Tips for Quicker Fall Flower Bulb Planting

To get the best color in spring one needs to plant a massive amount of flower bulbs in the fall. However, this task can be daunting. Don’t fret - as planting a lot of flower bulbs can be done in quicker ways and is ALWAYS worth the effort to see the colorful blooms in the spring. Here are some tips for making fall flower bulb planting faster.

1. No matter how many bulbs you are planting use a Bulb Auger; it does a lot of the heavy duty digging for you. All you need is a cordless electric drill and the bulb auger attaches to it, making digging holes much easier. The small hex drill auger drills up to 9” and 1.75” wide, which is plenty deep for most fall flower bulb plantings. The large hex drill planter drills up to 24” deep and 2.75” wide. Most flower bulbs don’t need to be dug that deep. However, the longer length saves your back from extra bending. Therefore, for mass plantings of hundreds to thousands of flower bulbs the large hex drill planter is recommended.
2. Bouquet plant tulips, hyacinths, Dutch iris, crocus and daffodils. Bouquet planting involves placing several bulbs in one large hole. This method makes planting quicker because you are digging fewer holes. For tulips, plant 5 bulbs in one hole that is 8-10” wide. For daffodils, plant 3-5 bulbs per hole that is 8-10” wide. For crocus, plant 9-12 bulbs per hole that is 8-10” wide. For hyacinths, plant 3-5 bulbs per hole that is 8-10” wide. Planting using the bouquet method also creates an aesthetically pleasing look when the bulbs sprout in spring in a nice group similar to that of a bouquet.
3. Dig out the entire planting area with a long handled shovel. If you are mass planting in one larger area this method is the fastest. Dig out the entire planting area, place the soil you removed on a tarp near by. Drop all of the the bulbs in the area you dug out. Once the bulbs are resting on the soil you can space them according to the recommended spacing, make sure none are upside down, and place the soil that was removed over the bulbs to cover them to ground level. This is much faster than digging 1 hole per bulb, especially when planting hundreds to thousands of bulbs. This method also can work with border plantings by digging a trench along the edge of the border. Dig out the entire trench to the proper planting depth and dump the bulbs in. Go back and space and re-position after dropping them in the trench.