Planting bulbs

 In Spring some shops sell tete-a-tete in bloom in small pots.  I buy
them to plant into the garden.
The bulbs are not buried as we are told they need to be but sitting on
the surface.
If I plant some bulbs like that, where would I keep them till
flowering time?  Anyone know how it is done?  My tiny garden has no
room for bulb planting at the moment, but in winter when things are
cut back I can see the spaces.
Obviously when I plant the bulbs in Spring  I'd put them at the
necessary depth.
How do the professionals produce such results?

Pam in Bristol

 

Don't plant them on the surface. They will be too exposed to frosts, vermin
etc.  The shops plant them that way to look good during flowering but they
do not expect you to keep them afterwards.
Tete-a-tete are not reliably hardy so if you can find a fairly frost-free
place to plant them so much the better.
R.

 
  .. and the shop ones are in shallow pots, haven't been grown outdoors
exposed to frosts vermine etc. However, the fact the shop planted them
that way does not mean the bulbs are only good for one season; after they
flowered and died back you can tip them out of the pot and replant them
(deeper ) in the garden..hardy varieties will flower and increase for
years to come.


  ???? I think you might have mixed them up with something else;; Tete a
tete have an RHS AGM and are totally hardy in my experience ( my previous
very cold exposed Scottish garden winters varied from -15C average to -24C
extreme). They are also good increasers and stand up well to wind.

    Janet.

 

You're quite right.  I think I got them mixed up with Paper White which is
another variety often sold in the same manner as Tete-a-tete.
R.

 
  Paperwhites definitely aren't garden-hardy survivors here. Though I
think they may be in the Scillies.

  Janet