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Hi I'm Jessica Smith and I work for Blands Nursery in West Jordan Utah, and today we're
talking about how to plant bulbs. Right now we're going to discuss how to plant fall bulbs.
Fall bulbs are the guys that bloom in the spring, which can be a little deceiving on
a fall bulb. You plant them and get them in the first part of September when they normally
begin to arrive at your local nursery. And there's all different types, from tulips and
hyacinths and daffodils to crocus, they're really early blooming stuff. Now how you want
to plant is basically the same as anything else. Nice organic matter into your soil.
Organic matter is anything like a compost, anything that was once living. I like to use
a nice compost that has some manures into it, and some mulches, and peats and everything.
So just go to your local nursery and they can help you choose a nice compost for your
area. You're going to want to mix that soil amendment with your soil. That's the most
important part of any planting. Now with a tulip bulb or a daffodil bulb, or hyacinth,
or really irregardless of what you're using you'll want to plant with the top up. Your
pointed end always goes up. Your little roots come out from the flat little base right there.
Some bulbs are actually hard to tell which way to go, un-for sure, plant them with to
the side. They'll actually find their way up through the soil. In general for the different
types of bulbs, some again small like this little crocus bulbs, or large for a tulip
bulb. And again you want to go with a nice firm big bulb, that's going to actually give
you a better flower in the next spring. What you'll want to do is plant to the depth of
the diameter, the width of the bulb here. And you go usually twice down, so one- two.
This is where you're going to plant, so about four to six inches for a bulb about this size.
This guy right here you're just going to be a few inches below the soil level itself.
You can intermix all different types of tulips and daffodils and hyacinths altogether, plant
some pansies down around it for an explosion of color. They actually need to go through
their dormant time, so planting outdoors in a southern location where it doesn't get cold,
tulips really don't work. You can special mail order them, and force them indoors through
your refrigerator. But down in the ground they're not going to work. Make sure after
you're done planting you can even mix maybe like a little bit of bone meal down in the
soil to just a little phosphate, slow release. It's going to help it in the spring time.
And what you'll want to do is just make sure that you also mulch over the top, it's just
going to help insulate the soil a little bit, and help insulate the bulb. Go about two inches,
no more than four.