Disappointing bulbs

I tend to buy mine on line from Crocus. Tulips especially I wait until they are reduced in say October, as they don’t really need planting until November or December.

Mine are now beginning to show their colour.

I am very fond of tulips

I've grown successful Gladioli for years .
Last year I bought fresh Gladioli corms from Lidl - only a few came up and the rest of them just produced leaves.
I was so disappointed .

Advice from RHS here including to feed with high potassium fertiliser such as a liquid tomato feed - which I imagine many people don't bother to do.

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/bulbs/planting

Also note they say:

You might also find they don't perform as expected in their first year - short flower stalks for example - but if they're a type of bulb that comes back year after year they should get better in subsequent years. Try adding a well-balanced fertiliser into the soil at planting time to help them recover.

So don't give up on them. They may just need some TLC.

Gardening is risk- we can't really control what will happen when we plant things in the soil and that is part of the magic of it.

My method is to use trusted suppliers but sometimes taking a chance of local supermarkets etc as you can be pleasantly surprised.

I no longer plant bulbs as the squirrels eat them, so I buy my bulbs in pots already grown but not in full flower. My daffodils are looking beautiful and cost very little with zero work!

I'm a truly incompetent gardener, but experience suggests that Graphite's advice to give them another year is probably the answer.

Graphite, yes, will, but the watery weedy ones are even worse this year though.

Whitewavemark2

I tend to buy mine on line from Crocus. Tulips especially I wait until they are reduced in say October, as they don’t really need planting until November or December.

Mine are now beginning to show their colour.

I am very fond of tulips

Marked on callendar, thanks.

I purchased bulbs last Autumn from Morrisons - and they have been some of the best I have ever had. Think they were £3 per pack and three packs for the price of two. Especially good ones were the double tete-e-tete ones, the single tete-e-tete, same price, were also good. Bulbs from one of the larger mail order companies (Anemone) were supposed to be mixed colours, they were all white. Alliums from Lidl aren't out yet but look to be very healthy and strong growing.

I'm loathe to give up on plants. Assuming, they are in the ground, I would feed them as advised by the RHS until the foliage has died down, then dig them up and let them dry. Give them one last chance next year, perhaps in pots. If they still don't perform then they can go in the compost. Maybe the package exaggerated the vibrancy of the colour or maybe you dont have what's advertised. I'm sure that happens in mass production and packaging.

I have to say that it's been an odd bulb season for me this year. Daffs have come up blind or not at all though planted to sufficient depth. In one circular rose bed which is ringed with a mass of daffs and has been for 40 years, only one half has come up this year. No leaves at all, let alone flowers. The roses look poorly too. Hard to say if there is disease of this is a result of last year's very hot dry summer and the very wet winter. Needs investigating.

More than one person has told me their daffs have come up blind this year, again though planted to sufficient depth.

I bought various tulips from T&M last year, didn't get them in until Nov but they look very promising. Healthy leaves and fat flower buds developing.

I have never been disappointed with bulbs bought from Aldi and Lidl. Daffs, dwarf narcissi, crocus, snowdrops all come up year after year.

I spent £20 on double hollyhock plugs a few years ago from a well known gardening catalogue. Not one flourished. Complete waste of money.

When I have any problems with plants bulbs etc., My gardener friend always says “so, have you been feeding them” and the answer is usually no..This year I am prepared I have fertiliser for every type of plant in my garden… Hope this helps..

Sometimes bulb need to establish themselves. I bought a mixed bag of bulbs last year and they were rubbish. This year they have filled out and are a lovely display. Unfortunately tulips can suffer if left in the ground and the mice get them

I’ve just spent the last few hours digging up alliums which have spread and are smothering everything else in the flower bed. They are like wild garlic with tons of foliage and tiny white flowers. They were in a bag of mixed allium I bought from Parker’s bulbs online. The rest of them haven’t done very much- a couple of purple globe alliums, but these tiny ones have invaded the whole garden. Very disappointing and frustrating. Some of the best bulbs I’ve had came from Aldi.

Flutterby345 Buy the best bulbs you can afford from a reputable bulb supplier. I very rarely trust supermarkets with bulbs, even Waitrose let me down with a non starter Amayriylis one year.

Silvertwigs

Flutterby345 Buy the best bulbs you can afford from a reputable bulb supplier. I very rarely trust supermarkets with bulbs, even Waitrose let me down with a non starter Amayriylis one year.

Same here. Sarah Raven.

To get best bulbs buy from bulb suppliers in October, don't buy cheap bargain offers from the supermarket, they are cheap for a reason. Plant October/November for best results.
We have a sward of daffodils along our roadway planted 35 yrs ago, still fantastic

I am a terrible gardener but do make an effort with the tiny front garden.Last year I planted lots of bulbs from Sainsburys in pots,in desperation really! They did well, then I pretty much shoved the pots behind our little patch of conifers after they had flowered.I didn't touch them and they have come up better than before! Thank you, lovely bulbs.

I didn't lift my failed gladioli corms .
I had planted them with a rich dressing of Vitax Q4 which I've never had fail on me .
This year I'll water with tomato feed and see if they bloom .

I would highly recommend Peter Knyssen as a bulb supplier. They have a huge range and supply excellent bulbs in the very best of condition. I have been buying from them for many years and have never been disappointed.

maxmyers

I’ve just spent the last few hours digging up alliums which have spread and are smothering everything else in the flower bed. They are like wild garlic with tons of foliage and tiny white flowers. They were in a bag of mixed allium I bought from Parker’s bulbs online. The rest of them haven’t done very much- a couple of purple globe alliums, but these tiny ones have invaded the whole garden. Very disappointing and frustrating. Some of the best bulbs I’ve had came from Aldi.

Those highly invasive allium are allium triquetrum and they are an absolute menace. It's a shame they're so invasive because they are very pretty.

However they are much prized by wild food foragers who call them 'three cornered leek'. They are actually edible; I believe that they have an oniony garlicky flavour. the foragers eat the leaves but I expect that the flowers and bulbs are edible too as they are a member of the onion family. (Yes, I've just checked, every part is edible)

So you could, if you wanted, eat some of the surplus

I've only just found out that they're edible and over the years I have removed and burnt hundreds, if not thousands of the b8ggers... Perhaps I'll try eating some.

www.wildfooduk.com/wild-plants/three-cornered-leek/

We have planted Jersey lilies, several times over the past years. Leaves appear, and then everything disappears. We follow the instruction but nothing , and it can’t be squirrels because we net all bulbs.

I order my bulbs from Farmer Gracy. Not the cheapest but great plants. Tulips are beautiful! Never been disappointed. If you want cheaper B&M always have good plants but I recommend Farmer Gracy

Our garden looks beautiful this year. We have planted lots of different types of daffodils. Jetfire and tete a tete are very reliable. We also have lots of mixed taller varieties. Quite a lot were bought from various garden centres when they’d flopped over and were selling them off cheaply. We bring them home, plant them and they do well thereafter. With tulips we had a good system, they all came up later than the daffodils and this year are yet to flower. You have to be careful of squirrels which dig them up if left in the ground. We found that out the hard way.

My tulips have been in the same place for 15 years,they are always beautiful.I don’t do anything to them.