THE BEAUTY OF BULBS
(Page 2 of 5)
September/October 1981
By the Mother Earth News editors
Aside from a gentle hand, most bulbs demand little more than a sunny exposure and fairly rich soil with good texture and drainage (they'll usually thrive in well-prepared raised beds). It's best, however, to check out each variety's particular preferences by referring to a good plant encyclopedia or garden book. Hardy Bulbs by Louise Beebe Wilder (Peter Smith Publishing, $7.50) has, for example, been a classic source of information and inspiration for bulb growers since 1936.
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Although flowering bulbs aren't heavy feeders, you should keep in mind-when preparing the soil-that phosphorus encourages bloom development ...potassium builds strong stems and roots ...and nitrogen stimulates foliage growth. Thus, if you add too much of the last nutrient, you may well end up with an abundance of luxuriant leaves but very small blossoms (or none at all). Note, too, that horse manure will burn the herbaceous perennials, but very old and rotted cow manure can be spread as an autumn mulch or applied lightly—and scratched in with a rake —in the early spring. Most bulb gardeners, however, prefer to feed their charges with bone meal, which gives up its nourishing properties slowly ...and therefore closely matches the needs of the growing plant. Peat moss, leaf mold, and other organic materials will also help porous soil retain moisture, while builder's sand can be used to loosen up earth that contains too much clay.
AN ARTISTIC ARRAY
The creation of striking floral patterns with bulbs is—if you give the matter a little forethought—easy, fun, and rewarding. It can be done in three basic ways: by massing the plants in formal beds and borders ...by clustering them in small groups to add spots of color here and there in your yard ...or by naturalizing the blooms, an artful planting method that makes it appear as if Mother Nature had wind—strewn the flowers with a generous hand (or dropped some, by mistake, in unexpected locations).
[1] When preparing a bed of flowers that you expect will all grow to approximately the same height, first remove a layer of soil down to the depth required for the plant in question (as a general rule, this is three times the bulb's diameter at its widest point, but dig a bit deeper in sandy soil and a little shallower in clay—heavy earth) ...add bone meal, at a ratio of five pounds per 100 square feet, in the bottom of the bed (in subsequent years, simply apply this fertilizer to the soil's surface and cultivate it in) ...place your bulbs in the pattern in which you wish them to grow and bloom ...and cover them with firmly (but gently) tamped topsoil. (If you have trouble with rodents, such as tulip loving gophers, you might want to line your bed with galvanized hardware cloth.) Spacing, as it turns out, is mostly a matter of taste, since—although the bulbs shouldn't actually touch—they don't mind being crowded as long as there's enough nourishment in the soil to support them.
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