Spring Bulbs — The Complete Growing Guide

Honestly, growing bulbs is not hard. When they are delivered in autumn they don't look like much. Brown, papery, and unpromising; more akin to something you'd find at the back of the cupboard under a kitchen sink than anything else. But bulbs are among the most miraculous things in a garden (well, I think they are - Ed). Each one is a powerhouse: roots, stems, leaves, and flowers all packed into a tiny bundle of stored energy, waiting for the right soil temperature to start growing. Your job is simply to get them into the ground at roughly the right time, roughly the right depth, and preferably not upside down. By the way, it can be tough to tell with some, so plant those on their sides and they will work it out.

This guide covers everything you need to know about growing spring-flowering bulbs in the UK. From choosing and storing them through to planting, feeding, aftercare, and what to do when things go wrong. Whether you're planting your first bag of daffodils or designing a layered bulb lasagne for your terrace, it's all here.

There are very few golden rules. Bulbs are forgiving. Plant them a bit too shallow, a bit too late, or in soil that isn't perfect, and generally they will still flower. This advice page will help you get the best from them, but don't let the detail put you off as the most important thing is to get them into the ground.

What IS a Bulb?

Gardeners use "bulb" loosely to mean anything you plant as a dormant lump in autumn and get flowers from in spring. Botanically, that covers four different storage organs, and the distinction matters slightly because they behave differently underground.

True bulbs (daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, snowdrops, alliums, bluebells) are made up of layers of fleshy scales wrapped around a central growing point. Think onion. They multiply by producing offsets (unwokely called daughter bulbs) alongside the parent. Corms (crocus, gladiolus) are solid lumps of stem tissue with no scaly layers. The parent corm exhausts itself each year and is replaced by one or more new ones on top. Tubers (cyclamen, anemone, winter aconite) are swollen chunks of root or stem with growing points scattered across their surface. Rhizomes (wood anemone, some iris) are thickened horizontal stems that creep through the soil.

In practice, you plant all of them in much the same way. The differences matter more for propagation and long-term management than for getting your first display. You can see a full breakdown in our blog at guide to types of flower bulb if you want the detail.

Choosing Good Bulbs

With bulbs, size matters. A bigger bulb contains more stored energy, which means stronger stems and larger or more flowers. This is why the cheap nets of tulips in supermarkets can disappoint: the bulbs tend to be small, and small bulbs produce small flowers (if they flower at all).

When your bulbs arrive, check them. They should feel firm and heavy for their size, with dry, intact skins. Discard any that are soft, mouldy, or have visible rot especially around the basal plate (the flat bottom where the roots emerge). A few loose papery skins are normal and nothing to worry about. Daffodils in particular often arrive looking slightly scruffy, and that's fine.

One exception: fritillaria bulbs look alarming even when they're in perfect condition. They're often slightly soft and sometimes have a faint musky smell. That's normal. Crown Imperial bulbs (Fritillaria imperialis) unmistakably smell of fox and that's just what they do. It doesn't mean they've gone off.

Keeping Bulbs Before Planting

The best storage for any bulb is the ground. Plant as soon as you can after they arrive. But life gets in the way — bad weather, unfinished borders, weekends that disappear — and sometimes you need to hold them for a week or two. That's fine, but follow three rules: keep them cool, keep them dry, and keep them ventilated.

A garage, shed, or unheated room is ideal. Not the fridge (too humid for most bulbs, and the ethylene gas from fruit can damage them). Not a sealed plastic bag (condensation causes rot). A paper bag, open net, or cardboard box with the lid off — anything that lets air circulate. If you've bought several types, keep them labelled. A mixed bag of unlabelled bulbs in November is not a puzzle you want to solve.

Tulips are the most tolerant of planting delays as they actually benefit from going in late (more on that below). Daffodils and hyacinths are less patient so plant those as early as possible. Alliums are big and lose moisture quickly when out of the ground; don't leave them sitting around for weeks. For full detail, see our guide to storing bulbs before planting.

When to Plant

There are two planting seasons for spring-flowering bulbs depending on what you've bought.

Dry bulbs go in during autumn. September is ideal for daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, and most small bulbs as they need time to make a bit of root before winter arrives. Alliums are best planted in September or October too. Plant tulips later (November). Planting late reduces the risk of tulip fire (a fungal disease), though in a normal garden the risk is so small that any time from October to early December is fine. And if you haven't planted your tulips by Christmas, put them in anyway. They may not be at their best in year one, but most will catch up. (I planted some one autumn that I had missed the previous year. They had been in a bag in the garage for over 12 months and 11 out of 18 flowered - Ed).

The second "season" applies to bulbs in the green. These - mainly snowdrops and bluebells - are planted in March and April. They establish better when transplanted in active growth (with leaves on) than as dry bulbs in autumn. They arrive between February and April, and need planting immediately — they're alive and growing, not dormant. Keep them damp and shaded if you can't plant the same day but get them in the ground within 5-7 days.

For a full genus-by-genus breakdown, see our guide to when to plant flower bulbs.

What if I've missed the window?

Plant them anyway. A bulb planted late is better than a bulb left in a bag. Daffodils planted in December will still flower, just later and possibly shorter. Tulips planted in January — even February — will usually produce something, though the stems may be stumpy. The bulb has waited this long; give it a chance.

How Deep to Plant

The standard rule is simple: plant each bulb at a depth of two to three times its own height, measuring from the top of the bulb to the soil surface. So a daffodil bulb that's 5cm tall goes 10–15cm deep. A small crocus corm goes 5–8cm deep. That's the rule, and it works for almost everything.

The exceptions:

Tulips: Plant deeper than the rule suggests — four times the bulb height, or around 15–20cm. Deep planting anchors them against wind rock (important for tall varieties), reduces the risk of tulip fire, and encourages them to come back the following year rather than splitting into small non-flowering bulblets. Many gardeners who complain that tulips "don't come back" are planting them too shallow.

Iris reticulata: Also plant deeper than you'd think — 10cm at least. Planted too shallow, they split into dozens of tiny bulbils that won't flower for years.

Fritillaria imperialis (Crown Imperials): Plant on their side, not upright. The big hollow bulb collects water if planted conventionally, and water sitting in the crown causes rot. Lay them at an angle in a hole about 20cm deep, with a generous handful of grit underneath for drainage.

Cyclamen: Barely cover them. The corms sit almost at the surface — 2–3cm of soil on top is plenty.

Bulbs in the green (snowdrops, bluebells): Plant to the same depth they were growing at before lifting. You can usually see the white section of stem that was underground. If in doubt, shallow is safer than deep — a centimetre of white showing above the soil is fine.

Quick depth reference

The depths in the table are measured from the top of the bulb to soil level.

• 20cm+: Tulips, Crown Imperials, large alliums
• 10–15cm: Daffodils, hyacinths, camassia
• 8–10cm: Small alliums, Iris reticulata, muscari
• 5–8cm: Crocus, anemone blanda, scilla, winter aconite
• 2–3cm: Cyclamen

Pointy end up, flat end (basal plate) down. If there's no obvious point — anemone corms are notoriously ambiguous — plant them on their side and let the bulb sort itself out. It will.

Planting in Beds and Borders

For formal displays such as a tulip-filled border or a block of hyacinths by the front door — dig out the whole planting area to the correct depth rather than making individual holes. This gives you an even surface to place bulbs on at regular spacing, and it's quicker than 50 separate holes with a trowel. Space most bulbs about one bulb-width apart, or roughly 10–15cm for full-sized daffodils and tulips, closer for small bulbs.

Fork over the bottom of the planting area, work in a handful of grit if drainage is poor, place the bulbs, and backfill. On heavy clay, a generous layer of grit underneath each bulb — or across the whole trench floor — makes a real difference. Waterlogged bulbs rot. That said, most British garden soil is good enough without improvement. Don't overthink it.

A tip for mixed borders: plant in clusters of 5–9 of the same variety rather than dotting singles around. A group of seven Thalia daffodils has a presence; a lonely one here and there just looks accidental. Odd numbers look more natural than even ones — though the bulbs themselves don't care about aesthetics.

Naturalising in Grass and Woodland

If you want bulbs to look as if they've always been there — drifts of daffodils in a lawn, snowdrops under a hedge, crocus scattered through rough grass — then the planting technique is different from a neat border.

The classic method: take a handful of bulbs, throw them on the ground, and plant each one where it lands. This sounds casual, but it produces a genuinely random, natural-looking distribution that's almost impossible to achieve by deliberate spacing. Use a bulb planter (the coring tool, not a trowel). Push it into the turf, twist, pull out the plug of soil and grass, drop the bulb in, put the plug back on top. It's quick work once you get into a rhythm.

The trade-off with naturalising is the foliage. After flowering, it must stay (see aftercare below). That means no mowing the area until late May at the earliest for daffodils, or June for late-flowering species. If you can't live with patches of unmown grass that long, naturalise at the edges of your garden, under trees, along hedgerows or in a semi-wild area rather than in the main lawn.

The best naturalisers are the species that multiply freely, tolerate competition from grass, and come back reliably year after year. In roughly descending order of ease:

• Daffodils: Almost all of them naturalise well. The small species types (Tête-à-Tête, February Gold, Minnow, Wild Daffodil) are outstanding.
• Snowdrops: Perfect for shady spots under deciduous trees. Buy in the green for best results.
• Crocus: Species crocus (C. tommasinianus especially) naturalise brilliantly. Dutch hybrids are showier but shorter-lived.
• Bluebells: The native British bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is one of the finest sights in the British gardening year. Plant in the green under trees.
• Winter aconites: Slow to establish, spectacular once settled. Damp shade is best.
• Snake's head fritillaries: Naturalise in damp meadow grass. Very specific about conditions but stunning when happy.
• Tulips: Some varieties naturalise better than others. For absolute reliability plant species tulips (for example T. sylvestris).

Christopher Lloyd let Tommasini's crocus colonise the meadow grass at Great Dixter in their thousands and simply mowed around them until the foliage died back. No special technique, no fuss, just bulbs, grass, and patience. It remains the best argument for naturalising there is. Go and have a look; it is a stunning sight (and the gardens are magnificent anyway).

Bulb Lasagne — Layered Planting

A bulb lasagne is a planting technique where you layer different bulbs at different depths in the same hole or container, so they flower in succession — one layer finishing as the next comes through. It's a brilliant way to get months of colour from a single planting area, and it works in borders and pots alike.

The principle is straightforward. The largest, latest-flowering bulbs go deepest. The smallest, earliest-flowering bulbs go on top. Each layer pushes its shoots up past the dormant bulbs above or below without interference.

A classic three-layer lasagne for a large pot or border patch might be:

• Bottom layer (20cm): Tulips — late-flowering varieties like Queen of Night or Ballerina
• Middle layer (12cm): Daffodils — mid-season like Carlton or Ice Follies
• Top layer (5cm): Crocus or muscari — early colour while you wait for the deeper bulbs

You can extend this to four or even five layers if you're ambitious. Add alliums below the tulips for June colour, or scatter anemone blanda corms between the crocus for ground-level blue. The more layers, the longer the display — but also the more crowded the soil becomes in year two and beyond. In a pot, a heavily layered lasagne is best treated as a one-season spectacular. In the ground, the bulbs have room to spread and a lasagne can keep performing for several years.

Feeding and Watering

Autumn-planted dry bulbs rarely need watering after planting. British autumn rain works just as well. The exception is a genuinely dry October, which does happen: if the soil is dust-dry a fortnight after planting and there's no rain forecast, give them a good soak to encourage root growth. After that, leave them alone until spring.

In spring, as the shoots appear and growth accelerates, a feed makes a noticeable difference — particularly for bulbs you want to come back well the following year. Use a high-potash liquid feed (tomato food is ideal) every 10–14 days from when the first leaves show until the foliage starts to yellow. The potash encourages the bulb to build up its reserves for next year's flower. Don't use a high-nitrogen fertiliser which results in leaves at the expense of flowers.

Bulbs in the green (snowdrops, bluebells) benefit from a light feed of balanced fertiliser after planting, as they're actively growing. But don't overdo it.

After Flowering: The Bit People Get Wrong

Here is a golden rule. Leave the foliage alone. Don't cut it, tie it in knots, plait it, or bundle it up with elastic bands. Those leaves are photosynthesising; converting sunlight into energy that gets pumped back down into the bulb to fuel next year's flower. Cut the foliage too early and you weaken the bulb, which means fewer or no flowers next year. This is the single most common reason for "my daffodils went blind." So, leave the leaves for at least six weeks after flowering, or until they've yellowed and gone. For daffodils, that typically means leaving it until late May or early June. For tulips, late June. Then you can cut it away or gently tug it off.

The second rule (not golden) is to deadhead after flowering. You do this unless you want your bulbs to spread and naturalise. Snip off spent flower heads but leave stems and leaves intact. Otherwise the plant will produce seed, which you don't want (unless you are naturalising). Deadheading helps build bigger bulbs. This is especially important for tulips and daffodils if you want them to come back strongly. Allium seedheads are an exception. We leave them for their ornamental value, and the architectural dried heads look wonderful into autumn.

When Things Go Wrong

Blind bulbs (all leaves, no flowers)

Usually caused by one or more of three things: the bulb was planted too shallow, the foliage was cut down too early the previous year, or the clump has become overcrowded. Congested clumps of daffodils are the classic case — they multiply happily for years, then gradually stop flowering as competition for nutrients increases. Just lift these clumps after the foliage dies back, separate the bulbs, and replant them at the correct depth with more space. Most will flower again the following year.

Cheap or undersized bulbs can also be blind in their first season. Feed well and give them a year to settle in.

Squirrels and mice

Squirrels dig up freshly planted bulbs (tulips and crocus) in particular. They tend to leave daffodils and alliums alone. If squirrels are a problem, lay chicken wire flat over the planting area immediately after planting. The bulbs grow up through the mesh but the squirrels can't dig through it. You can remove the wire in spring once the shoots are well established. At home, where squirrels are a plague, we lift the turf when planting bulbs, put chicken wire on top and then replace the turf on top of the wire. The bulbs are fine, the squirrels are sad and the mower works.

A thick mulch of well-rotted compost over freshly planted tulips can also discourage digging. And planting tulips deep (20cm) puts them below the depth most squirrels will bother excavating.

Tulip fire (Botrytis tulipae)

A fungal disease that causes scorched-looking spots on leaves and flowers, distorted growth, and a grey mouldy coating in wet weather. It's more common in warm, wet springs and where tulips are planted in the same spot year after year. The traditional advice to plant tulips in November rather than September was partly about avoiding the warmer soil temperatures that favour the fungus.

In practice, tulip fire is uncommon in most home gardens. If it does appear, remove and destroy affected foliage (don't compost it). Avoid planting tulips in the same bed for two to three years. Buy healthy bulbs from reputable suppliers — the disease is primarily carried on infected bulb stock.

Rotting bulbs

A drainage problem. Bulbs sitting in waterlogged soil rot from the basal plate upwards. If your soil is heavy clay and doesn't drain well, plant on a generous bed of grit, or raise the planting area. Alternatively, grow in pots (see our guide to growing bulbs in pots) where you control the drainage completely.

Dividing and Lifting

Most spring bulbs can be left in the ground indefinitely. Daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, and bluebells will multiply and spread naturally, forming larger clumps year on year. That's the point of them.

But after three to five years, some clumps become congested — too many bulbs competing for the same patch of soil. Flowering declines, and the flowers that do appear are smaller. When that happens, wait until the foliage has died back completely, then lift the clump with a fork, separate the individual bulbs, and replant them with more space. You'll often find you've doubled or tripled your stock for free.

Tulips are different. Most modern hybrid tulips (Triumph, Darwin, Single Late, Parrot) decline over a few years regardless of what you do. The bulb splits into smaller bulblets that take several years to reach flowering size. Many gardeners treat tulips as annuals — plant fresh bulbs each autumn and don't worry about whether they come back. It's an honest approach and it's what commercial plantings do. Christopher Lloyd did it at Great Dixter for decades, lifting tulips after flowering and replacing them without apology. If you want tulips that persist, look to species tulips (T. sylvestris) and some of the smaller botanical types, which behave more like true perennials.

Month-by-Month Calendar

September:
Plant daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, alliums, and most small bulbs (scilla, muscari, winter aconite, iris reticulata). Prepare planting areas for tulips. Order bulbs if you haven't already as popular varieties sell out early.

October:
Continue planting everything from September. Alliums should be in by mid-month. You can start planting tulips now if you prefer, though November is traditional.

November:
Plant tulips. Last chance for daffodils and other autumn-planted bulbs — get them in before the ground freezes or becomes waterlogged. Plant fritillaria on their sides.

December–January:
If you still have unplanted bulbs, plant them now. Better late than wasted. Forced hyacinth bulbs in bowls indoors should be in flower or close to it.

February:
Snowdrops and winter aconites in flower. Plant snowdrop and bluebell bulbs "in the green" as they arrive — don't delay. Earliest crocus appearing.

March:
Peak crocus and early daffodils. Start feeding bulbs in active growth with high-potash liquid feed every 10–14 days. Continue planting in the green.

April:
Main daffodil season. Early tulips opening. Allium foliage growing strongly. Deadhead daffodils as flowers fade, but leave foliage.

May:
Peak tulip and allium season. Late daffodils finishing. Deadhead tulips. Continue feeding. Leave yellowing daffodil foliage alone.

June:
Late alliums (sphaerocephalon) and the last tulips. Daffodil foliage can finally be cut back once it's yellow and limp. Tulip foliage too. You can now lift and divide congested clumps if needed.

July–August:
Order next autumn's bulbs from specialist suppliers. Popular varieties sell out by September. Plan your planting scheme while this year's display is fresh in your memory — make notes of what worked, what didn't flower, and where the gaps were.

For a visual overview of what flowers when, see our month-by-month bulb flowering chart.

What to Plant With Bulbs

The great advantage of spring bulbs is they finish before most summer plants get going, so they share space without competition. The challenge is the untidy foliage afterwards. The solution is to plant bulbs among things that grow up and hide it.

Classic combinations: alliums threading through roses (the allium foliage is hidden by the rose leaves by the time it looks tatty). Tulips among perennials like geraniums that fill in as the tulips fade. Lavender as an edging in front of alliums — the silver-green lavender foliage is the perfect disguise. Daffodils under deciduous trees, where they flower before the canopy leafs out and shade them.

For seasonal succession, think about what follows your bulbs. Late tulips and alliums finish just as dahlias are going in. Early daffodils hand over to sweet peas and cosmos as the season turns. A well-planned border doesn't have gaps — it has transitions.

Where to Start. Our Favourite Bulbs

If you're new to bulb planting, or just want a reliable core collection, these are consistently our best performers and best sellers:

Daffodils: Tête-à-Tête is the UK's bestselling daffodil for a reason — compact, prolific, and almost impossible to kill. For something taller and later, Thalia is pure white and elegant, and Old Pheasant's Eye closes the daffodil season in late April with one of the strongest fragrances of any narcissus.

Tulips: Queen of Night is the darkest tulip you can grow — a velvety maroon-black that looks extraordinary with white companions. For something earlier and more weatherproof, the Kaufmanniana and Greigii types (Red Riding Hood, Heart's Delight) are short, sturdy, and don't fall over in a spring gale.

Alliums: Purple Sensation is the workhorse — reliable, dramatic, and looks sensational with roses. Drumstick alliums flower later (July) and are a different thing altogether — claret-coloured ovals on wire-thin stems.

Small bulbs: A carpet of Tommasini's crocus is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most beautiful things you can do in a garden. They naturalise in grass, seed themselves around, and multiply into drifts within a few years. For shade, snowdrops in the green are the surest way to establish a colony.

Browse our full flower bulb collection for the complete range.