How to plant Spring Bulbs - Lasagne Planting

The most clever way to plant Spring bulbs! 

If you have never heard of lasagne planting, it’s a really easy concept to understand. Basically, it’s layered planting of bulbs in containers to will give you the best results when planting your Spring bulbs.

The reason for layering bulbs in pots & containers is to prolong the flowering period of your Spring bulbs from around late January/February until the weather begins to warm up in May.  So you will layer earlier flowering varieties at the top, the next flowering varieties in the middle layer and the latest flowering varieties in the deeper layer, giving you months of beautiful flowers. There is so little effort but so much to gain!

When to plant Spring bulbs?

The best time to plant Spring bulbs is in Autumn, generally, between the months of September and November. You will need to choose your favourite varieties of bulbs for lasagne planting, ensuring you have chosen earlier flowering varieties for the top layer and later flowering varieties for the deeper layers and so on. Your local garden centre can advise you on which bulbs might work best for you, however, we have listed some suggestions below to help you. 

Top Layer: Crocus, Miniature Iris & Snowdrops 

Middle Layer: daffodils, anemone, muscari

Bottom Layer: Tulips & Hyasinths

Before you begin to plant your bulb lasagne, it’s a good idea to check you have the following tools and materials at hand;

Spring bulbs, Gloves, Multi-Purpose compost, potting grit, Trowel, Winter bedding plants (eg Cyclamen or pansies), pots/containers, bulb starter

How to plant Spring Bulbs.

How many bulbs you plant depends on the size of the container you are using, but generally the best thing to do is to pack your container full of bulbs in order to get the greatest impact. A scatter of bulbs will never look great whereas when you clump the bulbs together you will get great a great result. 

Guide to planting:

  • Place some grit into the base of your container, this will help keep the plants healthy through maintaining adequate drainage
  • Add compost to your container until its about 1/3 full.
  • Place the latest flowering varieties in this layer before adding some more compost on top until the pot is about half full.
  • Add your next layer of bulbs, the middle layer will flower after the top layer but before the bottom layer. Then cover with another layer of compost.
  • Now plant the top layer with the earliest flowering varieties of bulbs and again cover over with another layer of compost. The container should now be almost full.
  • It’s a good idea to plant some winter bedding plants on top just to keep your pots looking bright and lovely in the meantime. Cyclamen, violas or pansies are a perfect choice, you could also add some foliage plants such as trailing ivy, this will give more depth and interest to the container. 
  • Don’t be afraid to water your container, however, don’t over water or leave the bulbs sitting in soggy water, they wont like it! Water it over the next couple of weeks just to help the bulbs put out roots
  • Once each layer of bulbs has flowered, deadhead the flowers and cut back any spent foliage, this will keep the pot looking fresh and prolong flowering period.

Your bulb lasagne will flower for you year after year, however it is worth giving them a feed every year. It’s best practice to replace the compost around the bedding plants every year with some fresh compost also, giving your plants the best growing soil to thrive each year. 

You can visit our garden centre in Cork or call us on 021 4888134 for more information. To see our full collection of Spring bulbs click here
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