Bulbs in Lidl-feedback and offer

HardyEustace

Hi guys,
for anyone (like me) who's starting out and wants to plant some bulbs in the garden, Lidl are doing bulbs next Thursday.

Much cheaper than anywhere else.

If anyone has used them before, would be great to hear your feedback
Thanks

TheFatMan

Hi Hardy

Can't beat Lidl and Aldi when it comes to plants and trees and bulbs.

Is this the offer of a 5Kg bag for €8? Thats €1.6 per kilo

Just saw a 25kg bag in woodies for €50. Thats €2 per kilo.

I've bought these in years past. Can get a lot of different varieties in 1 bag so if you are looking for impact stick with the option of the yellow ones only.

I like the different varieties as they start to bloom early in year and there are still some fresh blooms from the later varieities towards the end of spring. In a 5Kg bag you are bound to get a couple of soft dud bulbs. Last one I got about 10 in total that werent worth planting froma 5kg bag. The rest all bloomed beatuifully.

But definetly worth it

jezko

Aldi and lidl do sometimes have good plants for sale ... but you need to get in fast purchase them on the arrival day...

Most plants are coming from Poland and further in trucks so they are understress...

So check what you are buying how long it's there on a shelf inside a dry environment

artieanna

jezko wrote: »

Aldi and lidl do sometimes have good plants for sale ... but you need to get in fast purchase them on the arrival day...

Most plants are coming from Poland and further in trucks so they are understress...

So check what you are buying how long it's there on a shelf inside a dry environment

I completly agree the longer the plants are sitting in the shop the drier they get. I saw beautiful bonsai trees awhile back faded and dying, was a shame:(

Their seeds are great prices too!

foxinsox

Yep the bulbs in Lidl are great value, the daffodils especially, much cheaper than anywhere else.

I've planted bulbs the last few years from Lidl and they have always come up no problem.



Make sure you are there early as the daffodils sell out fast..in my local Lidl anyway.

flutered

both my self and my partner in grime who lives 10 miles away from me can never get the lidil aldi bulbs to grow.

bmaxi

flutered wrote: »

both my self and my partner in grime who lives 10 miles away from me can never get the lidil aldi bulbs to grow.

What, none of them, ever? Would have to suspect the planter or the site, rather than the plant, in that case. Have bulbs from other sources grown?

flutered

they grew all right but they were not worth the bother, this spring i pulled the daffs and bined them.

grainnek

off topic slightly but has anyone tried the downlighter bulbs as in lighting!....i seen they are on offer this week and was wondering if they are any good...sick of my bulbs blowing all the time

jezko

flutered wrote: »

they grew all right but they were not worth the bother, this spring i pulled the daffs and bined them.

Were they planted long? Sometimes these "cheap" bulbs (Am sure they are graded, Best plant gets best Price) are not fully developed when being sold and need to be grow on for a year or more to build up the energy to flower the following year...Also could be a case that they were planted too deep... poor soil/conditions...

reilig

grainnek wrote: »

off topic slightly but has anyone tried the downlighter bulbs as in lighting!....i seen they are on offer this week and was wondering if they are any good...sick of my bulbs blowing all the time

If they're GU 10's for your downlighters (like mine) consider led bulbs. They're a bit more expensive, but they are great energy savers being only 2 or 3 watt and have 10 times the life of an ordinary gu10 bulb.

I buy all my bulbs on ebay from this store:

http://myworld.ebay.ie/intelle-store/

Postage is reasonable and quality is good. Just search for gu10 in their shop search bar.

bmaxi

flutered wrote: »

they grew all right but they were not worth the bother, this spring i pulled the daffs and bined them.

I agree with Jezko, you're probably not getting the best of the bunch at that price but then I've been foolish and paid inflated prices for plants in so called "quality" garden centres, only to have them under perform. The difference is, with the garden centres, it's always your soil or your aspect or climate change etc. that's to blame.
I've grown the bulbs from Lidl with good results, they do need to bulk up. A feed after flowering is a good idea, don't tie the leaves up and don't cut them off for at least six weeks. Let's face it, you don't expect a cutting to be in its full glory until few years after taking it. One of the commonest mistakes with daffodils is planting too deep.

lrushe

I planted the below (purple flower not the climber) from bulbs I bought in Lidl, they started flowering around April and haven't stopped. Just when I think it might be time to trim them back, along grows another flower.
P.S. if anyone knows what flower the purple one is I'd like to know, I'm useless at flower names

Garden7.jpg

casey junior

An Enemy

maringo

I bought some lidl eating apple trees 3 years ago and totally delighted with them. The 1st year i got about 5 apples but this year about 30 on a tree although the trees are still not very big. They are beautiful sweet apples. The only difference I find between lidl/aldi and the garden centres is the price and variety on offer but you need to be quick off the ball to grab the bargain on the day!

lrushe

maringo wrote: »

I bought some lidl eating apple trees 3 years ago and totally delighted with them. QUOTE]

I got a cherry tree this year in Lidl, I'm hoping for good things from it next year:)

TheFatMan

My apples and pears from Lidl bought bare root a few years back as a christening gift for my Son are now 5 years old and doing great, producing lots of good fruit. Took a while to get there but learning a bit of patience is the reason I took up gardening in the 1st place.

Haven't had much look with the Cherries. They blossom very well but rarely see much fruit. But I suspect the local bird population gets most of them. They are worth it just for the blossom in May.

My gooseberry bushes from Aldi are thriving as are the bareroot raspberries, black/red/white currents.

Get in early, get them in good ground, treat them well and be patient and they'll be worth it.

As for the Daffs, again treat them well and feed them after they bloom and leave them in the green for 6-8 weeks after they bloom and they'll keep rewarding you.

lrushe

TheFatMan wrote: »

Haven't had much look with the Cherries. They blossom very well but rarely see much fruit. But I suspect the local bird population gets most of them. They are worth it just for the blossom in May.

My gooseberry bushes from Aldi are thriving as are the bareroot raspberries, black/red/white currents.

I think I could make my peace with just getting blossoms off my Cherry tree, they are so pretty when they bloom.
You just reminded me that I also got a Grape vine from Lidl this year and its growing vigorously:)

looksee

lrushe wrote: »

I planted the below (purple flower not the climber) from bulbs I bought in Lidl, they started flowering around April and haven't stopped. Just when I think it might be time to trim them back, along grows another flower.
P.S. if anyone knows what flower the purple one is I'd like to know, I'm useless at flower names

Garden7.jpg

Purple flower is also a climber, its a clematis.

lrushe

looksee wrote: »

Purple flower is also a climber, its a clematis.

From a bulb??? I have a purple clematis but it doesn't look like this flower. This flower doesn't climb, just grows a foot or so long stem, flowers, wilts, then repeats the process over again about every 3 weeks or so?

jezko

lrushe wrote: »

I planted the below (purple flower not the climber) from bulbs I bought in Lidl, they started flowering around April and haven't stopped. Just when I think it might be time to trim them back, along grows another flower.
P.S. if anyone knows what flower the purple one is I'd like to know, I'm useless at flower names

Garden7.jpg

I believe it is Anemone Mona Lisa or similar

Or as casey junior called it earlier... An Enemy

lrushe

jezko wrote: »

I believe it is Anemone Mona Lisa

Yes this is it, just googled it. Thanks, one less nameless flower in my garden!

TheFatMan

Bought 2 bags of bulbs in Lidl in the end.
1st bag of mixed bulbs all went in this weekend.
Not a single soft bulb in the 5KG bag and some very large mature bulbs in there too.
Cant wait to see how they do.

kylith

Since I don't have a lot of space I got Lidl's orange and red mixes. The bulbs seemed of good quality; firm and clean. I put them down yesterday so fingers crossed.

There's just one thing. I discovered yesterday as I was digging the bed that whoever had put the compost bin there before had thrown all their eggshells in there and as a result there's a feck load of crushed shells there. Will this have a detrimental effect on anything planted there? The nasturtiums, ivy and unidendified invader seem to love it.

TheFatMan

Shouldnt be a problem and may actually keep the slugs off. Have heard they dont like the sharp edges of eggshells.

cashelfest

Daffodil bulbs need a cold snap to get them going, if the winter is mild they won't put on much of a show in Spring, They need 3 -5 years to acclimatise to a new setting.

wildlifeboy

That's just total rubbish

cashelfest

No it's not its science Jim..
Check out the WIKI PAGE:
Narcissus are long-lived perennial geophytes with winter-growing and summer-dormant bulbs[14]
Like many bulb plants from temperate regions, a period of exposure to cold is necessary before spring growth can begin. This protects the plant from growth during winter when intense cold may damage it. Warmer spring temperatures then initiate growth from the bulb. Early spring growth confers a number of advantages, including relative lack of competition for pollinators, and lack of deciduous shading. [86] The exception to requiring cold temperatures to initiate flowering is N. tazetta.[5]

My info now:

Bulbs bulk up in 2nd and 3rd year forming bigger clumps of blooms in the following spring. I grow my daffs in the coldest parts of my garden and they(generally) put on a good show. I have yellow varieties, dwarf narcissi and late flowering white ones, which I grow in a wild flower meadow. I also have some legacy daffs under woodland which I did not plant, they got flooded this winter and have not been too great this spring.

North Carolina State University recommends 13 weeks at 35 -45 F for daffodils , that would be 2-7 degrees. So buy daffs in September and keep them in the fridge for 5- 6 weeks until the soil temp has dropped below 8 degrees, then plant out, See (Google for home-forcing-of-daffodils-narcissus North Carolina State University, Boards won't let me posy URLS).

Cold is also necessary to get garlic to form bulbs too, plant garlic before November so they get a cold snap.

solargain

I got bags of 100 daffodils there a few years back , they grow no problem . The bulbs need manure or tomato food first year after flowering, the following year the crop will be amazing. Again the fruit trees are a bit younger than the garden centers but given time they do very well