Gardening Advice & Tips for Irish Gardeners

Easy to grow bulbs

Daffodils or Narcissus are certainly top of the list of easy to grow bulbs, so long as you follow the simple instructions listed on this website, then you are quarantined an abundance to tall yellow trumpet flowers each spring.

Daffodils are never attacked by animals of garden pests and each year they multiple under the ground to give an even greater show the next season.

Other spring bulbs are sometimes attacked by pests leading to loss of bloom such as snowdrops (dug up by squirrels), Tulips (Eaten by birds and rodents) and crocus (squirrels, rabbit and deer).

Bulbs for lawns

All bulbs can be grown in lawns but the best are surely crocuses. These low growing vase shaped blooms appear in Early Spring to rise up above your lawn’s grass and add a bit of colour. Like daffodils; there is no reason why your bulbs can’t bloom continuously for many years. Crocus are in fact not bulbs, but corms and as they grow they use up the entirety of they’re corms. However as they die back down after flower each crocus plants develops a new clump of corms under the ground. These corms will grow into new plants in the following spring.

Bulbs for shade

The great thing about spring is that there is a lot of low sunlight that beams its way across the garden early in the morning and late in the evening. This is the prevent light for many spring bulbs such as Crocus, Snowdrops, Daffodils and Bluebells.

Bluebells will suit the shade better than most bulbs. These plants are commonly found on woodland floors where only dappled sunlight breaks through. Of course spring offers a lot of dappled sunlight in the garden as many of our garden trees are deciduous and are lacking any foliage.

Bulbs for Sun

Easy one: Tulips. These are the most striking of all spring bulbs and can take us all the way into summer. With a range of colours and colour combinations they is a Tulip for ever ones taste. Tulips are happy in a sunny location and prefer Morning sun the most.

Bulbs for damp, clay soils

Unfortunately, no bulb likes damp, clay soils. Spring bulbs have to sit in the soil over the summer and can rot if the soil if overly wet and warm. If your soil is poor draining and the soil is sticky and hard to work, then it is likely that your soil is a clay soil.

To sow bulbs into clay soils, first wait until the soil is dry, then dig the soil over (you can add organic matter or Farm yard manure). When sowing each bulb add a small amount of sand for the bulbs to sit on. This improves drainage around the bulb and prevents them from having to sit on soggy soil.

Low maintenance

Crocus bulbs require the least amount of maintenance; you don’t need to divide them as often as other bulbs. Crocus will continue to divide and multiple under the ground and after 6 years of growth you should lift, split and transplant blubs to reduce competition between bulbs and encourage better flowering. Crocus don’t require much fertilizer either, just remember to allow the foliage die back completely before cutting away or cutting grass around them. They will even sitting happily when surrounded by snow.

Bulbs requiring more maintenance include Bluebells, Daffs, Tulips and Snowdrops.

Bluebells and Daffodils benefit from being deadheaded. Bluebells can often spread and take over parts of garden.

Tulips should be lifted and stored after flowering can are susceptible to various blights and viruses.

Lastly Tulips, snowdrops and bluebells can suffer from early blooming, stunted growth or even fail to grow due to effects of milder winters.