hi! im in central ontario,and this past fall i planted a lg. amount of bulbs. Now come june i will be wanting to fill the garden with summer annuals. The problem is I dont know how to find a spot around the tulipss and crocuses, without hurting them. This is a new home, new garden.Please anwser!! thank-you.

 

Hi Robin,

It sounds like you covered your whole flowerbed with bulbs. If so, you won't be able to plant annuals without harming the bulbs. By June, the leaves of your tulips should have died down (turned brown). You can safely dig them, store them and replant them in the fall. It's a lot of work. I'd recommend either not planting so many bulbs, or enlarging your flowerbed, if you can, so that you have some bare spots to plant annuals. Some people plant perennials in front of the bulbs. That way, when the leaves are dying and aren't very attractive, you have another plant growing that hides the brown leaves. If you had the room, you could also leave the bulbs in place and plant annuals in front of them. Since tulips die down to the ground, you can lose track of them. A plant marker, little stick or something to mark where they are would really help.

You can safely store tulips over the summer as they need a cold period before they will start growing again.

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Gami

 

Hi Robin,
This can be a problem for most all gardeners. And it is even worse for the perennial lovers(myself), since these will expand and encroach to the nearby bulbs.
Since most annuals have shallower root depths you can just about nestle them right up against the bulb plants, except for maybe the shallow crocus bulb area. If you have space just in front of the bulbs you can work in lower growing border annuals and they will hide the whithering greens of the bulbs when it gets hotter.
fred