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My SZN — Life, in season.

Garden & Grow · 🍂 Autumn

When to plant spring-flowering bulbs

Ten minutes in autumn for a doorstep full of colour months later.

Low cost · 20 min · Beginner · 4 min read

A tray of bulbs and a trowel beside a pot part-filled with compost

Bulbs are the closest gardening gets to a guarantee. They're planted at the dullest time of year and pay you back at the point you most need it.

Rough order of planting

  • Daffodils and crocus typically go in earlier in autumn
  • Alliums and hyacinths usually follow through mid-autumn
  • Tulips are traditionally left until the weather turns properly cold
  • Anything still in the bag by midwinter is worth planting anyway — late beats never

In a pot, in ten minutes

  1. Half-fill a pot with peat-free compost.
  2. Sit the bulbs on top, pointy end up, close but not touching.
  3. Cover with compost to roughly two to three times the bulb's height.
  4. Water once, then leave it somewhere sheltered and largely forget it.

A note on timing

Timing can vary depending on where you live and local conditions — in cooler parts of the UK things often happen a little later.

Make it yours

Kept for later 🤎📸 Remember it

Kept ideas live in My Keeps, keep their category and season, and can be planned, lived and remembered later.

My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.

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