I'm primarily into cut flower gardening, and I've got a large area in my front yard that I need to landscape. As I'm gearing up for my fall bulb purchases (in zone 8a, I have a lot of options to plant before winter), I'm feeling a bit lost on how to create attractive clusters of flowers like tulips, lilies, and alliums. How many bulbs do I need? How close should I plant them together? Should they form a circle with one in the center, and should I mix colors or go for solid groups? In my back cut flower beds, everything's lined up in neat rows, but I know that kind of arrangement won't look good in my foundation beds. Last year, my attempts at clustering flowers were too spaced out, which didn't have the look I was going for. I'm not after mass plantings; I just want some colorful patches among my larger perennial shrubs.
3 Answers
If you're aiming for drifts of color, like a group of tulips or daffodils, dig out the whole area to the right depth. Then, take an odd number of the first color and scatter them in one section of the bed, moving them around to get good spacing. Continue with other colors, gently mixing them at the edges so there aren't sharp lines. You can even create different sizes of drifts in the same area, which adds character!
When you order bulbs, they usually provide depth and spacing info based on the specific type. I personally like to buy mixed assortments and plant them randomly—they tend to look great! I dig a hole to the desired depth, arrange all the bulbs, and then backfill the dirt once they're in place. It's super easy!
This is helpful thank you! It makes sense to dig out and decide on the space first and then fill in the bulbs.
Once I planted about 1000 daffodils! I just stuck my spade in the ground, rocked it forward, dropped five bulbs behind the blade, pulled the spade out, and stomped the dirt down. They turned out just fine! If the bulbs are happy, they'll multiply on their own, so how you initially plant them doesn't really matter. If they're not happy, they might not come back, or the squirrels will get them!
This really helps thank you!