By Jimmy Williams

Bulbs are always a popular fall subject.  That’s because it is quick and simple to get a colorful spring garden by plopping in a few (or better, many) bulbs now.  Just sit back and enjoy your roaring fire all winter and walk out in April to be greeted by exuberant tulips, spirited daffodils and coquettish crocus.

Well, maybe it's not quite that easy, but compared to, say, setting a bunch of shrubs or trees, it’s duck soup.

To make it as easy as possible, however, let us get set up right to start with.  If you have any number of bulbs at all, get a long-handled, foot-operated planter, one that won't bring on instant carpel tunnel syndrome.   (Carpel tunnels are not places where carp hide.)  Such a tool will put the power where it belongs, under your whole body weight.  If you only plant when the ground is moist (it's worth watering artificially if it comes to that) the job will be that much easier.

Now that you're set, start punching holes where you want the bulbs.   Do a bunch of them before kneeling to plant.  Each punch will pull a core of soil from the ground and the planter's cylindrical base will hold it until the next punch.   Soon you'll have a dozen, or hopefully 100, holes with cores lying about in easy reach.  Then, kneel, not stoop, and drop the bulbs in the holes, popping in a core of soil on top.

This is assuming your bulbs will be planted in unworked soil in naturalistic areas.  Daffodils, crocus, snowdrops and some others are best in that situation, and particularly where grass mowing is not a factor until at least May.

In cultivated beds, where elegant tulips are often set in more formal settings, eight inches or so of soil can be excavated, the bulbs placed in patterns, and the soil replaced.  This is a monster job, and few pursue it.  The punch and poke method will work here as well, but loose soil will often not remain in the planter until the next hole is punched.  No matter.  If there is plenty of loose soil around, it can be simply pushed into the holes.

Tulips are generally short-term features in our hot climate, running out after a year or two.  Deep planting will help a little, but the extra effort is probably not worth it.  Plant shallow (4 inches) and easy, get a season's bloom, chop them down and forget them. You might even get a minimal spate of bloom the next year, but don't count on it.

Daffodils are something else, and most varieties are permanent, even increasing rapidly in some cases of perfect growing conditions. Daffs are the best of bulb buys, when performance is considered.

Crocus would run them a close race, if it weren't for voles, lemmings and other subterranean vermin. These won't bother daffodils, but can wipe out a crocus plantation before even one season of bloom.

Some of the smaller, species, crocus will multiply more rapidly than the corms are eaten, staying ahead of the rodents. Crocus tommassianius, for instance, is a worldwide favorite for that reason, among others. My planting of these began some 12 or more years ago, with about 1,000 under some apple trees, and now they are established many yards away, undoubtedly spread by seeds that have.been bird-sown. There must now be 10,000) or more.