority from a commercial grower that apricots need to have the cold to set the fruit.
If you are in an area where frosts are a lot less than they used to be (Taumarunui excluded) he advises to put three of four bags of ice spread out around the tree, three or four times during early to mid-winter to simulate the cold weather they need.
Cherries also are another tree that do well with this, especially if, like the commercial growers, you keep yours in a big bag.
