Summer blooming bulbs are a great way to keep a garden colorful through the summer and even the fall with some flowers.

Many people are familiar with spring blooming bulbs such as tulips and daffodils. But many summer bloomers are just as colorful and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, giving the avid gardener a wealth of creative tools for a great flower garden.

The word bulbs is commonly used to include perennial plants that are corms, tubers and rhizomes, as well as true bulbs.

It is best to wait until the soil is warm before planting summer bulbs, usually into the mid 50-degree range. In this area this is usually late May or early June. This is about the time when the spring bulbs are fading from the scene. Potting soil is the best medium to use when transplanting bulbs.

“I don’t use fertilizer when I plant my bulbs,” said Becky Roddy of Walhonding. Roddy is a master gardener in the Knox County Extension master gardener class. “The potting soil I use already has fertilizer in it.”

Roddy said she usually uses, later in the growing season, a little bit of fertilizer made specifically for bulbs.

Almost all bulbs prefer well-drained soil. If the soil is heavy clay or sandy soil, gardeners can amend it with coarse compost or manure. Water thoroughly after planting the bulbs. There are summer bulbs for both sun and shade, so be sure to check the variety.

The great thing about growing flowering bulbs is they need little care if they are properly planted in the right area. Keeping them properly watered and fertilized is the key, and even those projects are not heavy lifting or time consuming. Weed competition will reduce the strength of the plants, however, and a small amount of effort needs to go into that. Anyone planning to save bulbs for next year should fertilize them occasionally during the growing season, using a food low in nitrogen such as Bachman’s Garden Food 10-20-10 or an organic product such as Sustane. To encourage healthy bulbs, remove all spent blooms.

source : www.mountvernonnews.com