Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms

A daffodil bulb planted in October does most of its work where you cannot see it. Through the wet months it puts down roots in cool soil, sits through the chill it needs before it can flower, and pushes a green tip through the leaf litter in February while the rest of the garden is still asleep. Your part is to get it into the ground at the right time, at the right depth, in soil that drains.

When and how to plant

In the mild, wet climate around the Salish Sea, the planting window runs from roughly late September to the end of November. Wait until the soil has cooled and the autumn rain has softened it. Planting into warm ground too early can push bulbs into growth before winter. Leaving it until December is less of a problem, since the ground here rarely freezes hard, but the bulbs have less time to root.

Planting, step by step

1. Choose firm bulbs. They should feel heavy and solid, like a good onion.
2. Find a spot that drains. Winter wet rots more bulbs on this coast than cold does. In heavy clay, plant on a slope or in a raised bed.
3. Give them light. Most spring bulbs want sun while they are in leaf. Under deciduous trees is fine, because the bulbs finish most of their growing before the canopy fills in.
4. Dig to the right depth. A reliable rule is two to three times the height of the bulb. That works out to about 15 cm for daffodils and tulips and 8 to 10 cm for crocus and other small bulbs.
5. Pointed end up. If you cannot tell which end is which, lay the bulb on its side and it will sort itself out.
6. Cover, firm and leave. Autumn rain does the watering. Fallen leaves make a fine mulch.

What the deer leave alone

Anyone gardening on the Gulf Islands without a tall fence learns this quickly: black-tailed deer treat tulips as a salad course, and will bite the buds off the night before they open. Crocus corms are often dug up by squirrels.

The dependable choices are bulbs that are toxic or taste bad:

• Daffodils (Narcissus). Every part of the plant is poisonous, so deer, rabbits and rodents leave it alone.
• Alliums. Ornamental onions smell like what they are. The big purple globes open in late spring and bees work them heavily.
• Snowdrops (Galanthus). Among the first flowers of the year, and content in the damp shade under bare trees.
• Grape hyacinth (Muscari), squill (Scilla) and fritillaries. Rarely bothered.

No plant is deer-proof in a hungry year, and deer on one road will eat what deer on the next road ignore.

Planting for pollinators

Queen bumblebees come out of hibernation on the first mild days of late winter, when very little is in bloom. Early bulbs help fill that gap. Snowdrops, crocus, squill and grape hyacinth all offer pollen or nectar early, and alliums carry the supply into late spring.

Choose single, open flowers over heavily doubled ones, where the extra petals can make pollen and nectar hard to reach. Large hybrid daffodils, for all their other virtues, offer insects relatively little, so mix them with other things. Camas (Camassia) is worth a place too. This blue-flowered bulb is native to the Garry oak meadows of the region, suited to wet winters and dry summers, and visited by native bees. Buy nursery-grown bulbs and never dig them from the wild.

After the flowers

Once blooming is over, snap off the spent heads but leave the foliage until it yellows and flops, usually about six weeks. The leaves are feeding next year's flower.

There are more garden and season notes in the Journal. For now, push a stick into the soil where each group went in. By January you will have forgotten, and the stick will save a daffodil from the spade.