Mulch Your Flower Bulbs In The Fall For A Beautiful Spring
By Michael J. McGroarty, Fri Dec 9th
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Flower bulbs need a good, long, winter’s sleep. Like some peoplewe know, if they wake up before they are fully rested they getkind of cranky, and then they don’t bloom well at all.
Actually what happens is during a mild winter, the soil staystoo warm and the bulbs begin to come out of dormancy early. Theystart to grow, and once the tips emerge above the soil line,they are subject to freezing if the temperatures dip back downbelow freezing. And that’s usually what happens. After the bulbshave emerged, they freeze and then don’t bloom at all, or ifthey do it’s a very sad display.
Another reason this happens is because the bulbs are not planteddeep enough. They may have been deep enough when you plantedthem, but as the soil goes through the freezing and thawingprocess, the bulbs can actually work their way up in the ground.One way to keep your flower bulbs sleeping longer, which willprotect them from freezing, is to mulch the bed.
In the fall just apply a 3-4” layer of well composted mulch.This layer of mulch will do a couple of things. It will maintaina higher moisture content in the soil, which is good as long asthe soil isn’t too soggy. Well composted mulch also addsvaluable organic matter to the planting bed. Organic mattermakes a great natural fertilizer.
A 3-4” layer of mulch also acts as an insulator. It will keepthe soil from freezing for a while, which is good because youdon’t want the bulbs going through a series of short cycles offreezing and thawing. Then when the temperatures drop belowfreezing and stay there for a while, the soil does eventuallyfreeze. Then the mulch actually works in reverse and
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