Tulips, Is it too Late?

Today’s question was… is it too late to plant bulbs? As in bulbs for tulips and daffodils. Uh, yes, it is too late, unless you are planning for next year, and then it is too early. I’m astonished by that question, but I suppose if one never gardened, and didn’t really pay attention to when certain garden items appeared in the stores, one might not know about planting spring-flowering bulbs in the fall.

(I worked one spring eons ago at Furrow Building Materials. I was asked at least once a day where the tulip bulbs were. I wanted to reply they were in the past, as in last fall. Astonishing!)

This past fall I planted daffodils to add to those I have planted through the years. I find that daffodils are quite reliable and return year after year. I also planted tulips around the trees in the front yard. I find that tulips are not reliable from year to year and can disappear with no reason. So, I tend to think of them as annuals, and anything that comes up the 2nd year or subsequent years is a nice bonus. I’m told this is an unfortunate characteristic of a lot of the newer varieties of tulips, and that if I planted older varieties, I might not have this problem of them disappearing from the landscape.

I am planning to plant hostas around the the tulips and I believe over time, I’ll have some nice hosta beds around the trees and the tulips will just fade away.