One of the great joys of autumn is planting bulbs that will emerge as beautiful flowers in the spring. If you’re new to bulbs, you may be tempted to just plant them in neat rows, in the same way you plant your garlic bulbs in your veggie garden. But although planting in straight rows seems to make logical sense, it doesn’t make for the most attractive floral display come spring.

And although you may be used to planting your bulbs in straight lines, it actually may not be a good idea to plant bulbs in perfectly neat lines, since, as Becky Heath, flower bulb grower at Brent and Becky’s Bulbs points out, nature doesn’t grow straight rows of flowers. 

And while she believes that gardeners should plant bulbs in straight lines if it creates a look that gives them a feeling of success (such as lining a sidewalk or pathway with a single line of daffodils, tulips or hyacinths), foregoing “neatness” in favor of a more natural planting scheme can create an enchanting, softer look that chimes with the current European garden and cottage garden trends.  

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What Is Drift Planting?

According to Heath, it helps to visualize drift planting as “flowing rivers” of flowers or “waves of color” that flow into other waves of a different color. “Like a flowing river, there are no straight lines—just one color flowing from one to another.  It’s quite amazing in real life,” she reflects.

Almost any bulbs can be part of a “drift”, and drift planting works perfectly as part of a succession planting scheme where flowers emerge as their seasonal turn comes. For instance, smaller spaces can start with “early-blooming crocus, followed by miniature daffodils, species tulips and later-blooming Oxalis.”  

“Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, Hyacinthoides [more commonly referred to as bluebells] and Leucojum [called “snowflakes” and are within the daffodil family] can bring lots of visual impact with different bloom times to fill larger areas with ‘eye-popping’ color,” she adds. 

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The Benefits of Drift Planting

Not only does drift planting look pretty, but it also has benefits for your flower garden.

“Often, it involves covering the garden with so many bulbs/plants/flowers that there is little room for weeds to grow, or at least makes the weeds less noticeable,” Heath points out. “Drift planting has one plant/bulb ‘flowing’ into another without space between, which is where weed seeds germinate.”

Less weeding in the spring? Sign us up! All that planting close together leaves a lot less bare earth, which translates to less garden maintenance. Drift planting can also be beneficial to pollinators, acting as a colorful signal that entices them to feed.

How to Space Bulbs Correctly

Drift planting is focused on just the right spacing, in order to create stunning visuals and to keep those weeds at bay.

Heath advises that the spacing and depth of the “bottom of the hole” should be determined by the size of each bulb. She explains that the general rule is to plant them three times the bulb’s height deep and three times the bulb’s width apart. For instance, a bulb that is one inch tall is planted three inches deep; bulbs that are one inch wide are planted three inches apart. 

She adds that nine bulbs per one square foot is the approximate number that you should aim for when drift planting. 

“This type of planting gives the bulbs room to grow and reproduce in future years and also gives their roots enough soil space to become well-established,” she says. 

Spring Bulb Growing Tips

Whether you’re drift planting or not, most spring-flowering bulbs grow best in full sun and in well-drained soil that has been enriched with compost. 

“They also need to receive water after planting to begin the rooting process a half-inch per week of rain during the spring growing/blooming season,” Heath explains, adding that after the flowers are finished blooming in the spring, their green leaves need to remain in the sunny garden for eight to 10 weeks “for them to store enough energy to create the blooms for the following spring.”

“Once those leaves begin to turn yellow and flop over, that is the sign that it is safe to cut them,” she notes. As summer comes around, spring-flowering bulbs can benefit from “sleeping” in relatively dry soil. 

Sources:

• Becky Heath, flower bulb grower at Brent and Becky’s Bulbs

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