Bulbs Not Blooming

by Phillip
(Opelika, Alabama)

I planted 3000 bulbs about 10 years ago in a naturalized area of my front yard.

Sun is ample and I have had plentiful blooms until this year. I had about 10 percent of the normal flowering of the past. I have dug a few clumps and they have not drawn themselves more than one inch into the ground but the clusters have gotten larger with many small bulbs around the original bulb. Will clustering like this prvent any blooming. I have must applied bone meal and 10-10-10 but am trying not have to dig and separate. What do you think?

Doug says

You don't say what bulb this was but I'm thinking it was one of the smaller bulbs such as crocus or bluebells given the nature of the depth of planting. And the quick answer is that it depends very much on several things.

You're in Alabama. If the bulb requires a lot of cold weather - did you get it this year? If not, the bulbs haven't vernalized and won't produce blooms.

Clusters - some bulbs will reduce blooming and die off in heavy clusters and some won't. Crocus in my experience tend to reduce blooms after a few years of crowding but bluebells do not.

Did you have a wet year last summer? If so, the bulbs may not have produced buds (again depending on the bulb itself)

Check out the article here on why bulbs don't bloom. That may give you a few other options.

Good luck. I note that you can divide a few clumps and test out whether division makes a difference (mark those clumps really well with big painted rocks or something) See what happens next spring.

If they were mine, I'd give them one more year and see what happens.