October is the ideal month to get next spring's tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and other flowering bulbs in the ground.

Spring-blooming bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths are garden oddities because they have to go in the ground dormant the fall before in order for them to bloom the following spring.

That’s one of the reasons why so many yards are “under-bulbed” – the delayed gratification of doing work and spending money now, only to get nothing in return for months.

The color reward is welcome, though, for those willing to work and wait. And planting bulbs now is much cheaper than buying potted, blooming, bulb plants next spring.

October through early November is prime time in Pennsylvania’s climate to plant spring-flowering bulbs.

The bulbs need to send down roots in the cooling fall soil, then go through their genetically programmed winter “chill time” in order to trigger growth.

When the right time passes, the bulb’s leaves emerge, followed by their flowers in spring (or even late winter in the case of the earliest bloomers).

A bulb’s annual life cycle ends when the foliage dies to the ground, usually several weeks after flowering. The bulbs then “snooze” underground during summer until a new cycle begins in fall.

Even though bulbs start showing up in box stores and garden centers as early as the end of August, that’s too early to plant. Even early to mid-September is pushing it.

The Dutch bulb industry advises that the “right” time to plant is when nighttime temperatures have dropped into the low 50s or upper 40s for two weeks.

It’s OK to plant bulbs even into Thanksgiving and possibly beyond – so long as the ground isn’t frozen and the bulbs are still solid and fleshy (not either rotted or dried/shriveled in the bag).

The size of a flower bulb determines how deep and far apart the bulbs are planted.

To plant bulbs, first pick a spot that’s well drained and mostly sunny. A common cause of bulb death is rotting in wet soil.

It’s easiest (and best for the bulbs) if you loosen the whole bed 10 to 12 inches deep before planting as opposed to digging individual holes.

That’s especially true if the soil isn’t good, which gives you a chance to work an inch or two of compost into the soil to lighten and improve it.

After loosening, rake the area into beds or mounds that are slightly higher than the surrounding grade. That also encourages good drainage.

To plant, set the bulbs on top of the prepared ground where you want to plant them.

Smaller bulbs such as Siberian squill and snowdrops go three to four inches apart, while larger ones such as tulips and daffodils go six to eight inches apart.

Bulbs look best when massed in groups as opposed to lined up single-file.

When the layout and spacing looks good, go back and plant the bulbs one by one at a depth that’s two-and-a-half to three times as deep as the bulb’s height. The pointy end goes up.

No fertilizer is needed at initial planting. All the nutrition new bulbs need is already stored in the bulbs.

Rake the ground smooth after planting, and top the soil with one to two inches of bark mulch or chopped leaves. (Factor the mulch layer into your planting depth.)

Finally, give the bed a good soaking to settle the soil around the bulbs and trigger root growth.

Small, early-blooming flower bulbs can be planted directly in an existing lawn. A bulb planter is being used here to make the holes.

The recent trend away from expanses of large, grass-only lawns toward something better suited to pollinators apparently is spilling over into bulbs.

Flowerbulbs.com, an arm of the Dutch bulb industry, says there’s brewing new interest in the idea of a “bulb lawn” – a lawn that’s planted with short bulbs that pop up in early spring and go dormant by the time grass hits peak-growth form.

Colorblends, a Connecticut-based bulb company, believes there’s enough interest that it’s debuting a five-mix line, called “Color Your Grass,” that’s geared specifically for planting in lawns.

The company says it came up with the line after visitors were enamored by the bulb lawn that Colorblends planted at its Spring Garden display garden in Bridgeport.

Public gardens such as Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer, and others have long shown displays of bulb plantings in lawns, but the idea is rare in home gardens.

That could be changing now that more gardeners are looking at organic lawns, “bee lawns,” and other enviro-friendly alternatives to the input-heavy, weed-free green carpet – including ripping out turfgrass altogether and replacing it with meadows.

Flowerbulbs.com says that “while having some lawn can be practical as a place to play for children and pets or for entertaining, a bulb lawn provides an essential source of early-season pollen and nectar for pollinators. Very little else flowers that time of year, and the awakening insects need to forage.”

The bulb blooms also add color to the yard – a common early-spring wish-list item of gardeners.

Dutch designer Jacqueline van der Kloet, who designed Colorblends’ Spring Garden in Connecticut, says bulb-lawn plantings look naturalistic since they’re randomly planted.

She suggests that gardeners start with a mix of small bulbs, toss them across the lawn, and simply plant them where they fall.

The best bulbs for lawns are short early-bloomers such as snowdrops, crocuses, winter aconite, squill, miniature daffodils, miniature tulips, and glory-of-the-snow.

The Colorblends line includes various mixes of those, sold in crates of 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 bulbs, ranging in price from $250 to $640.

Gardeners also can buy and mix their own smaller selections from any bulb catalog or garden center selling the individual species.

Van der Kloet says the best locations are full-sun ones with good soil drainage, i.e. the same setting that’s ideal for turfgrass.

Most bulbs also grow reasonably well in part-day sun, such as under or around deciduous trees that allow ample early-spring sunlight before the trees leaf out.

The main care point is that spring lawn-mowing has to be delayed until the bulbs have finished blooming and the foliage is beginning to yellow.

Reasons: 1.) you don’t want to cut off the flower stalks before the buds have formed and opened, and 2.) the foliage has to stay green long enough to manufacture plant sugars to store in the bulb for next year’s flowering.

Most years and for most early bulbs, the lawn can be cut by late April to mid-May with a wait until late May for later-to-yellow species.

Once a bulb lawn has been cut, the bulbs will remain dormant underground the rest of the growing season before emerging in late winter to early spring the following year.

Flowerbulbs.com adds that bulb lawns are not recommended for “highly maintained lawns that use lots of nitrogen-based fertilizer and irrigation or weed killers and pesticides. Putting down some bulb fertilizer after the bulbs bloom is beneficial, and no other maintenance is needed.”

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