Common Bulb Questions and Concerns
11 Sep 2018
Each year we encounter clients who love the look of bulbs but refuse to plant them for a number of reasons. Hand picking all bulbs that come in to our store allows us to pick and choose the hardiest varieties to ensure success.
Each year the most common questions and concerns that we get around bulbs are,
“Are they perennial?”
Yes, all bulbs that we bring in are perennial. You will notice we have limited the number of specialty tulip bulbs as they generally only have a three-year life span and then begin to peter out. We have selected the hardiest perennial bulbs in order to give you long lasting life and colour. More bang for your bulb buck!
“I don’t plant bulbs because the squirrels eat them”
While it is true that squirrels do love tulips and crocus bulbs, there are a few ways to prevent this from happening. First, you should always plant your tulip bulbs with daffodil bulbs – ALWAYS. This will not only give you a better display, but because the daffodils are poisonous to squirrels they will not try to dig them up - refer to the diagram below for planting instructions. If you still don’t want to try tulips for this reason, then at least plant daffodils, alliums, hyacinths, muscari, scilla… you see where I'm going with this? There are a huge selection of bulbs that squirrels don’t bother. Blooming bulbs is always a welcome sign of spring and they are much needed for our pollinators. When our early bees are hatching it is very difficult for them to find a food source if there aren’t any blooming bulbs around. If not for you, do it for the bees!