There are several good books written on bulbs. To tackle the complexities of this subject would require another. So, you won't find a whole lot of information about specific bulbs here. These are general suggestions about bulbs and how to plant and care for them. The best book on growing bulbs in Texas is Scott Ogden's Garden Bulbs for the South.

• Soil requirements are loose, rich, and well-drained soil. If bulbs are planted in a heavy soil, they will rot in the ground. If your soil is too heavy, you can plant bulbs in a raised bed. The pH requirement is between 6-7.
• Plant your bulbs in as much sun as they can get. You can plant early flowering bulbs under deciduous trees, as they will grow up, flower, and then be fading as the tree is putting on leaves.
• As a general rule, plant bulbs here in Texas during the months of November and December.
• Bulbs always look best when planted in clusters, instead of rows.
• Most of the growing instructions for planting bulbs are for the north. If you're using such an info source, be sure to plant the bulbs at one half the recommended planting depth. Our northern gardening friends have to be concerned about the ground freezing, so they have to plant deeper. If we plant too deep here, our bulbs will rot in the ground. A good rule of thumb is to plant the bulb as deep as it is tall.
• Always plant the pointy end up. Don't let the technical terms throw you here!
• The time-honored fertilizer when putting your bulbs in the ground has been to use only bone meal, which is a source of phosphorus, which gives plants their flower power. We have now moved past this. Bulbs will do much better by using the following mixture, per 100 square feet of planting space. If you are not going to cover this much area, reduce per square foot. Work this mix into the top of the soil before planting, and then dig and plant.

2 pounds of blood meal (you can use feather meal or cotton seed meal)
2 pounds of bonemeal (you can substitute 4 pounds of soft rock phosphate)
3 pounds of greensand

• Rodents can be a problem with bulbs. Moles and gophers can be problem. To alleviate this, add some lava sand or other type of crushed mineral sand in the hole when planting. The grit will deter them.
• After planting, be sure to mulch with lightweight mulch so that the bulbs can emerge in the spring. Pine needles work really well. Apply at a depth of 2-3 inches.
• After the bulbs have flowered in the spring, do not cut or mow the foliage. That foliar growth is supplying the bulbs strength for next springs, growth. When the foliage turns brown, then cut back to just above the ground. You can then remove, clean, and store the bulbs for next years planting, unless you are trying to naturalize them to the area. If naturalizing is your goal, simply leave them in the soil and be sure to not over water the area during the year.
• Some bulbs, namely tulips and daffodils, like a more northerly climate. They need to experience a cold winter that we simply do not get down here in Texas. You can, however, fake them into believing it has been really cold for a long time. Store them in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks before placing them in the ground. Be sure it is the refrigerator and not the freezer. After they have been through this cold winter in your fridge, plant as normal.

We have the following bulbs in stock at this time:
Narcissus
Hyacinths
Crocus
Anemones
Freesias
Ranunculus
Tulips
Daffodils
Bearded Iris (ok, they are not bulbs)

Time is growing short for getting in the fall garden. Many of us (oh, but not me!) are procrastinators that always get the garden in late. These are suggested planting times. You (Me!) can still plant later than suggested if you plan for providing some winter protection during the first light freeze or two. There is a cloth, called Winter Protection Cloth, which we have if you need it. It is like a think sheet. Get 'em in and hope for light freezes for the next couple of months. Live life on the edge. It's worth the gamble; we may not have a freeze until the New Year! And you can always bring your extra veggies by the nursery. We'll do something with them! Let the salad season begin!

Onions:
You can plant your onions from seed anytime during the month of October. For onion starts, you will need to wait until mid-November. Onions are a biennial, which means if they think that they have gone through two growing seasons, they will bolt and go to seed and be hollow on the inside when you harvest in the spring. From seed, they would be fine planted in October. But with the larger starts, they are already up and growing and do not need to experience really warm weather until the spring. So when they say get those 1015 onions in the ground on October 15th, they are talking about the seed, not the starts.

You hear much talk about winterizing your lawn. In an organic program, you don't need to worry so much about it because you have been building up a good, healthy soil that will protect your lawn and its roots over the winter. The building of that good healthy soil is just another good reason why you fertilize organically and use soil activators and other good soil building techniques in your lawn fertilization regimen. So when you hear about "winterizing" from the synthetic fertilizing people, if you have been following a good organic program, you do not need to be so concerned. The only reason that companies like Scott's have to be concerned about "winterizing" is because they know that without the good healthy life in the soil, that their product does not promote, and actually kills, is that they have to make amends at the end of the growing season to make sure that your grass actually lives through the winter and comes out strong in the spring. The end all, be all, of proper grass care, is that you need to promote the life in the soil by staying with an organic fertilizing program. It is the healthy abundance of microbial life in the soil that keeps your grass healthy. We could talk all day about the bacteria's and fungus that live in the soil. And what they mean to a healthy soil that will grow a healthy grass. But let's cut to the chase. Keep it organic, keep it simple, and you will achieve outstanding success in your lawn grass. And while there are slightly differing needs of the N-P-K of your lawn, the rules are the same for all lawns. You see, if you stay within the bounds of what Nature has provided, the microbial like in the soil and the roots of your plants will work out the differences. If you want quick and easy green up in early spring, then those fake fertilizers will give you that. If you wish to maintain the health of your lawn over the long term, then move into the wonderful world of organic fertilizing and soil building techniques. It is not any more work and it will actually save you money in the long run. Here's how to build up the health of your lawn grass so that it survives the winter cold and comes out looking good in the spring.

Do this now, in October.

1. The first and foremost thing that you can do for your lawn is to aerate the soil. Before you spread compost, before you apply the broadcast fertilizer, before you apply the soil activator, aerate the soil. The ideal soil is 45% soil, 5% organic matter, 25% water, and 25% air. That last bit, about the oxygen content, at 25%, is the diamond in the rough. Especially if you have been on an inorganic fertilizing program, please note, these products actually kill the life in the soil, leading to compaction. Aeration opens the soil, allowing the microbes the life facilitating oxygen that they need to grow. Aeration is first and foremost and is something that you should do at least once per year, if not twice per year, until the lawn feels like a soft carpet when you walk on it.
2. The second best thing you can do for your lawn is to spread a good manure based compost at a ¼ inch depth. One yard of compost will cover 300 sq.ft. at this depth. The reason that you use a manure base compost is because the lawn likes a bacterial dominated compost, that comes from a manure compost.
3. If you have done these two things then you are finished for the year. These two things are the best things that you can do for you lawn. For the lazier approach, read on.
4. If you wish to do things the easy way, then you need to do two things. Apply a pellitized organic fertilizer and use a foliar spray/soil drench.
5. There are a few great organic fertilizers on the market in Central Texas. Lady Bug Natural Brand, Bioform Dry, and Texas Tea by Maestro-Gro, are all good organic lawn fertilizers. These are the three best on the market. Any one of these will do a great job. Spread one of these on your lawn.
6. The second thing in the lazy fertilization program is to use a soil activator. Medina Soil Activator is the old man in the group and is a wonderful addition to any soil. If you wish to go further, then use Lady Bug Natural Brand's Terra Tonic. John Dromgoole has taken the Medina Soil Activator to new level by adding things like humate, molasses, and seaweed to his Terra Tonic. I really feel like Terra Tonic is one of the best soil activators on the market.
7. If you wish to simply "winterize" your lawn, the best thing that you can do is drench the soil with a seaweed spray. Concentrated liquid seaweed, that you mix with water, is a natural source of Vitamin B1, a natural rooting hormone. I never plant anything without a seaweed drench. It is especially good for a newly seeded or sodded lawn.
8. For those severely stressed lawns, I have developed a "Sick Lawn Treatment" that rescues the lawn that is in severe decline. Please call the nursery and ask for me, Steve, and I will go over the details with you.
9. Be advised that "Weed and Feed" fertilizers will kill your shrubs and large trees.

If you have further questions about the lawn, please email me or call and I help in any way that I can. Please stay away from synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and miticides, really anything chemical that harms the life in the soil. It is that life in the soil that keeps your lawn, your pets, your kids, and you healthy and looking forward to the new day. It confounds me why anyone would poison himself or herself, the environment, or any other living thing to keep the grass synthetically surviving. I can help you work the details about working within the confines that Nature has provided us. Give me a call or stop by and I will happily tell you more. You can follow these directions because you want to be earth-friendly or you can follow these directions for, perhaps, a more utilitarian reason; it simply works better.

September is probably the best month of the year to plant those native and well-adapted perennials. In the north, they garden around the winter, with its extreme low temperatures. Here in Texas, we also garden around a season with extreme temperatures, but that season for us is summer. Many of the hardy perennials that you would plant now will go dormant over the winter. But they return in the spring, with a well-developed root system, becoming larger and more established plants by the heat of summer. So if you need to fill some vacant spots in your established beds or wish to create a new perennial bed, now is the perfect time to get those plants in the ground.

There are some plants the choose to flower mostly in the fall. Some choice, fall blooming perennials are:
Mexican Mint Marigold
Mexican Bush Sage
Fall Aster
Philippine Violet
Coral Vine

Now would also be a great time to foliar feed everything! Foliar feeding substitutes for top dressing. Try Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed or the liquid Bioform. Be sure to spray in the cool of the day when the temperature is below 90°.

Nothing provides more color in your gardens than annuals. You will start to see the cool-season annuals show up at the nurseries this month. For the novice gardeners, we have two seasons here in Texas, hot and cold. There are some plants that are considered annuals because they thrive in either the warm or the cool season. We are winding down on the plants that thrive in the warm weather. But there are many fine annuals that you can plant that will give you much color through fall, and winter and into early spring.

Cool season annuals are:
Snapdragons
Mums
Petunias
Dianthus
Pansies
Dusty Miller
Alyssum
Calendula

Fall is absolutely the best time to plant trees and shrubs. As with the perennials, the sooner we get trees and shrubs in the ground after the current heat of summer is waning, the more time they have to become established by the heat of next summer. Two products that will help your newly planted trees establish quicker and easier are liquid seaweed and mycorrhizae fungus inoculant.

• Liquid Seaweed: This product is a natural source of Vitamin B1, a natural rooting stimulator that will help your plants establish quicker. It also contains over sixty trace minerals. It comes as a concentrate that you mix with water and then use a soil drench after planting. For a five-gallon tree or shrub, pour three or four gallons of this solution around the root ball when planting.
• Mycorrhizal Fungus: This is a new product on the market. This beneficial fungus is found in all healthy soils. It has a symbiotic relationship with plants. The roots of your plants release a gas from their roots that this fungus uses as its sustenance. In exchange for this, the fungus protects the plants roots from disease and insect attacks and also reaches out and brings water and nutrients back to the plant. You can now purchase this product to use when you plant most anything. It has to be applied in the root zone, so you mix it with the soil backfill when you plant. Even though it is found in healthy soils, by applying when you plant you will give your new plantings the immediate benefits of this wonderful soil amendment.

Some of the Best Shade Trees to Plant in Our Area:

• Live Oak: It is a slow grower, but what is the tree that you cherish most in your landscape or wish you had in your landscape? Is it that beautiful, large Live Oak that was planted for you by someone in the distant past? While they are susceptible to Oak Wilt, you can get your Live Oak off to a healthy start by keeping the soil healthy around it. Do something for the generations to come and plant at least one of these fine specimen trees in your landscape. This tree appears evergreen but is, in fact, a deciduous tree, losing it's older leaves at the same time it is growing new ones.
• Bur Oak: The Bur Oak is an upright oak, not spreading like the Live Oak. It has a large leaf and large acorns. It is sometimes called the Mossy Cup Oak for those large acorns. It is medium grower to 60-80 feet tall and wide. Deciduous.
• Pin Oak: A native tree to our area that you don't see very often. Our forefathers prized the wood as fence posts. It has moderate to fairly rapid growth to 50-80 feet tall. Likes plenty of water and will grow in poorly drained soils. Deciduous.
• Chinese Pistache: Native to China. Moderate growth to 40-60 feet tall and wide. Great fall color tree. It is a gawky, ill-formed tree in youth, growing dense and shapely with age. Tolerates a wide range of soils. Very drought tolerant. Deciduous.
• Red Maple: Native to low, wet areas of North America. Fast grower to 40-60 feet. Its new growth in spring is red and it has great scarlet-red fall color. Tends to grow up tall before it starts to spread out. Tolerates many soils. Deciduous.
• Red Oak: Another fine native Texas tree. There are two Red Oaks that you will find here. One is the Shumard Red Oak that will tolerate many soils. It has red to brown fall color and will hang on to those leaves over the winter time. The other Red Oak is the Nuttal Red Oak. It prefers acid soils and tends to have better fall color than the Shumard. Both are fast growing, deciduous trees that has a rounded canopy to 30-50 feet tall.