It starts with the quality of the onions
Buying bulbs
The first and most important thing is the appearance of the bulb you buy. Bulbs can be purchased in sealed bags, or you can choose to buy loose bulbs. It is important to plant healthy bulbs. The bulb must not be damaged. Ideally, the tulip bulb should be completely covered by a brown tunic. Those tulip bulbs that are not covered should have an undamaged white tunic beneath the brown tunic. Galanthus bulbs do not tolerate drying out and should be purchased in pots or from cold storage.
And then it's worth noting the size of the bulb. In supermarkets, you typically find small bulbs at low prices, but at nurseries like ours, we make a great effort to purchase larger and healthier bulb types. So, with us, you will often find the slightly larger bulbs, which will also give you healthier flowers that - if they are perennial types - will return year after year with proper care and maintenance.
Diseases and pests
The bulbs you buy at the nursery are healthy and certified, but occasionally there are diseased bulbs. There are bulbs that dry out if they lie too long without soil. Avoid dried out, brownish tulip bulbs. Bulbs can be placed in a 1-2% hydrogen peroxide solution for 2 hours to disinfect the bulb's surface and kill any harmful fungal spores. Sometimes, many aphids can be found on the bulb sprouts. These should be removed with your fingers. Mice are particularly fond of some flower bulbs and corms. In particular, you should keep an eye on your pots of tulip bulbs stored away in a garage or other dark places. Bad weather, especially hail, can destroy the flowers.
Planting Bulbs
Planting bulbs and corms is not difficult, as it is usually easy to tell which way is up on a bulb. Should a bulb be planted upside down, it will simply emerge a little later. Only tulip bulbs in pots are slightly different. We have written about this in "Flower bulbs in pots".
Fertiliser is not strictly necessary, but good results, meaning good flowering and leaf colour, are achieved by mixing fertiliser into the soil. Fertiliser is especially important if the bulbs are to be reused next year in the garden or in a pot. For example, an organic fertiliser such as bone meal can be used. We recommend 1 tablespoon of bone meal for 4 litres of soil.
The best time for planting flower bulbs is early autumn, but bulbs can be planted from September all the way to December.
Planting depth varies by bulb type. We have made an effort to ensure that you can find this information for each bulb in our webshop. Bulbs can be planted with a distance of approximately 5 cm or so close that they almost touch each other. But you will also find that information on the selected bulb.
Care and Maintenance
Once the bulbs are planted, water the soil thoroughly. When the bulb sprouts emerge, water them. Remove faded flowers and water the plants after flowering until they die back. After dying back, the bulbs can be dug up and sorted according to whether they are large enough to be used again. The bulbs that can be used should be stored cool, dark, and dry until planting in September. If there are only narcissus, they benefit from either being kept in a pot or being planted immediately after digging up.
Tip
Onion Lasagna
Often, you only have one type of bulb in a container, but you can also have a container with several different bulbs that bloom over a longer period. You can also create different color combinations.
The bulbs are layered with approximately 5 cm between each layer. Each layer can consist of the same bulb species or can be mixed with different species:
Bottom layer: The bottom layers consist of large-flowered daffodils, ornamental onions, tulips, and large Fritillaria species. The outermost ring of tulip bulbs is placed with the "flat side" of the bulb against the edge of the container.
Middle layers: Approximately 5 cm above the bottom layer, for example, smaller daffodils, multi-flowered daffodils per stem, and hyacinths are placed. The top layer of bulbs and tubers can include Balkan anemone, snowdrop, scilla, crocus, grape hyacinth, porcelain hyacinth, and checkered lily.
Top layer: Finally, you can plant pansies in the container in autumn, allowing you to have flowers from autumn until June.