Could it be bulb season already? It’s time to start planning out your spring flowers

For plant people, August is the month you may have received a tempting bulb catalog in your inbox or mailbox from a company you previously purchased from. How can it be time to order spring bulbs already? Well, it’s simple: They need to be at your door, ready to plant before it is too cold to work the ground.

Spring bulbs require a cold treatment to flower. This means that planting them before temperatures get below 45 degrees is crucial to the success of your flowers. Cold treatment is essential to the process, whether you like daffodils, snowdrops, tulips, lilies, peonies or irises. Historically, the first frost here in the Kansas City area has been around the third week of October, but this doesn’t mean you can’t plant after that date. Although soil temperatures depend on the ambient air temperature, soil temperatures do not change as quickly as the air temperature.

A common misconception about cold treatments is that it’s necessary to place bulbs you just received into your refrigerator while still packaged in the netting they arrived in. This is not the proper way to chill these plants. They belong in a damp, dark place. That’s why we plant them in the ground for the winter. Even though we consider these plants dormant, they are still growing.

Before ordering your bulbs for fall planting, check to ensure you can keep your newly planted bulbs moist during the winter. As a rule of thumb, bulbs must be planted twice as deep as the bulb is wide. This means if the bulb is 2.5 inches across, the bulb needs to be planted 5 inches into the ground. Covering your planting with mulch can help keep moisture in the soil. Mulch serves another purpose: protecting your bulbs from squirrels. It isn’t foolproof, but it will mitigate how many bulbs get dug up by these rodents.

Planting at the proper depth and adding a healthy mulch layer in the landscape can save your flowers, not only from squirrels, but from stretches of no precipitation.

After a long, dreary winter, spring bulbs can be such a relief to the eyes — and they’re good for early pollinators. The number of colors, shapes and bloom times currently on the market can make anyone empty their pockets to get the largest variety possible. If you miss the fall planting season, you can still purchase spring flowering bulbs out of season. However, improper planning can lead to a last-minute scramble in the department store’s clearance aisle with mixed results.

Large companies that provide spring-blooming flowers year-round for floral arrangements will individually pot bulbs and place them in a refrigerated area. These bulbs mustn’t dry out, so companies will have staff water them during the cold treatment. Some of these companies sell their bulbs in the early spring as “pre-chilled” bulbs. Pre-chilled bulbs will bloom in the spring after a short establishment period.

Ordering your spring bulbs right now isn’t essential. Finding the bulbs you planted in years past and lifting, dividing and planting them in new places has been a tried-and-true method for centuries. However, being on top of the process early can transport you to a new world of vibrant color in the spring.

Markis Hill is a horticulture agent with Kansas State University Research and Extension. Need help? Contact the Johnson County Extension gardening hotline at 913-715-7050 or email garden.help@jocogov.org.