5 Popular Bulbs You Can Plant Now for Gorgeous Summer Color! 🌸🌼🌺 // Garden Answer

hey guys how's it going today i want to talk about five different types of bulbs that you can be planting in your garden right now to enjoy beautiful blooms later on and this is not going to be an ultimate growing guide i just want to share some basic growing information mostly for you beginner gardeners out there who might be driving around and you might be seeing these things in people's gardens and thinking why don't i ever see these in the garden center like i don't see these blooms anywhere in the garden center it's because they're sold as bulbs so i want to show you what the bulbs look like and give you some basic information so you can get going with it and get them in the ground so you can enjoy them too also i want to thank flowerbulbs.com for partnering with us on this video we have worked with them before they're an organization that is there just to educate and inspire people to plant bulbs it doesn't matter what brand you're buying where you're buying them they just want to provide you information and inspiration so that you will do that they are funded in part by a european union grant and because that's where a lot of our bulbs come from is europe so anyway their mission is one i can get behind because i think the more more bulbs that are planted the better so let's just jump into number one which are dahlias hugely popular and for a really good reason they're incredibly productive plants you plant one tuber or clump of tubers and you will get so many blooms from that single plant in one season it's incredible there's a lot of different colors of blooms there's a lot of different structures so you might see some labeled dinner plate dahlias and they're the type they get huge blooms like bigger than your face blooms there are water lily types anemone they're cactus types that have more pointy petals and then there are pom-poms that are smaller flowers that are more tightly structured they're all really pleasing to look at because most all of them are very symmetrical and balanced and they're incredibly easy to grow there are a few things though to know so i want to start off with the basic structure of a dahlia tuber that's what a dahlia bulb is called this is what they look like right here benjamin says they look like a bad banana which i think is an app description actually um so each tuber has three parts there is the body right here that is what contains the energy and nutrients to create your plant where it gets kind of skinny right here that's called the neck the neck just connects the body to the growth point or eye so you have to have all three parts intact in order to get a dahlia plant so let me show you on one more here you can see this one's labeled terracotta this is one i grew in our garden last year and dug it and store it stored it so we've got the body right here the neck and growth point um sometimes you'll find them for sale in clumps like this sometimes you'll see them in singles either way you will get a nice plant and blooms from it hey russell so dahlias like full sun six to eight hours minimum they want to be placed in a spot that's well draining so if you have a really soggy spot that's not a great spot if it's super dry that's not great either you want to make sure that it's you know lofty enough soil that they can create tubers like this because oftentimes you'll plant one tuber like this and it'll turn into a clump like this in a growing season sometimes even more so i planted one of my clumps last year was about i don't know maybe it was three four or five tubers connected together at the top like this and when i dug it up last fall there were over 20 tubers in that one clump so they're the type of plant that you put in the ground and not only get a ton of flowers but if you want to grow your dahlia production you can do that very quickly because you can go from one tuber to you know up to 10 tubers in just one season so you'll want to amend the area where you're planting them with compost and some starter fertilizer and then you dig a hole or a trench four to six inches deep and space them about 12 to 18 inches apart and you can go further apart if you want if your dahlia plant is one that gets bigger you can dot them around in flower beds just as an impact plant for more color if you'd like we grow ours most of ours in more of a row crop production so i go about every 12 inches for maximum production so when you have your hole four to six inches deep this is how you plant them you want to make sure that the growth point or the eye is facing up and that means that your tubers are most often more horizontal like that so it'll lay in the bottom of the hole pretty much like that and then you cover back over to the current soil level so you'll have four to six inches typically of soil on top right here this one you would plant with the tuber this way with the growth point facing up right there and then here in our high desert climate our soil out where we plant them is very powdery so i do water them in one time after i get done planting them oftentimes you'll see in guides just to not water them at all until you see green growth up above the soil surface so i water mine once and then once i see green then i start in with consistent water and they do benefit from consistent irrigation throughout the season you'll also want to keep in mind that pinching your plant is a good idea when it reaches about 12 to 18 inches tall you can take your fingers or your snippers and then cut that leading stem so the tallest stem in the center down about three to four inches and what that will do is it will increase the productivity of your plant and it will increase the stem length of all of your flowers so it makes it makes them very nice for arranging you'll also want to make sure you have a staking system in place especially for the taller dahlias if you have them in an unprotected area you can do this in multiple different ways you can stake them individually if you want to with a single bamboo stake or a wood stake or something like that there are decorative cages you can use around them if you're putting them in flower beds we have ours in out in the cut flower garden staked with t-posts it's not as pretty the dahlias usually grow and cover up the staking system anyway so you don't see it but we put the metal t-posts every eight feet and then put a nylon rope at about two and three foot height along each one of those uh like in between each t-post so that as each dahlia grows we can lash them to the rope if we need to if they need the extra support but there are a lot of different sizes of dahlias out there so if you're growing more compact smaller varieties they may not need to be staked and those are really great ones to put in containers you can put any dahlia in a container though you just want to keep in mind the overall size of the mature dahlia like if the tag says it's going to grow 60 inches it will in that season if it gets enough sun and water and so forth so you want to make sure your pot is big enough to accommodate that you want to make sure that the roots will have enough moisture retention around them that it'll be heavy enough to support a super big plant so just keep those things in mind also when you harvest your dahlia flowers this is interesting and something i learned kind of recently-ish like in the last few years i did not know that dahlia flowers once you cut them they don't open up anymore so you know some flowers will continue to open up as after you've cut them dahlias you want to wait until they get to the size or the shape you want them before you cut them so just keep that in mind also look at the back of the flower when you're getting ready to cut the ones that look kind of papery or dried just means that that bloom has more age on it and it won't last quite as long in a vase if it's looking lush and fresh you should get up to about a week base life out of it number two are gladiolus which there are a lot of different varieties in this category some will bloom early in the season some mid season and some late season they are more of a once and done sort of flower so keep that in mind if you want gladiolus flowers throughout the season just check the tag and see at what point they bloom and make sure you have varieties that bloom all season long and that way you can enjoy them i don't grow as many glads because the way that they are structured the most popular glads anyway they're tall and their bloom stalks are really really long and more stiff so they're a little bit harder to mix with other flowers i tend to like to just cut a bunch of gladiolus um stems and arrange them by themselves in a vase it's very striking so right here i have the corms that's what you refer to the bulbs as you can see that these are quite small and you'll find some corms that are small and some that are really big the ones i planted out already were like three inches in diameter and they usually start to multiply so after a season you'll have a single that you put in the ground and then by the end of the season you may have two that you can split and then that way you have two flowers the next year but sometimes you can see with this corn they're kind of like flat discs right here if you look at the underside you can see where the roots come out kind of like the hairy roots and then the top you can see the growth point even when there's no growth point like on this one or no growth visible growth hold on russell you're kind of up in my business um they kind of always have like a little point right there so you'll be able to tell um what side is up and what's down so down right there roots up right there is that little point uh but like this one you can see there's two growth points so we'll get two blooming stalks out of this one which is very exciting again with gladiolus you kind of want to treat them the same as dahlias they want full sun they want an area with well-amended soil compost starter fertilizer they don't want to sit in water ever you need to have a staking system in place for these as well because of how tall they get most varieties anyway and you will space these about six to ten inches apart depending on what type you're growing and then two to six inches deep so the bigger corms will go deeper down in the soil the smaller ones like this will go quite a bit higher so like these i'll probably plant at three to four inches deep to harvest gladiolus you'll cut the stems when the bottom three flowers are open like three or four flowers the rest of them will not be open yet but they will open after they have been cut and arranged and then you want to make sure to leave at least three or four leaves on the plant because the leaves are what soak in the sunshine and create energy and feed the bulb for next year's bloom so that's very important um and then they will last about seven to 12 days in a base number three are callo lilies and these are a wonderful one because they don't get quite as tall as the last two so they don't require staking they're great for containers great for the edges of flower beds and they have just a very clean pleasing appearance to them their leaves are very glossy typically kind of sword-shaped and they usually have a really beautiful variegation like white or silver kind of design on their leaves so the leaves look beautiful even apart from the blooms which are kind of like tube shaped they kind of swirl up into a tube and they last forever in a vase two to three weeks in a vase which is amazing and they are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds this right here is what they're bulb or rhizome that's what it's called looks like kind of just like a nothing like i would see this if i wasn't a gardener i would look at this and be like that looks like a rock like a piece of like tree stump or something like that but this will actually form a beautiful calla lily so right here kind of anatomy of this rhizome this right here is the bottom the smooth part and then if you turn it over you can see all these knobs those are all growth points or eyes so when you're planting these you dig a hole about three to four inches deep and if you're planting them in the landscape you'll space them about six inches apart in containers you can go about four inches apart and you'll just set it down in the hole like that and cover it over they do like a well-draining amended soil as well so use compost and starter fertilizer again water very lightly after you've planted them and it can take up to two weeks maybe a little bit more to see any growth so it's one of those things that you just have to be patient and don't freak out if you haven't seen growth in you know a week or even two weeks just give it a little bit of time and they do need heat in order for that to happen so just plant your bulbs and just wait for the beautiful show number four are canna lilies which this is what their rhizome looks like again it doesn't look like much so rhizomes are underground stems that's how they spread so they create stems underground that then root in and will create new plants you can see last year's stem right here and you can see a growth point here and here and i think these are the most tropical looking out of all the ones i'm talking about today these have the huge leaves that look like banana leaves and you need to keep in mind the leaf structure because they don't like a really windy area if you put them out somewhere where they're going to get tons of wind it can create tattered leaves so put them somewhere protected where you can do full sun and they do like more moisture so if you've got a wet area in your landscape or if you have you want to plant them in containers which is great too you want to make sure that they have very consistent water because they do prefer that when you're planting these you only have to go about one to two inches underneath the soil surface that is all they are heavy feeders so amend the soil well and continue to fertilize them throughout the season and you also do want to make sure to deadhead them they get these clusters of beautiful brightly colored blooms i mean lots of different colors reds and yellows orange coral pinks lots of beautiful colors but deadhead those as they start to fade because that will help the plant create more blooms throughout the season and number five are calladiums and these are a really good low maintenance option for a shadier area in your garden there are some varieties now that can handle sun we've tried those out and they have worked really well but they're grown for their leaves um they the color variations are incredible they'll have bright pinks purples reds greens whites and all a whole bunch of different variations in between and there's something that you plant as a bulb which looks an awful lot like a calla lily in that it's kind of disc shaped with a smooth bottom and then the knobby kind of eyes growth points on the top you plant them about one and a half to two inches underneath the soil in an area that's consistently moist they don't want to sit in water but they don't want to really dry out but they are low maintenance and the fact that there's no dead heading that goes along with them because they're grown for their leaves and they don't like to be fertilized very much they are a very light feeder so if you put a slow release in the soil when you plant them that'll pretty much last them through the season their leaves last really long in cut arrangements and they're just a really great plant you'll also find caladian bulbs available in different sizes so in terms of figuring out how many you need for your space you can get jumbo sized bulbs which you need one jumbo size bulb per square foot if you get number ones you would need two bulbs and if you get number twos you would need four bulbs to fill up that square foot okay so that's it in terms of information i wanted to share about these five different types of wonderful plants that i feel like everybody should be growing in their garden now i want to head out into the garden and show you how to plant them i learn that way best by visually seeing somebody do it i do think though that i'm gonna wait a day or two it's been raining for a good part of this morning which has been glorious for us here in the high desert but it's made everything pretty muddy so it might be a day or two for me before i get out there but it'll only seem like a couple of seconds for you guys we're out in the cut flower garden now and this is where all the dahlias are gonna go probably in the next week or so i'm very excited to start seeing some growth in flowers out here but i brought a few clumps of a variety called mambo to start my first row right here as well as some compost and starter fertilizer so let me show you what a tuber looks like kind of like the anatomy of a tuber and then we'll get them in the ground so this is a clump right here and i'm going to go ahead and plant this whole clump in one hole i will get a nice big plant and lots of flowers from it but essentially you could separate this whole thing and each one of these tubers would produce a plant so look at this one right here this is a single tuber this is the body of it right here where it's a little bit thicker and then it kind of skinnies down to its neck right here which connects the body to the eye which is the growth point you can see that growth right there so even though this is a lot smaller than this it will still produce a plant and some blooms all right so let's just get these planted [Music] okay so i got two different varieties actually i forgot i had some happet blue eyes and you always want to make sure to put an identification steak next to whatever you're planting now we're gonna plant a few gladiolus corms so that's pretty straightforward i have them spaced roughly six inches apart maybe a little bit more than that and they're about six inches deep i used my auger to dig the holes makes the job a lot faster and then i tossed in some compost and starter fertilizer and then we have yet to put our staking system up in this row but that's on the list for this next week and it'll look exactly like the staking system over here and we're gonna head back to the house to plant the calas and cannas because i want to do those in containers all right i've got my containers prepared i'm gonna put the canna in this one and i'm just gonna do one rhizome because this one gets quite large it's a variety called cleopatra it has yellow and red blooms it's really striking and once it's up above the soil surface i'll probably come in and plant some other annuals in this container but it'll be a beautiful centerpiece so this one we're just gonna plant in fact let's just do it we're gonna plant it just a couple inches below the soil surface with the growth points facing up and just tamp in the soil around it we'll water it in very lightly today and then we'll wait for growth and this pot is concrete it's very heavy and because that variety i think grows about three feet tall i think it'll be perfect because it'll be a beautiful tall striking centerpiece in there and it'll be the right proportion for the container now this one right here is for the calla lilies i like the bowl shape of this and the color this is a keller that's got green leaves with white specks and then the bloom is kind of a melon color like um kind of like a deep melon so i think that that color will be beautiful contrasted with this shiny brown here so we're gonna just space these around in the pot we're gonna use all five of them in here so it's a very striking display and then i'm going to bury them about three ish inches deep so smooth side down growth points facing up they just nest right down in the soil like that so let me finish with these four all right these are all done and i probably won't plant anything additional with the calla lilies because i think five will fill that container beautifully but i am excited to come in with some more fluffy shorter things to plant around that canna in the big container i am going to be moving these with the pot dolly to a sunnier location um so that they will be happy campers and that is going to be it for today's video i hope it was helpful to visually see how to put these bulbs down in the ground i know that always helps me out a ton and um these bulbs these five that we talked about today are just easy to grow they're easy to find and i just highly recommend tucking them in to your landscape whether or not you're doing them in containers or in the ground somewhere or you know even in a cut flower garden situation like we are so we can cut them and not feel guilty about stealing them from our flower beds so anyway thank you guys so much for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it and we will see you in the next one bye

Channel: Garden Answer

Views: 251,853

Keywords: Garden, Answer, Laura, Flower, gardening, gardener, beautiful, succulents, diy, grow, green, Proven, Winners, Fall, Winter, summer, spring, plant, planting, growing, plants, succulent, shrubs, shrub, bush, soil, dirt, earth

Id: hhVzzqXow5c

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021