Hello my name is Christine Woodhouse
and I am the Horticultural Team Leader of the hilltop garden at Hyde Hall
and today I'm going to be showing you how to plant bulbs.
So today we've got four different types of bulbs.
We have some tulips, some daffodils,
and another type of tulip, and some winter flowering irises as well.
Okay, so these are the winter flowering iris, so they are called Iris reticulata
and they flower in January and February
and so provide a really lovely splash of colour for you in those early winter months
when there isn't very much else flowering.
So these ones are bright blue and they only grow to about 20 centimetres high maximum.
The important thing for these irises is to make sure that they're not in a thick heavy clay soil.
They like to be well drained and they don't like to sit wet over the winter
so before I plant these I would make sure if I have a clay soil
that I've incorporated and dug in lots of organic matter
and a little bit of sandy grit as well just to help with the drainage.
So I'm going to open the packet here and I've got about 15 bulbs in here.
and the thing about when you're planting bulbs is: don't position them all yourself one by one.
I think it's really nice if you just scatter them naturally so you don't end up with squares
and so it looks nice and natural in amongst your plants.
So it's the perfect job to do for autumn.
That's the way up they go
so this is the basal plate at the bottom
and that's the top so that's the way you need to plant them.
So when we're planting irises, these particular winter irises they need to be planted five inches deep
so it's really good if you've got a trowel, it's actually got some measurements on it.
So this one here has got some measurements
so it goes up to four but I can work out what five inches is deep.
So what I'm going to do is just so that it's a natural planting
is just scatter them like that
and it just makes it a little bit more natural rather than forced planting
and then I'll put my gloves on.
It's very important when you're handling soil to wear gloves
and I'm going to plant one bulb at a time
so remembering it's got to be five inches deep
so it's gotta be quite deep so I'm going to dig a hole one at a time for my bulbs
and I'm going to remove the soil
and because they're only small it doesn't need to be a very wide hole
just enough so you can get the bulb in there
but remembering to plant to the correct depth.
If you see any weeds on your way just remove them.
There you go, and see I've pushed the trowel right in that's five inches deep
and now I'm going to put my bulb straight in the bottom the right way up,
the basal plate at the bottom
and then push it to the bottom of the hole
and then all I'm going to do is just refill the hole behind it
and then just firm it down with my hand.
That's it and we do the same for all of them one at a time.
So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to plant some narcissus, some daffodils
and some tulips together in the same area.
And the reason I'm going to do this is because we'll have a succession of flowering
so our daffodils will come up first and flower in the early spring
and then our tulips will follow on sort of May/June time
so we'll get in the same area a succession of colour
which will really have a really nice impact for your garden.
The ones I've chosen today so we have a yellow daffodil here,
so species narcissus, and we also have a tulip 'Pretty Woman',
which is really nice.
A really nice red one there as well.
So this one here flowers at 40 centimetres
and so it's not too tall, you can get a lot taller tulips
and the daffodil which is an early flowering one, 25 centimetres high.
So what I'm going to do, I'll do similar to what I did before
and I'm going to scatter them naturally.
So I find it's quite important if you're planting bulbs like this to have the area prepared already
so I already have weeded around because you don't want to be having to do that at the same time really.
So these are my tulips so again we have the same basal plate on the bottom,
so that's where the roots come out.
So this is the top like the little hat.
So I've got my handful of tulips here
and I'm going to just gently scatter them around like that
and it just makes it a lot more natural
and then within them I will do the same thing for my daffodils, my narcissus.
So I'm going to do the same thing with these daffodils
so you'll see these here, these are in little clusters
so there's a daffodil with lots of offsets on it here
and at the bottom the basal plates as before
and this is the top this is where the flower stem will come out of
so I'm going to treat this exactly the same and I'm just going to naturally just throw them about
and I think it's important to use the whole bag when you're doing it
don't just do one at a time, put the whole bag out.
and to do this now I'm going to use a bulb planter for this one
and the reason I'm using this rather than a trowel at the moment
is because this is going to provide me with a very wide hole
and the depth that I need the bulbs to be planted,
and they're quite big bulbs
even though I could plant with a trowel if I wanted, it would take me longer
but a nice little tip if you're using a bulb planter like this
if you do have a heavier soil then you can end up with some of the soil being stuck inside
so a good tip is to have a stick nearby
and then you can just push the soil out with the stick.
So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to start planting my bulbs.
Now the daffodil and the tulip bulbs,
generally they want to be planted two and a half to three times their depth.
It's about 10 centimetres but of course it does depend on the size of your bulb
because some daffodils you'll buy, they're tiny
and some will be quite big.
So you have to sort of judge it by what you get in your packet.
So these ones here, two and a half to three times their depth I think would be about 10 centimetres.
So from the bottom, about that is about right.
So I'm going to just remove my bulb from the area
and use my bulb planter into the soil
and that's going to take out my plug of soil
there you go, and it's all in here but I have the correct size hole for my bulb
and then I can get the soil off by using my my stick
here,
there it is
and then all I need to do then is put the bulb in the correct way up
so with the basal plate at the bottom
and that's the top
in the bottom of the hole
and then refill it
and then just firm it down and that's good to go.
Also with daffodils, what you can also do is put them in a little clump as well.
You don't need to plant them all individually
so if you did find that some went together when you put them out on the ground,
there's nothing to say you can't plant them together.
They'll be perfectly happy in a little clump.
Sometimes we've even done four or five like that as well
because it just makes a really nice show.
So you can be quite free with how you plant your daffodils
and you probably would be able to get, sort of,
about three daffodils in a hole that size anyway.
So I'll try another one, we'll do this one
and then just wiggle it out like that.
Take the soil out
there you go, and then I've got my three little daffodils together.
I can just push them in the hole.
There you go.
And I would carry on like that and I would do them all across the whole area
that I've laid them out.
And lastly we have another type of bulb planter here
so this one here is really useful if for example you have a bad back
or you have trouble kneeling down
or if your soil is really heavy
and you just have problems with pushing in the small bulb planter.
So this one you can use your foot and it's very useful.
So I'm going to plant one of my tulips with this one
and it's exactly the same principles.
I'm going to make exactly the same size hole to the same depth
and I will also use my little stick to get the soil out with as well.
So just move the tulip out of the way
and then depending if you're left or right handed or footed,
doesn't matter, and then just push your foot down on it
give it a little wiggle
and then you can wiggle it out it's actually a lot less effort
and then my soil is all in here and again use my stick.
You go and put that down and then exactly the same for the tulip.
There's the basal plate so that's the bottom
so that's the top and that goes in the bottom of the hole
and then I'll cover it over
and firm it down.
Well I hope this video was was helpful to you in the basics of planting bulbs
and all the tools I've used today are available in the RHS shops.