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Moving Spring bulbs-in Spring? Yikes!

14 years ago

My neighbor is relocating a garden & her spring bulbs (tulips & daffs) are just starting to sprout. Can she relocate them now? I thought that they may not bloom this spring but will rebound next year. Has anyone else had to move bulbs in spring & what were the results?

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Comments (7)

hostalover360
14 years ago
I've moved Spring flowers bulbs in the spring with no problems at all. The key to try not disturb the tender roots too much. They should be fine as long as your neighbor takes up a good amount of dirt around the bulbs.

There hardy bulbs I must say! I've come across a pot of daffodils which I left half way in a hole over the entire winter and they sprouted! I've planted them in the ground earlier this spring and now there on there already 3 inches tall. So your neighbor should have no problems.
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
14 years ago
I believe gardeners should think of bulbs as storage units of last summers production of carbohydrates. Moving the bulbs during the growing season will cause some loss of stored energy but there is normally plenty left to cause the bulb to quickly grow roots in the new location. It is not the best time to move them but should not result in losses. Al
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Hi Adam and everyone, Hmm. So it was not just me having little success with Minnow. Someone had problem with his Thalia earlier this year. I forgot where he got it from. Sun Disc/Sundisc didn't live long for me either. Just too crowded in my garden. Craigford is a mid season bloomer. Much earlier than Geranium. Looks almost like Geranium. Smells good too. re Leucojum. LOL. Amanda is right. Way too many leaves. Stay green longer than narcissi too. :-P But I love them. Planted only 25 the first year. Loved it so much I added 100 the next year. A mistake, because they multiply like rabbits. :-) I suggest that you plant no more than 25-30 and quite far apart, say 2' to give them room to increase. I like mine right in front of the border between Alchemilla mollis so I can admire its delicate beauty and Alchemilla can hide the Leucojum later in the season. Since it is white, it goes well with everything. I have clay soil. I learned that large size narcissi don't mind it one bit, but miniatures don't like it at all. I planted a couple hundred of N. bulbocodium on my lawn that had not really been cultivated hoping to get a drift of it. Didn't work. Only one bloomed then totally disappeared. Nell's reading suggestion is good. My soil is heavy clay. I have amended it over the years. In fact, I add leaves in the planting hole as I go. Here is what I actually do when I plant blulbs: Dig a deep hole, place a handfull of leaves and a pinch of bone meal at the bottom- a bit of soil-large bulb-a bit of soil & bone meal-a handful of leaves-a bit of soil with bone meal-minor or small bulb-soil-leaves-soil-another bulb-soil-leaves and a bit of soil. I call it composting in situ. LOL. My own invention. Works like charm. My garden beds is quite loamy now. Still rather heavy, though. I may plant 2 or 3 bulbs in one hole, depending on what I have. When I have mulch and/or compost I dump the whole thing on top of the beds whenever I clean them up.
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I used to be a RE agent--in my experience, it is best to specify on the flyer that this or that bulbs/plants are going with you, but you are leaving many/most of the rest. Take your treasures & leave the common stuff--most people can't tell the common from the rare anyway. Also,you can say you will be dividing clumps, if applicable--so you each get some. A lot of plants are better off divided every few years anyway. It is much easier to dig them when they are blooming, so do so. It's still your house until it closes. Just let the buyers know you what you will be taking--and that you will replace it with something similar, if you think it will matter to them. Gardeners will understand you right away, and non gardeners will understand about sentimental value ("I planted that bush when my daughter was born"), but will not care about which varieties are which. Just don't leave the yard full of holes. If you do make gaps, fill them in with annuals.
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$3.75 a gallon!!!! I s'pose it is just as well, living in such a big place but we cough up approx $18 a gallon here....in fact, it is so expensive, we only buy it in litres. Many of us have been trying out cooking oil experiments and there has been an outbreak of fuel stealing from farms, even though the pink gasoline is illegal for use in road vehicles. Propane and butane are also through the roof so we have been to recycling workshops to make our own rocket stoves (which will burn tiny amounts of fuel, unseasoned wood and even dry weeds). Knitting has soared in popularity as a nation attempts to keep warm the old fashioned way (extra cardies and woollies). Anyway, as a cyclist, I have been a bit immune to petrol costs (although we do have an old Ford pick-up for work, we never use it about town). Phoebe, you sound up on stuff like microbes and all - have you ever tried making your own mycchorhizae? Look up Sunseed, a desert garden and alternative tech centre in Spain for a recipe - I am in my second year of catch pots and mycchorhizal capture - truly fascinating stuff.Although at this point, I have to deviate from some of the wackier proposals of the biodynamic crew with their secret preparations involving animal horns dug at midnight under a full moon when Saturn is in the ascendant blah blah.
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Comments (12)
Thank you, thank you all. It seems others have been thinking along my line of thought too and I'm happy to hear some of you are breaking all the rules with success. I should have also mentioned all the dead foliage at my parents garden is still in place, so I won't have any problems locating what I want to locate. I made some pretty good mental notes earlier in the season too. I've kind of given up on the idea of planting most spring bulbs amongst my other perennials. It just gets too difficult when I want to move something and end up digging up bulbs in the process of moving something else. Since I move things around a lot, I've had this problem often. Bulbs that are planted very deep aren't as big a problem, but those little ones just a few inches below the surface are. That's the reason I'm kind of excited about having this area I can devote to spring bulbs. The hedge in the rear of this area will eventually fill in all the bare spots, but that's going to take a few years. In the meantime I have a blank slate to work with. Kevin
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melaroma
14 years ago
Can they be moved late spring when their leaves are still browning? or right after they have died off? I need to move a couple at the end of May.
katob Z6ish, NE Pa
14 years ago
Personally I like to move them when the tops are beginning to brown. At that point I can easily find them, I just move them like any leafy perennials. I just immediately replanting them wherever I want them to go..... unless it's a tulip. These I prefer to dig up, dry off, and replant in the fall.

But just to be clear, the best method for nearly all spring bloomers is to wait till they die back, dig up, dry the bulbs, store dry during the summer and replant in early fall.... (it's just the other method fits into my own schedule better).

-unless of course it's a specific bulb that doesn't like to dry off completely. Snowdrops and winter aconite come to mind.
kentstar
14 years ago
I moved my allium bulbs last spring. I just moved them with yellowed leaves and all. They are now starting to pop back up again where I moved them!
billums_ms_7b
14 years ago
I've been digging up old clumps of daffodils and spreading them out around the yard for years now. I do it while they are blooming so I know which ones are which. I've never had any trouble doing this.

I saw a segment on Gardening by the Yard where a little old lady daffodil fanatic advised that you can move them any time without any permanent harm. She was right.

I can't grow tulips here except as a pre-chilled annual, so I'm no help there.
brookster
7 years ago
Hi

I was given a huge bag of alliums and daffodils. Can I place them on my garden bed and then cover them with 6 inches of dirt - will that be enough to protect them for the remaining 2 months of winter ?? Zone 4.5 - 5

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