When to plant spring bulbs

I know its about the time to plant them.  I have some aliums and tulips, but with the weird weather we have had everything seems very late in flowering, so I have summer flowers, like geraniums, gazanias, coleus where I want the bulbs to be in spring.  Shall I chuck all my flowers now and put the bulbs in?

ClaireCat wrote (see)

I know its about the time to plant them.  I have some aliums and tulips, but with the weird weather we have had everything seems very late in flowering, so I have summer flowers, like geraniums, gazanias, coleus where I want the bulbs to be in spring.  Shall I chuck all my flowers now and put the bulbs in?

There is still plenty of time to plant bulbs- and leave tulips till November anyway-enjoy your flowers-wait a few weeks and plant the bulbs

Honestly-it will make little difference

Small bulbs like snowdrops, crocuses, scillas and so on need to be planted as soon as possible or they'll dry out and fail but they can usually be inserted between plants that are still busy looking good.    You can soak them for an hour in cool water to rehydrate them and give them a better chance of success.

Tulips can wait till late October or November as they can be prone to blight if planted too early.    Daffs and hyacinths and alliums can wait a month as long ast they're kept somewhere cool and don't dry out.

 When I was tidying up the garage at the end of Feb I found some packets of alliums I'd forgotten about and planted them out and, while not all of them flowered, many did and most produced foliage so I should get decent flowers this next spring.

Daffodils need planting now, they really need a long growing season before flowering.  Alliums any time in the next month or so, ditto most of the other small spring bulbs , don't plant tulips until November, even into December.  

Daffodils should be planted by end of October, which gives you a little time to enjoy your other flowers.    I usually try and squeeze mine in between the summer plants, using a narrow bulb-planting trowel.    Tulips should never be planted until November, as others have said.

I have tulip and allium bulbs to go in a container in my front south facing garden.

Do the allium bulbs need some time in a container in a cool shady/dark area before going in with the tulips? Or just plant straight out out with the tulips like i planned this weekend?

I read on another website that alliums need extra cold/dark time????

somerset steve wrote (see)

I have tulip and allium bulbs to go in a container in my front south facing garden.

Do the allium bulbs need some time in a container in a cool shady/dark area before going in with the tulips? Or just plant straight out out with the tulips like i planned this weekend?

I read on another website that alliums need extra cold/dark time????

I have never heard of this-the dark/cool period usually applies to growing forced bulbs indoors-usually hyacinths

In any case in a container outside they will be both dark and cool?

 you were right - looks like in my haste to find advice on the net about planting various bulbs i clicked on article about forcing alliums without realising!

My problem is last year i completely missed the window for planting bulbs and now this year in effort to be proactive i keep having ideas on what to do around the garden preparing for next spring and not knowing what to try first!

I have planted alliums/daffs/tulips. I just noticed tiny little green shoots appearing, is this because i shouldn't have planted the tulips yet?

The cheap bulbs i bought didn't really have instructions on them, just heights and colours.

darn!

No. It's not unusual for bulbs such as daffodils and crocus to put up shoots now; they will stop growing when it gets colder, and start again in spring. It's nothing you've done wrong.

Phew. thanks ;o)

Sinevegas wrote (see)

I have planted alliums/daffs/tulips. I just noticed tiny little green shoots appearing, is this because i shouldn't have planted the tulips yet?

The cheap bulbs i bought didn't really have instructions on them, just heights and colours.

darn!

You can mound earth up around the growth during colder weather. Tulips tend to come up blind if appearing now in my experience.

Alliums do fine in tubs.

I've been planting the small bulbs like crocus at the base of annual plants where I can. I know what you mean I have stuff to go out but still have a lot of plants on the go.

Thanks for the info Obelixx, I planted out loads last year and although I had a good show, it wasn't as good as it should have been. I think the wilko etc bulbs could with a good soaking before going in.

I only have a small space so all my bulbs go in pots: crocus, snowdrops, narcicus already in and sunk in the ground. Easy to move out of the way when they are dieing back

For years I have been planting my spring bulbs in aquatic baskets.  As you can see from my name I love Dahlias which are still in flower today, so when they do eventually get cut down by severe frosts, I dig them up (all 45 of them) to store and plant the spring bulbs in their place.  Then in May I remove the bulbs and store them out of sight (protected from mice) still in their aquatic baskets to allow the foliage to die down and so the cycle continues.  You may have to pot on the bulbs every 2/3 years depending on their size.