A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Hyacinth and Daylilie planting Advice

Hello!

The flower Gardner with the blackest thumb in the world needing advice again. Even though my husband makes fun of me and tells everyone my hobby is killing plants, I keep on trying and trying and trying! I will show him!

Anyway...I ordered 24 Giant Hyacinth (mixture) bulbs to plant this month. I was going to plant them in 2 half wooden whiskey barrels (1 1/2 deep, 2 ft wide) that I have, but now I am having 2nd thoughts.

Do you think I should plant them in the barrels or in the ground? I still have a 9 ft long 5 ft wide space in front of my house that I have not done anything with yet. I also ordered 8 Dwarf Re blooming Day lilies (June bug, Rainbow Magic, Pardon Me and Bo-Peep)to plant this month. They were shipped as field grown dormant divisions.

Would the Day lilies and Hyacinths look nice together in the 9x5 flower bed in front of my house? How should I plant them? The Hyacinth in the back and on the side and the Day lilies in the middle? Is the space large enough?

Sorry for the long message!

As always thank you for the wonderful advice
Ronda

I don't think they bloom at the same time. Hycinths bloom really early in the spring the day lilies come later I think. They both like full sun so I believe they can be planted together.

I would add some additional bulbs to the bed otherwise it's going to be a little sparse the first few years until the bulbs multiply.

Have you considered adding different lillies, tulips, crocus', daffodils, Gladiolus, Iris, Ornamental Onion and blue bells?

As far as an arrangment I would do the lillies and other tall plants toward the center of the bed and then come out near the edges in graduated heights with the shortest at the edge.

Most bulbs can be put as close as 6 inches apart so use that as the average for your plant spacing when figuring out how many bulbs to buy for a flower bed.

And then plan on dividing the bulbs about every three years so they don't over crowd.

I hope that helps.

tk is correct, the hyacinth are early bloomers.

the daylily are usually late summer bloomers - they do start sending up the leaves early though...i noticed that you said the bulbs you got are for reblooming daylily...so, these, in particular will bloom early (like the hyacinth) and then again late in the season - just make sure you take the blooms off after they die off so that you DO get the second showing!

all those bulbs won't fit in the barrels. i think you'll be better off putting them in the bed. plus, as tk noted, the bulbs will reproduce and putting them in the bed will give them some breathing room (and yes, divide them every 2-3 years). put the hyacinth in front of the lily.

make sure to put a good layer of mulch down for the winter - i use what nature provides...leaves. about a six inch layer - crumbled up and packed down a bit. i remove it in the spring and put down some more decorative stuff...i prefer licorice root mulch.

for those barrels you could do something that gets kind of tall in the center and then do another item that is lower-growing and/or viney so that it trails over the sides.

either stuff that is perennial or do annuals. if you do annuals, you can change it the next year and get a whole different look

tk and Joclyn,
Thank you so much for the Great advice!

Have a great day!

Ronda

tk and Joclyn,
Thank you so much for the Great advice!

Have a great day!

Ronda