Rotting bulbs

9 years ago

Hi all

i am in Zone 6b massachusetts. I had some blurbs in the garden that I wanted to rearrange for next spring. When I dug up the bulbs a LOT had rotted. Because I have clay soil it stays dense and wet usually (we had a VERY wet spring and summer). I have amended the soil throughout the past year with organic compost and have a layer mulch. The soil is MUCH better than it used to be (used to be dense clay with no worms -now it's a deep brown color, "softer" and less dense with tons of worms).

however is there anything else I can do to keep the bulbs drier? Like planting straw or peat moss in the planting holes with them?

Featured Answer

dbarron

9 years ago

As a general rule (with lots of exceptions), bulbs like well drained soil. Unless you go to heroic measures (as above) to improve drainage, your mileage may be well not so good.

Ones more likely to be better than those stds above, would probably be grape hyacinths, camassia (love those!), eranthis (winter aconite), some of the native lilies (like superbum) that prefer moist soils (I had a planting on the pond bank), maybe Trillium, possibly trout lilies.

I know from experience that claytonia tolerates or relishes that environment.

It's far easier to pick plants that will do well in an environment than to modify the environment to try to support plants in a hostile environment. I suggest you follow that route.

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Comments (7)

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
What bulbs are we talking about? Were they definitely hardy species for your zone?
Steverino z9b Texas
9 years ago
I went through the same thing gardening on heavy red clay - the kind they make terra cotta pots out of. Cold hardiness wasn't an issue there but the combination of that clay and compost wouldn't drain or percolate normally and was soggy all winter and spring. The solution was to use 2X8s to create raised beds so the bulbs would sit higher than the natural grade and the clay/compost mix would drain. After continuing to improve the clay mix with more compost for several years these beds became an ideal environment and a pleasure to weed and tend.
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Kali C
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have bulbs for tulips, daffodils and hyacinth. They're all supposed to be fine in my zone (6b, probably a warmer micro climate since it's against the house). But relatively dense clay soil and crazy amounts of rain
posierosie_zone7a
9 years ago
I think you either plant bulbs that like moisture as DBarron suggests or you can go the raised bed method per Steverino.

I'm wondering as the severity of your clay soil - newer build? Some builders scrape off the natural topsoil and leave you to garden in subsoil. If that's the case, definitely keep as you are doing and mulch and spread compost regularly to help rebuild a topsoil layer. I'm not familiar with all soils everywhere, but I have gardened in GA clay. Even that famously difficult clay naturally has a top layer and daffodils grow just fine.
Kali C
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Dbarron and Steverino, those are both good ideas. I might give it another spring and see what the results are. If they rot a second time I might just have to go with other bulbs :)

posierosie, I don't know enough About soil or the build of our house to know if the topsoil was scraped off. Our house is 15 years old, so still rather new. And was built on a hill so lots of excavating had to be done (our lot is somewhat steep but relatively flat closest to the house), so I am guessing the garden was composed mostly of subsoil as the previous owner was not a Gardener at all. ( The previous guy here just had some really ugly small trees and mulch that looked 5-6 years old haha. So I ripped all those trees out and replaced with rose bushes, small shrubs and some bulbs - not that that's all necessarily relevant to this post :] )
posierosie_zone7a
9 years ago
Kali, that makes more sense regarding your situation! Keep up the good work adding organic matter and rebuilding your topsoil. You have already seen a big difference which I'm sure is encouraging. :)