I got another 100 bulbs planted the past 2 days. It has been a bit frustrating. I may have mentioned some of this before...
First, I ordered the bulbs in March. I intended to mark individual empty spots to plant many of the new bulbs. Both to fill in and diversify the daffodil colors. I originally planted 5 colors bloom time of daffodils in wedges around a circular bed, and I regret it..
I even bought 60 thinset bricks (cheap) with the idea of using a cold chisel to break them in half (so there would be 120 markers for Fall planting. And then in April, I woke up to discover my hip felt broken. I couldn't even walk, so the breaking of the bricks and marking empty spots went out the window
By mid-Summer, when I could walk again (apparently it was actually just a very badly torn groin muscle that wouldn't heal easily) all the daffodil leaves had faded away, so I didn't know where to put any markers.
But the new bulb order of 250 daffodils, some hyacinths, and some crocuses was not cancellable. Worse, it arrived in late November. At the same time, the other hip was giving my problems and it was suddenly cold and wet. Bad situations for planting bulbs!
So, the hip healed in mid December. Half the daffodils were planned to go in the existing backyard bed and half in the front island where there was nothing but weeds surrounding a circle of a tree and a boulder. I couldn't plant in the existing backyard bed with destroying a lot of existing daffodils, so I focussed on the front island.
With meant rototilling the soil, putting down packing paper to smother the grassy weeds, and then covering the paper with 2" of soil to hold it down. I figured the rain would soften the paper enough to drill through (it did). And there was warmer weather forecast. So 100 daffodil bulbs went in there. Yay!
Well, that left 150 daffodils. The past 2 days, I planted 100 of them in a empty 10' diameter bordered circle in the backyard. Actually, I planted the 25 hyacinths in the center, and the daffodils around them. There is a 50' flowerbed along a fence, and I had some species tulips and crocuses along the lawn edge, but the voles have gotten almost all of them. So later today, I will plant the remaining 50 daffodils along there.
Not what I originally planned, but the best I can do given the timing.
I will plant the 50 crocuses in some tubs to enjoy their blooms next Spring and hope I can retrieve new-formed bulbs in late Summer to plant in wire cages in the lawn in the Fall. Without mesh cages, the voles just find the bulbs and eat them like candy. Fortunately nothing bothers daffodils. They are toxic to mammals (which is why I have almost all daffodils here).
I am damn near worn out these days, so this will probably be my last major bulb-planting effort.
And I don't know if this late-December planting will be successful. Spring bulbs need chill time over Winter and they should have been planted in October (to give the bulbs time to develop roots and recognize the right time to emerge in early Spring). But I've read that, even if they don't bloom well next Spring, they will likely recover during 2025.
Climate change is affecting emergence and bloom time. I planted my first here 30 years ago. My daffodils used to start emerging in early February. Then it was January. And now, here I am in late December planting some, and existing ones are emerging NOW!
I don't know whether they will adapt to shorter and warmer Winters or just start to die out. I'll be glad for any existing or new ones that survive, but I worry someday they will all be gone.
I'll keep some hope for years more of the existing and new ones. Daffodils are one of the few things neither deer nor voles will eat. But a yard without Spring bulbs would be a sad thing.
The front island all planted an covered with soil...
