If you haven’t had tulips in your flowerbed before, you are in for a simple and low maintenance surprise. These beautiful flowers are easy to grow, but consistently produce beautiful and colorful flowers each spring. They are one of the easiest bulbs to plant and require very little maintenance once established.

To plant tulip bulbs, select a sunny, well drained area in your flowerbed. Tulips don’t need a lot of water, and in many areas do fine with just normal rainfall or light watering. There are many varieties of tulips available, so be sure to check on your package label for specific instructions regarding planting depth and spacing. Tulips should be planted in the fall once the weather starts to cool down, but before the ground freezes.

As a general rule, plant tulips about 6 inches apart. Each bulb will be planted in its own hole. Large bulbs are usually planted 8-10 inches deep while smaller bulbs can be planted about 6 inches deep. Place the bulbs in each hole with the flat root side down. Make sure that you carefully place the bulbs into each hole so that they are in the correct position to grow. Cover the bulbs with the removed soil and pack lightly. Water each bulb immediately after planting.

If you want your tulip blooms to look their best mid-spring when they bloom, apply fertilizer to the tulips when the leaves start to come out in the early spring. After blooming, remove flower heads, but let the leaves remain until fall. If you start to notice that your bulbs are flowering less than in years past, consider dividing your bulbs for the next year.

Tulips are an easy to grow bulb that will look great in your springtime garden. Whether you are a novice gardener or a seasoned expert, consider adding some tulips to your flowerbed this fall.

Now that fall is upon us, it is time to start preparing your flowerbeds for winter. This means dividing and replanting all of your favorite bulbs. If you plant a lot of bulbs, it can be difficult to remember where they are planted and can even result in some accidental dig ups. If you want to ensure that your bulbs will remain in place for spring flowering, it is important to remember where they are planted. Here are a couple of great ideas.

Use Garden Markers

If you want to remember where certain bulbs are planted during the winter and early spring, garden markers are a great choice. You can purchase premade markers from your local hardware store or nursery. You can also make markers quite simply by writing on a wooden stick, or even by placing painted rocks near important bulbs.

Make a Flowerbed Map

If you don’t want to fill your flowerbeds with markers or other physical indications of where things are planted, consider making a simple flowerbed map. The process is actually quite simple. Measure your flowerbed and then draw out a simple scaled representation on a sheet of paper. Generally 1 inch on your map can represent 1 foot in your flowerbed. Your map doesn’t have to be exact to be helpful. As you plant bulbs and other plants, simply make a dot using a marker or colored pencil in the coordinating area on your map. If you use graph paper, it will be easier to keep track of where each dot should be placed.

Make a simple key indicating which colors were used for which plants. For example, you may want to mark daffodils with a yellow dot, tulips with a pink one and crocus with a purple dot. Next time you work in the garden, you can use your map to dig with confidence knowing that you know where all of your bulbs are.

These two simple ideas will help you keep track of your newly planted bulbs and will help to ensure that come spring your flowerbed is filled with vibrant and colorful blooms.