Planting Spring-Blooming Bulbs in the Pergola Garden
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, most of our spring-blooming bulbs are finally planted.
My outdoor grounds crew continued the planting project in my Stewartia garden behind my Tenant House and under my beautiful pergola - two of the first areas I see when I drive into my property. They planted hundreds of bulbs including Camassia, Alliums, and striped squill. Adding bulbs to these gardens every year is always so exciting - I can’t wait to see how glorious these areas will look come spring.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Everyone at the farm loves our Polaris vehicles. This is the Polaris Ranger Crew 1000 filled with crates of bulbs from one of my favorite sources, Colorblends Flower Bulbs – a third-generation wholesale flower merchant in nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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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 and Bone Meal 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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- Gavin mixes the Bulb-tone and Bone Meal together in one trug bucket before sprinkling over the entire length of the garden bed.
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- Meanwhile, Ryan sorts through the many bulbs to decide which ones will be planted where.
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- When purchasing bulbs, always look for those that are plump and firm, and avoid those that are soft. In this bed, we’re planting a variety of alliums as well as camassia.
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- True bulbs can be either tunicate, with a papery covering or non-tunicate without the covering. This is a tunicate bulb. On many bulbs, it is also easy to see which end should be faced up – the roots should always point down.
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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. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- The bulbs are strategically 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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- There are several different tools used for planting bulbs depending on the size of the bulb. These are traditional bulb planters. In general, holes should be three times deeper than the bulb’s length.
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- Using the stand-up bulb planter, Phurba makes the hole wherever the bulb is positioned.
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- And one by one, each bulb is carefully placed into a hole, with the pointed end faced up, or root end faced down.
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- Each of these large bulbs is planted in a hole at least six-inches deep. There are already many other bulbs planted here, so the crew 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.
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- I buy bulbs in amounts of 20, 100, 500, and 1000. Each box is properly labeled and grouped depending on where they will be planted.
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- This tunicate bulb is slightly smaller, but it is very easy to see which end should be planted face up and which end should face down.
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- Smaller bulbs, like this one, can be planted about three to five inches deep.
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- Some of the other bulbs we’re planting include Allium cristophii, also known as Persian onion or Star of Persia. It is a species of onion native to Turkey, Iran, and Turkmenistan, though grown as an ornamental bulbous plant in many parts of the world. The enormous, eight to 10-inch globes are violet-pink with a silvery sheen. Christophii blooms in late spring to early summer and the dried seed heads last for months. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Allium ‘Gladiator’ is a spectacular giant onion that blooms in early summer with six-inch diameter rose-purple globes on three to four-foot flower stems. These alliums will also produce a sweet-scent. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Allium ‘Globemaster’ is another tall allium that blooms in early summer with six-inch diameter rose-purple globes. ‘Globemaster’ and ‘Gladiator’ alliums are the tallest of the giant Allium. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- ‘Purple Sensation’ alliums are four-inch globes of rich purple flowers on tall stems. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Ryan moves on to the backside of the pergola to sprinkle more fertilizer.
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- When positioning the bulbs, Ryan considers color, size of plant and time of bloom. These bulbs are placed carefully between the boxwood shrubs. Each one is a stunning and intriguing Allium Schubertii.
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- Allium Schubertii is an eye-catcher. It bears huge 10- to 12-inch spidery heads of rosy flowers. A real conversation piece in the garden and in arrangements. Allium schubertii has various common names including ornamental onion, flowering onion, tumbleweed onion and Persian onion.
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- This is what I call my Stewartia garden. It is still very much a work in progress, but I am so happy with how it is developing. A few thousand bulbs will be planted here also. Ryan places bags of smaller bulbs where they will be planted in clumps.
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- These Striped Squill bulbs can be planted three to five inches deep.
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- Closely related to Chionodoxa and Scilla, Striped Squill, Puschkinia scilloides, is a deer- and rodent-resistant naturalizer named after Russian botanist Count Apollos Apollosvich Mussin-Puschkin. Puschkinia is best grown in moist, fertile, well-draining soil in full sun to partial sunlight. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Phurba uses the dibber to plant these smaller bulbs. He makes several holes before dropping each of the bulbs in the ground. The crew is excellent at planting, and works in an efficient assembly line process.
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- Gavin and Phurba work quickly to get all the bulbs planted before the cold weather arrives.
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- After two full days of planting, here is one side of the pergola garden all finished.
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- And here is the front side – raked over and looking very tidy. Just a few more left and this bulb project will be complete for the year. Then we’ll all move onto the next big task – covering all the precious boxwood and ornamental garden urns with burlap.
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