Planting promises

By MEGAN RATHZ
When Nature Speaks

The hustle and bustle of the fall is upon us all.

The dog days of summer have come to pass; its leisurely days are now met with back-to-school festivities, fundraisers, fall sports and shuffling the kids back and forth to all their respective activities. Our attention begins to turn from days spent sunbathing at the pool and catching lightning bugs in the evenings with no bedtime, and shifts to the return of football, bonfires, hayrides, apple picking, chili, hoodies and pumpkin patches. As poet, Oscar Wilde once stated, “And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”

Photo by Al Hopkins

Fall is my favorite season; I adore the cooler temperatures, traditions, and most of all, I absolutely love the moments spent in my garden planting my flower bulbs. The first bits of green that I see pop up in the spring and the beautiful blooms they offer, after the long and cold winters in Indiana, are a sweet reward and a promise from Mother Nature that spring is upon us. To see all the beautiful bulbs painting the fronts of houses with happy colors and lovely, fragrant blooms after a dreary winter is just the promise of hope we all need. If you are like me and cherish these spring bulbs, the time to plant many of them is in the fall.

My personal favorite resource and place to purchase bulbs online is hollandbulbs.com. According to their website, there is a life cycle of every bulb:

“It begins in the dormancy stage and once planted, the bulb forms roots to prepare for winter. It continues to gather energy for its blooms. Once soil temperatures warm in the late winter and spring, new growth emerges in the pre-bloom stage. After the bulb has spent nearly a whole year gathering energy for its spring bloom, and has rested and received the proper amount of light, moisture and cold temperatures, it is now ready to bloom! Once the bulb has bloomed, it returns to prepare for dormancy.”

The cycle of a bulb is as cyclical as the change of seasons.

It is important to be familiar with which bulbs are planted in the fall. Some popular varieties of fall-planted bulbs that we commonly see blooming in the spring are tulips, daffodils, bearded iris, allium, crocus, and hyacinth.

Photo by Al Hopkins

Not all bulbs are intended for fall planting though. Some bulbs such as dahlia, gladiolas, elephant ears and begonias are planted in the spring. Many fall-planted bulbs need a full 10 to 16 weeks of a chilling period. For bulbs planted in the fall, you will want to make sure you plant your bulbs prior to the ground being frozen, ideally when the temperatures are consistently in the 60s or below. A good rule of thumb is if you can dig a shovel in the ground, it is still a safe time to plant in the fall.

Hamilton County is in hardiness zone 5 or 6 depending on your exact location, so you will want to look up your exact zip code to determine in which zone you reside. Plant hardiness zones refer to the standard you can determine which plants are most likely to prosper at a given location.  

Bulbs need soil that drains well and will need adjusted if it holds water to promote optimal growth, so be mindful of your soil when planting. The pointed end of the bulb should be facing upwards when you plant, reaching towards the sun. The proper planting of bulbs is to plant two to three times the height of the bulb in depth. Make sure to pay attention to packaging instructions when spacing your bulbs.

Photo by Al Hopkins

In the words of artist Jean Hershey, “I love planting bulbs. It is making promises with tomorrow, believing in next year and the future.” Planting bulbs during the fall is like tucking your garden in for the slumber of the upcoming winter and trusting that once winter has passed, spring will greet us again like an old and familiar friend, bringing with it color and sweet fragrances.

Nature is speaking to us. We are being given a reason to trust that spring will come again. The promises we plant today will be there waiting for us come spring. Are you listening to Mother Nature’s promise?

Megan Rathz is a wife, mother and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.