I planted some spring flowering bulbs late. LATE?

How late is late for planting spring flowering bulbs, particularly if your planting them in London, South-east England? I’ll let you know come spring …

I excelled in lateness and ‘no show’ spectaculars in 2019. I was late planting sweetcorn, brassicas, and countless other fruit and vegetable plants. I was late for appointments and oblivious to a few.

I was late in covering my early season pear trees with anti-insect netting and effectively gave most of the fruit to the wasps and other creatures. Well, at least other nature benefited! I was proud of myself for netting my cherry trees off from birds but [unforgivably] late in harvesting them, meaning I only consumed about 50% of the fruit. Many decomposed and dried up naturally on the trees. How could I have done that? Just-picked cherries are the best! My dinnerplate Dahlias were late too, but mercifully managed to gift me with a few glorious blooms before they were blackened by the first frost. I did not erected my no longer brand new greenhouse. I bought it in 2016. It’s on the Must Do list for 2020. Or should I call it the ‘Must Do but How on Earth?’ list. More on that in another post.

Ah-hah! 2020! On New Year’s Day, I wished myself a good growing and harvesting year, and I’ve have started quite well. So far so good. I’M ON IT!

In addition to the un-erected greenhouse, I had one other 2019 task to make a decision on in 2020: What to do with the bag of spring flowering Tulips and Hyacinths that I didn’t get around to planting? Lola, you’re LATE!

Panic set in. A spot of frantic research followed by calm reflection taught me that:

• Tulips are best planted in the cold season after soil temperatures have dropped, which helps control fungal diseases such a Tulip fire. Tulip fire, caused by Botrytis tulipae can be disastrous to your display, causing black spots and deformed leaves and blooms. The RHS website gives excellent advice on how to prevent and control it. There are now chemical controls available to UK gardeners. In any case, I’m trying to grow organically, so that would be out of the question anyway.
  
  With regards to planting time, experts and aficionados vary in their advice somewhat, so I’ve taken a window between November and January to be OK, wherever you are in the UK, as long as the ground is not frozen. Some would push it to March, but I decided not to risk it.

• For Narcissi and Daffodils, the general advice is to plant in late summer or early autumn when the soil is still warm. They will grow if planted later and may well give a somewhat later show, or may even catch up with those planted earlier. Worse case scenario is that they may not bloom until the next season. Come to think of it, I’m almost positive that I’ve planted spring-flowering Narcissi in the past that came with the note ‘Flowers 8 weeks after planting’. I’ll get to you on this.

• Cold weather is ideal for Hyacinths. They also like the shorter, darker days of winter which establishing themselves. It’s still winter, and daylight hours are still curtailed. Apparently, now is a good time to transplant forced indoor hyacinths that have bloomed into the ground outside for a natural bloom next season.

I was planting neither Narcissi nor Daffodil, so I decided I could breathe a little easier

I went ahead and planted them in pots so that I could control (and hopefully optimise) their growing conditions. Hyacinths like well-drained soil. Pots can help control winter wet.

I had nothing to lose. I had got them cheap, towards the end of the spring bulb retail season (a tip for the canny and the brave!). Most had already started sprouting.

I made my own mix of soil, grit, organic fertiliser, and used compost for the growing medium. I know that the re-use of compost is not recommended, and for good reasons. The compost I re-used had been tipped out in a heap on the open ground where it had lain for over a 18 months, effectively composting, and had worms wriggling in it. It came from pots of healthy plants (neither tulips nor hyacinths) that I had transplanted into the ground. So, in the spirit of ‘Use and Re-use’ I’m hoping it’ll be OK.

Now, I know I’ll at least get some leaves, but will they have the energy to bloom this season?