All about bulbs
Bulbs provide energy for plants to grow, bloom and complete their life cycles each year.
Hardy bulbs like tulips, iris, crocus, lilies and daffodils are planted in the fall since they require a long nap during the winter months. These bulbs will begin to develop when the ground starts warming up, popping up and blooming through spring and early summer.
Tender bulbs like begonias and dahlias are planted when the ground warms up in the spring. They cannot survive the cold temperatures and don’t require a period of dormancy. These types of bulbs will begin to flower during the summer.
Brooklyn is in hardiness zone 7b (more on that here), so we get to work planting hardy bulbs as early as October. This ensures that the bulb will have time to develop roots before the ground freezes.
Once the danger of frost has passed in the spring (usually in mid-April), we can start planting any tender bulbs.
In the image to the right, David is holding a bag of Daffodil bulbs. He looks dead inside because this is the season he planted 10,000 bulbs around Brooklyn by himself. Now he has an extra set of hands and a longer beard.
