Frit Tip

One must make time - just as soon as they arrive - for planting the expensive special bulbs that by virtue of their immediacy and priciness can't wait out on the porch until Thanksgiving. All the lilies are in this category, also colchicum, its lesser cousin autumn crocus, my beloved arisaema and fritillaria (big and small) are in this group. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, galanthus, allium are much hardier souls - most will probably not even arrive until mid-October and planting is good through Thanksgiving. I know that Jack Larsen successfully plants all sorts of spring bloomers as late as January at LongHouse Reserve, which is a fine indication of the steadfastness of spring bulbs (and the singular methods of Jack Larsen), even though the flowers look so ethereal when they bloom, many are as tough as nails


Which summons up another reminder - when planting fritillaria - they all have a sort of chasm or cavity in the middle of the bulb. The big ones and the small ones all follow this same pattern. The last thing you want is for water to collect in this crevice once your bulbs are planted, so to avoid this water-logginess - when you place your fritillaries into their nicely dug hole be sure to tilt them to one side, like this

Well, the picture is not very good...so do - just tilt them....