Bulbs to plant in lawn

Seve OB

Have a small section of lawn which I would like to plant a few bulbs such as daffodils & tulips in.

any recommendations of other options to plant?

area is about 2m by 3m. How far apart would you plant bulbs?

might take the top inch or so off to remove grass and. Plant some wild flowering grass seed down rather than regular stuff

Jim_Hodge

Forget tulips in a lawns, I've found they don't flourish. Daffodil (including dwalfs) snowdrops, crocus, grape hyacinth, wood anemone, & snake's head fritillary all look good in lawns. I never measure distance. Lob them in the air and plant where they fall - it gives a much more natural look.

looksee

Especially dwarf daffs, the leaves don't look nearly as untidy as the big ones and since they are sitting there for a couple of months this is an advantage.

Seve OB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121294863#Comment_121294863

bought some of everything you recommend. hopefully not to late planting, will get them in this weekend

also, i previously threw down some wild grass seed in this area and it never took (it was out of a pound shop)

wondering if there is any other wild flowering grass seed i could try mixed into this area? you know, something to attract the bees etc

i had a look for wild grass seed in a few shops and couldn't find any...

the old grass will be gone completely (dug out)

looksee

You could try some dwarf clover. https://www.fruithillfarm.com/white-clover-seed-small-leaved-organic.html

bored_newbie

I want to plant bulbs(daffodils etc) into a grass area that isn't mown. The area was strimmed earlier this year but I've left it alone since then.

Do bulbs do okay in (slightly)thick grassy areas?

looksee

Daffodils will grow pretty much anywhere regardless of grass cover or anything else. So will Muscari though they can be invasive and you might regret them. Alliums will grow in grass. Hyacinths are pretty good, they won't be like the ones you grow indoors but still scented and pretty. Schizostylis/Kaffir lilies will grow like weeds once they get established - I have a great mass of them flowering at the moment - they are late autumn flowering - in an area where nothing else wants to grow.

Most other things I would be wary of, tulips tend to grow once and then vanish, crocuses often get flattened by the weather, though species crocuses are better. All the bulbs like ixias and fritillarias I have found will grow in a pot but hard to get them going in grass.

jaffa20

Crocus are the best option for bulbs in lawn.

The Continental Op

Throw in a few Colcihicums with the daffs

https://www.peternyssen.com/autumn-planting/autumn-flowering-crocuses/colchicum.html

https://bulbs.ie/products/landscape/autumn-flowering/

Expensive when you can get them and the take a while to get going but good value when they do well.

bored_newbie

I planted my bulbs today, close to 100 of them. Mostly narcissus, some crocus, tulips, anemone and muscari. I ended up taking a lot of the grass off and attempted to loosen the soil up before planting.

The only thing is I had bought a 20litre bag of Verve Bulb planting Peat-free Compost, except I forgot to use it. I’m tempted to sprinkle it on top of the soil and water it in…

The Continental Op

Sounds like much too much effort to me. For most of those making a hole with the end of a pick axe throwing a bulb in then stamping the hole closed is all you need.

Seve OB

Fair play doing it yesterday. I started on Friday and got maybe 40 done before I had to go off and pick kids up and run around after them. it’s just been so wet and muddy since that I haven’t bothered with any more.

my area is now grass free and loose soil so makes planting them easy enough but it’s a pain in the wet as my boots keep picking up mud and adding inches to my height 😎

I got a good mix of bulbs, think nearly 300 in total. Might be to much, might not be enough, I guess just depends on how close together I stick them

my area is about 4-5 sq metres.

when they are all in I’ll tamp down soil and then in spring I’ll cover with some screeded top soil which I have in the shed and throw down some meadow mix wild flowering grass seed

bored_newbie

You'll have no trouble growing there. I had a load of wet leaves that had gathered against my shed and I heaped them on top after planting.

Seve OB

Little update. Plenty of progress in the last week or 2

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730480#Comment_121730480

It's great to see rewards for your efforts.

looksee

They look great! Don't be too quick to cut the leaves off after they have flowered, they need to die back naturally, especially this first year.

bored_newbie

Looks great. Not a blade of grass in sight :)

Mine is more rough and ready and has grass through it as it's surrounded by overgrown grass on all sides.

Some crocus have started to come through.

Seve OB

lol.

i haven’t put any grass seed down cause wrong time of year.

maybe I should just lob it down now?

was going to try something like this……. Thoughts?

https://seedsireland.ie/products/wildflower-seed-500g-to-1kg

dathi

Screenshot_20240222_113051_Gallery.jpg

crocus and daffs tulips to follow

bored_newbie

I bought some bulbs in Lidl last week

Dutch Iris discovery and

Montbretia mix

Google tells me autumn is the best time to plant them but can I plant them now? The packaging only says when they flower, not when to plant them.

scarepanda

Throw them in. The may or may not flower this year, and if they do they will be late. But they will throw up green growth which will harvest energy for next year's flowers at the very least. They won't do anything other than rot if you leave them in the bag for 6 months. So you've nothing to loose.

I threw in daffs and tulips very very late last year, the tulips particularly and they all flowered albeit late and have come back again this year with everything else.

looksee

Depending on what type they are the best time to plant montbretia is never. They are a very pretty but totally invasive plague, and very difficult to get rid of. If they are orange coloured they are usually the wild, invasive ones. The yellow one tends to be clump forming and is safe enough to plant. The very large red one is Crocosmia and is similar but not as invasive as montbretia. Seriously, if you have a smaller garden you should be very wary of planting montbretia.

bored_newbie

I just noticed the packaging has a little shovel with iii to v on it so they say plant between march and may.

The montbretia is a mix of orange and yellow, going by the picture. I plan to plant it in an awkward spot, clay, almost vertical slope. I already have some montbretia there which isn’t taking over enough for my liking so I’m giving it another go.

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121952017#Comment_121952017

That's really good to know. Googled montbretia after your comment and saw this article from butterfly conservation Ireland. It seems it displaces native plants and is not used by butterflies and moths. https://butterflyconservation.ie/wp/2020/10/03/

looksee

This is the invasive montbretia. If it doesn't say on the packet that it is clump forming then it is invasive. It is more than likely that the variety for sale in lidl is this one.

Seve OB

well I forgot to take some snaps when the flowers were at their best but here are some I took over the last week

bored_newbie

I'll add a few of mine too, ( in a thick grassy area )

Seve OB

looking nice now. Bit of a baron patch over by the hedge so I’m guessing the shade in this part not helping