The leaves are falling from the trees, time to plant flower bulbs

Well, that was the wise lesson for today 😊 Remember well, always correct For example, if you live in Kuopio, north of the Finnish Lake District (I would really like to go there some day), the leaves fall from the trees a few full moons earlier than, for example, in the French town of Koeur-la-Petit, a place just a little tuff below Luxembourg. This is also always my answer when people ask me what the best time is to plant their flower bulbs. Mother Nature tells you, when she drops the leaves from the trees to cover the planted bulbs, it is planting time. Always true.

Take the extreme south of Spain, just an example of why it is impossible to say per country or region which date is best to plant. In the south of Spain along the coast there are places where the leaves probably never fall from the trees. No leaves from the trees? Then you might be better off not planting spring flowering bulbs, because they need a cold period to get going and that cold is not enough in such areas to let the bulbs bloom well. Hoop skirt Daffodils in the Sierra Nevada. From this Narcissus bulbocodium the cheerful Golden Bells originated.

But in that same south of Spain, a few quarters of an hour's drive to the north, you can suddenly find yourself at high altitude in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, where in the early morning of late October you could be walking around with a drop of rain on your nose due to the cold. Galanthus elwesii Snow Fox

There are some flower bulbs that don't mind being planted a bit earlier, and if they have to wait until the leaves fall from the trees, they don't mind at all. Except for a few, of course there are always exceptions, we simply can't avoid those special cases, those exceptions. Snowdrop, or another special flower bulb prefers to be in the ground than to be in the shed or garage, but if that is the case, it is always clearly stated in the description. Tulip Blue Diamond and Leucojum Gravetye Giant

It is actually mainly the Tulip that you really should wait until it gets a bit colder and the leaves fall from the trees. The Tulip only makes good roots when the soil temperature is a bit colder (below 10 C). If the soil is warmer, it can be bothered by the then still active soil life in the form of small animals and fungi. A tulip that literally and figuratively goes crazy, the Golden Leo

So, go crazy and plant a bulb. Unfortunately, the question 'when is the best time to plant my flower bulbs' is almost never the only question I get. Usually there is another question along the lines of 'which species do you recommend'? Bad, huh, they sometimes call me 'u', that feels so much like a ripe apple that is about to fall from the tree. Don't do that, I still feel much too young for that.

Yesterday evening I got home well after midnight from my annual tour of England and Ireland and I would like to go into the barn to see what it is like there. I will stop for today. By the way, I did write a nice story about the trip, which I will put in a newsletter sometime. That will probably be the longest newsletter you have ever read… Sounds like fun! See you next week.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek Paeonia Alertie

PS. Peonies also like to be planted now, very much so. Much better than planting Peonies in the spring.