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Planting and Caring for Bulbs
Hummingbird Delight
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Hummingbirds arrive in Spring around Mother's Day.  These tiny birds are always hungry - they need nourishment every 15 minutes or so. Unlike later in the season, when there's a wide selection of flowers to feed on, these early birds are often attracted to greenhouses and hummingbird feeders.   So if you want to attract hummingbirds put your feeder out early and keep the feeder filled with fresh sweet liquid. You don't need any fancy hummingbird food you can make your own mixture of sugar and water (see recipe).

Hummingbirds especially like red flowers and love to feast on the sweet nectar of a large variety of perennial and annual flowers.  Among their favourite are the flowering fuchsia, honeysuckle and morning glory vines, scarlet runner beans, salvia, and necotina plants.

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Choose your bulbs, dig a hole, place the bulb in the hole and cover with soil.  Sounds too easy?  Well, bulbs are among the easiest to grow, but to keep your bulbs healthy for beauty and strength year after year you should take a few precautionary measures.

• Plant your bulbs at the appropriate time as per the instructions you get when you purchase your bulbs.

• Don't let them dry out because the flowers will not bloom to their fullest.

• Most bulbs need full sun but some require like the narcissus like partial shade. Again check the package instructions or guidelines to determine the best location for planting.

• Check soil conditions.  Bulbs like well-drained, sandy, humus-rich soil, but not too much moisture.  If the soil is too wet the bulb will rot and never produce.  To ensure good drainage sand or peat moss can be added to soil that is too moist.

• Bulbs have a hair-like root end and a sprout end. Plant the bulb right side up.

• The depth of planting is critical - too deep make it hard for the bulb to grow, too shallow and it could dry up and never grow.  

• Bulbs require fertilizer when you first plant them and again just before they set the blooms.  For proper root development and showy flowers choose a fertilizer that has a combinations of organic and slow release nutrients.

• Most of your bulbs need to have a layer of mulch added to protect them from harsh winter conditions.  Mulch also helps regulate soil temperature, so if there's unseasonably warm weather in early spring your bulbs won't begin growing too soon and die back when winter sets in again.

After the bulb has bloomed, leave the foliage to die back naturally.   However, you should clip the top inch or two of the flower stem so the bulb uses its energy to increase its bulb size instead of setting seeds.

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Spring Bulbs -- Spring bulbs can still be put in until the ground is to frozen to dig. We still have a great selection at 30% off!

Tender Loving Care -- Tender bulbs such as dahlias, cannas, begonias and gladiolas need to be dug up and stored in a cool dry place until early May.

Rake Those Leaves! -- Clean-up your garden to prevent disease problems and to get a head start in the spring. Put the leaves you rake to use! Add healthy leaves to compost or apply directly to plants as mulch.

Wrap Young Trees -- All young non-evergreen trees need protective tree wrap. Start at bottom and wrap up to 2nd branch. Secure with tape. Always remove wrap in the spring.

Rose Care -- Tuck your roses in for the winter by putting on rose collars and mulch. Ask the Certified Nursery Professionals at Fort Collins Nursery for details.

Indoor Blooms -- Plant amaryllis bulbs now for blooms in 6-8 weeks. For great indoor fragrance, pot up some Paperwhite Narcissus. We have a great selection of both!

Remove leaves and other debris from the pond with a leaf skimmer.

An important step in improving soil quality is to spread a 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of organic matter over the bed before planting and then to work it into the soil.

Loosen the soil in a planting bed when the soil is moist; not so wet that it sticks to your tools or so dry that it makes dust.

To divide a perennial, either cut down into the main plant with a sharp spade and lift out the separate chunks, or dig up the entire plant and pry it apart by hand.

Monitoring a Sprinkler - set several empty 4 oz cans throughout the area to be watered; let the sprinkler run until about 1 inch of water has collected in each can.

When pruning to remove an entire tree branch, cut just outside the slightly thickened area, called the branch collar, where the branch grows into the trunk.

If a fence post is rotten below grade, it's easier to cut off the rotten portion and reinforce the area than it is to replace the post.

For sturdy edging around a flower bed, use pressure-treated landscape timber, or tree trunks and limbs about 4 to 6 inches in diameter.

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