Why Autumn Planting Goes Wrong

There are few pleasures in the garden to match the first snowdrop nosing through cold soil, or a row of daffodils shrugging off a late March squall. Yet many of us plant bulbs in September with real optimism, then spend February staring at bare earth and wondering what went wrong.

Usually it is one of three things. A squirrel has treated your border as a pantry, the ground has heaved and frozen around shallow bulbs, or the spot you chose holds water through winter and the bulbs have quietly rotted. All three are avoidable, and none of them require expensive kit. Get the planting depth, the drainage and the barrier right, and your bulbs will come back year after year, often multiplying as they go.

Plant Them Deep, Then Go a Little Deeper

Shallow planting is the most common mistake. A bulb sitting just below the surface is easy for squirrels to reach, easy for frost to lift out of the ground, and quick to dry out in a mild autumn. As a rule of thumb, plant at roughly three times the bulb's own height. In light sandy soils, go deeper still; in heavy clay, the same depth but with grit beneath.

• Tulips: 15–20cm deep, 10–12cm apart
• Daffodils and narcissi: 10–15cm deep, 10cm apart
• Alliums, camassia and fritillaria: 15cm or more, spaced generously
• Crocus, snowdrops and winter aconite: 7–10cm deep, planted in generous drifts rather than tidy lines

Firm the soil back over each bulb and water once to settle it. There is no need to water again until you see shoots, unless the autumn is unusually dry.

Keeping Squirrels Off Your Bulbs

Squirrels find bulbs by scent, and freshly turned soil is as good as a signpost. Once they have learned that your beds contain food, they will return to the same spots. The answer is not to chase them off, which is futile, but to make the digging unrewarding.

• Lay galvanised mesh over the bed. A half-inch mesh pegged down with wire pins, or weighted at the corners with bricks, keeps squirrels out completely. Leave it until shoots are a few centimetres tall, then lift it.
• Cover pots too. Cut a circle of mesh slightly wider than the pot and sit a couple of pebbles on top.
• Mask the scent. Chilli powder, cayenne or garlic granules scattered over the surface discourage investigation, though they need reapplying after rain. A layer of gravel or coarse bark works well alongside.
• Choose bulbs they dislike. Squirrels hammer tulips and crocus. They generally leave daffodils, snowdrops, alliums and fritillaria alone, so lean on those in the worst-affected beds.
• Skip blood, fish and bone at planting time. Its smell draws animals in. Use a low-nitrogen bulb fertiliser instead, or simply mix a little garden compost into the planting hole.

Frost, Drainage and the Rot Problem

Hard frost rarely kills a well-planted bulb, but it can heave one out of the ground, leaving the base exposed. Waterlogging is the bigger killer: bulbs are small storage organs and they simply rot in saturated soil. If your garden sits on clay, or you have a low corner where puddles linger, take it seriously.

• Put a 5cm layer of grit or sharp sand in the planting hole, or plant on a slight ridge so water runs away.
• Avoid hollows and the run-off from downpipes, sheds and paths.
• Mulch after planting with 5cm of bark or leafmould, but keep it clear of the necks and never mulch onto frozen ground, which traps cold and encourages slugs.
• In containers, frost is hard on roots. Insulate pots with bubble wrap or hessian, stand them on feet, and raise them off paving so drainage is free.

Bulbs That Take Whatever Winter Throws

Some bulbs are simply tougher than others, and a cold, wet British winter sorts them out quickly. Snowdrops, winter aconite and Cyclamen coum will flower through frost and snow with barely a complaint. Daffodils and narcissi are reliably hardy and unpalatable to squirrels. Crocus tommasinianus and Crocus chrysanthus are far more durable than the large-flowered Dutch types. Alliums, camassia, scilla and Iris reticulata will settle in and return for years, and species tulips such as Tulipa tarda cope with damp far better than the tall bedding varieties.

Pots, Labels and Spring Aftercare

Containers are worth the effort because you can control everything: use a loam-based compost with plenty of grit, plant in two or three layers with the latest-flowering bulbs deepest, and keep the pots somewhere cool and dark until January before bringing them into the light. Always push a label or cane into the spot, or you will dig the bulbs up by accident in spring while planting something else.

Once shoots appear, feed with a potassium-rich fertiliser as the buds form, water in dry spells, and — this is the part most people skip — leave the foliage alone for at least six weeks after flowering. Those fading leaves are feeding next year's bulb. Hide them behind a nearby perennial rather than tying them in knots, and you will have a display that returns bigger and better every single spring.