Planting Spring-Blooming Bulbs in My Long Pergola Garden
It’s time to plant all those spring-blooming bulbs!
One of our biggest tasks every autumn is planting thousands of bulbs here at my Bedford, New York farm. Yesterday, we started planting in my pergola garden - one of the first areas I see when I drive into my property. We planted Camassia and several Allium cultivars. This year, I selected bulbs from one of my favorite sources, Van Engelen Inc., a wholesale family-run flower bulb business located in Bantam, Connecticut. I always find it exciting to plant bulbs in the fall that you won't see for many months to come - it's such a wonderful surprise of color when they bloom in spring.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Our spring-blooming bulbs are here and ready to plant. Every fall when the bulbs arrive, we organize and store them in my garden library. I order the bulbs not only for my farm in Bedford, but also for my home in Maine. Every box is labeled on the outside, so they can be transported quickly to their planting locations.
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- The first area on the list is my long and winding pergola garden located across from my stand of mighty bald cypress trees and along the carriage road to my home.
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- I am always looking for ways to improve the gardens. This year I decided to remove all the day lilies from the beds and replace them with other flowers. Brian dug up all the plants carefully, so they could be given away to my crew – nothing is ever wasted.
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- Meanwhile, Ryan looks through the bulbs earmarked for the pergola beds and decides which ones will be planted where. He refers to the catalog to check the heights of each variety at maturity, so they can be planted appropriately – taller ones in back and shorter ones in front.
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- The first thing before planting bulbs is to prepare the bed with the proper bulb food. We always add Bulb-tone to our nutrient-rich soil. The food should be a balanced fertilizer that has a good amount of phosphorous. Fertilizing spring-blooming bulbs also helps them fight off diseases and pests.
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- Ryan pours a manageable amount of fertilizer into one trug bucket before sprinkling over the entire length of the garden bed evenly and generously.
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- Here is a section of the long garden bed, weeded, cleaned, fed, and ready for planting.
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- Next, Ryan divides the amounts needed for both sides of the pergola garden. When purchasing bulbs, always look for those that are plump and firm, and avoid those that are soft. Here, we’re planting a variety of alliums and camassias.
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- Bulbs need to be packaged very carefully to ensure they are kept in the best conditions during transport. Van Engelen uses netted sacs, paper bags, and plastic pouches depending on the bulbs’ humidity needs. The bags are also designed with a number of holes for air circulation and humidity control – some have more, some have less.
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- Here are allium bulbs strategically placed in the bed where they should be planted. True bulbs can be either tunicate, with a papery covering or non-tunicate without the covering. Allium bulbs are tunicate.
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- There are several different tools one can use for planting bulbs. Using an auger drill bit attachment specifically for this task, Brian makes the holes wherever the bulbs are positioned.
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- In general, holes should be three times deeper than the bulb’s length.
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- One by one, each bulb is carefully placed into a hole, with the pointed end faced up, or root end faced down. This is very important, so the plant grows properly from the bulb.
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- Among the alliums we are planting – ‘Purple Sensation,’ which are four-inch globes of rich purple flowers on tall stems, Allium ‘Globemaster,’ a tall allium that blooms in early summer with six-inch diameter rose-purple globes, and Allium ‘Firmament,’ with four to five-inch silvery purple globes and somewhat flat bottoms.
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- Each of these bulbs is planted in a hole at least six-inches deep. There are already many other bulbs planted here, so Brian is very careful when planting additional bulbs in this space.
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- Spring-blooming bulbs have to be planted in fall when they are fully dormant. Bulbs require a period of chilling to initiate flowers. For most spring-flowering bulbs, 10 to 13 weeks of temperatures below 40-degrees Fahrenheit are needed. Bulbs also need to put down good root growth before they sprout foliage and flowers.
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- This is an elongated tunicate camassia bulb. And do you know… these bulbs are actually edible? Camassia bulbs were a major food source for some Native American tribes and early European Settlers, but they were very difficult to distinguish from other bulbs, which were deadly poisonous.
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- Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. Common names include camas, quamash, Indian hyacinth, camash, and wild hyacinth. They grow to a height of 12 to 50 inches and vary in color from pale lilac or white to deep purple or blue-violet.
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- I also grow Camassia in this lighter shade of blue. The two look so pretty together in this garden.
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- Here is a springtime photo of the bed with lots of blooming alliums and camassias.
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- Here, one can see all the bulbs placed along the bed. Because the pergola garden is long, this bed will need hundreds of bulbs to fill. Most bulbs do best in full sun with at least six hours of direct sunlight a day and well-drained soil.
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- As Brian plants, Ryan stays ahead of him placing the bulbs. In general, when positioning bulbs in a garden bed, consider color, size of plant, and time of bloom.
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- Brian waits until all the bulbs are planted before backfilling the holes. This helps to keep track of what is planted where.
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- Finally, Brian uses a soft rake to backfill the holes and completely bury the bulbs. Our planting project has just begun – I am glad the weather has allowed us a good start this season before colder temperatures harden the ground. If it’s starting to get cold where you are, be sure to get the bigger bulbs in first. I cannot wait to see the fruits of our labor, and the swaths of color that will emerge in spring.
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