When to plant Tubers & Summer Bulbs
PaulAntony
Posts: 37
I live in the South Manchester area and have just bought some Dahlia Blue Boy Tubers, Trailing Begonia Tubers and some mixed summer flower bulbs. So here we are on 25th February. Having Googled for guidance and remain confused, please may I ask several questions hoping that you will provide an un-confident container gardener with some advice.
A. The Dahlias. Can I plant these directly outside in containers without starting them off in a seed tray (Google) if so, when? And if the container is large enough to spread one tuber horizontally at the bottom (Google) - is that large enough?
B. The Begonias (Pendula Trailing). I plan to plant these in a container with a rim diameter of about 12". Again, can I plant these directly outside and if so, when. Also how many tubers to the container, I was thinking 4? More?
C. The summer flower bulbs. I am assuming these will be ok planted out maybe late April?
Any advice and guidance would be very much appreciated
A. The Dahlias. Can I plant these directly outside in containers without starting them off in a seed tray (Google) if so, when? And if the container is large enough to spread one tuber horizontally at the bottom (Google) - is that large enough?
B. The Begonias (Pendula Trailing). I plan to plant these in a container with a rim diameter of about 12". Again, can I plant these directly outside and if so, when. Also how many tubers to the container, I was thinking 4? More?
C. The summer flower bulbs. I am assuming these will be ok planted out maybe late April?
Any advice and guidance would be very much appreciated
0
Posts
Less hardy types can be kept somewhere sheltered - cold frame or similar - until the temps are suitable for them to be outdoors completely. If you don't have a cold frame/greenhouse, you can keep them in a porch or on a cool windowsill.
Heres mine, I don’t usually start them off this early, but these were starting to sprout in their paper wrap, so I had to start them now. The others I’m hoping won’t start to sprout until mid March.
If not, I'd just pot them up, separating them into ones that all look the same, and going by the size of the bulbs as far as you can. Then keep them somewhere sheltered. Some could be hardy as I said before, but some could need frost protection, so if you can get them undercover for another month or six weeks, they should be fine to plant out.
Once they've grown a bit, we can probably help more with what they are, and failing that, they should be easy enough once they flower
When you have an ID for them, you can label them and plant accordingly later on, or leave them if they're ok in the site you have them in. Any that aren't hardy can be lifted if you want to keep them for future years too.
You may need to move some if they're too tall or small for the place you've planted them.
Our GC has some huge ones, about 3 - 4” across, those I would plant singularly.
Well done on starting off your begonia corms, keep them in the warm, perhaps you can put a photo on when they start to shoot and someone can give you more instructions from there.