Thomas Dinsmore's Blog

Planning for the Spring garden begins in September. The local garden markets replenish their stocks of Spring bulbs, and the mail-order vendors send catalogs. Order early before the best items sell out.

Last year, I planted hundreds of early crocuses, figuring they would bloom around my son’s birthday. Well, bloom they did – and not one survived a day. To a rabbit, a crocus is a snack. We have a lot of rabbits around here, and they are very hungry.

The best way to cope with the Rabbit Apocalypse is to plant things that rabbits don’t like. So, no crocuses this year. I ordered daffodils, hyacinth, tulips, and allium, mostly from John Scheepers in Connecticut.

In late October, digging begins in earnest. If you want your bulbs to naturalize, it’s worth your time and effort to dig out the bed 12-18 inches deep, and lay a bed of gravel for drainage. Install the bulbs on the gravel, then backfill and mulch over.

Last, but not least – to keep squirrels and other critters from dining on your bulbs, cover the whole area with a layer of chicken wire or steel fabric.

If all goes as planned – which never happens – the first blooms will be in early April: Topolino and Tête à Tête narcissus. (I haven’t grown these before, these are catalog pictures.)

Next on stage, in mid-to-late April: two varieties of narcissus (Mount Hood and Snow Frills) with two varieties of hyacinth mixed in. (Again, these are catalog pictures.)

In late April to early May, we should see some French late tulips (Maureen and Menton) and a large drift of King Alfred style late narcissus. (Catalog pictures.)

Finally, in mid-May the Allium will bloom. I’ve grown these for several years now, here’s a picture from last year:

So that’s it. The digging is done, the bulbs are in the ground. And now we wait.