Spring bulbs are planted in autumn, not spring, which catches out a lot of new gardeners who go looking for daffodil and tulip bulbs in September and find garden centres already sold through. Daffodils, freesias, tulips and ranunculus all go into the ground months before they flower, using the cool, damp autumn and winter to build roots before any top growth shows at all. Get the autumn planting window right for your region and the spring display largely looks after itself.
Freesias go in earliest of the four. Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay gardeners can start as early as March. Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson and Tasman should wait until April, and Canterbury, Marlborough, West Coast, Otago and Southland gardens go in April to May. Space corms about 8cm apart in full sun, and keep them out of heavy, slow-draining soil, since corm rot from a wet winter is the main way freesias fail — plant on a mound or in containers if your soil is heavy clay. Flowers follow from August through October in the north and middle of the country, narrowing to September and October further south.
Daffodils are the most forgiving of the four and the one most worth starting with. Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay can plant from March; Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson and Tasman should hold off until April; and Canterbury, Marlborough, West Coast, Otago and Southland go in April to May. Space bulbs 12cm apart in full sun and genuinely free-draining soil — daffodils hate wet feet, and basal rot sets in fast in soggy ground. Flowers show August to September across the north and middle of the country, narrowing to September only in the Canterbury and Otago zones. Left undisturbed after flowering, a clump naturalises and multiplies on its own for years.
Tulips are the fussiest of the four. Plant in May, around Mother's Day, once the soil has properly cooled — Canterbury, Marlborough, West Coast, Otago and Southland gardeners can go a little earlier, from April. The catch is winter chill: in any region with fewer than five frosts a winter, tulip bulbs need about six weeks in the fridge before planting, or they won't flower well or produce decent stem length. Gardeners in genuinely cold-winter regions can skip that step entirely. Space bulbs 15cm apart, watch for tulip fire (a form of botrytis) on the foliage in damp weather, and expect flowers September to October, narrowing to October only in Otago and Southland. Because NZ winters are milder than tulips evolved for, many warmer-region gardeners simply buy fresh bulbs each year rather than relying on old ones to rebloom well.
Ranunculus go in last, and need more handling at planting time than the other three. Soak the corms for about two hours before planting them claws-down, then keep the soil just moist rather than wet until shoots appear — overwatering a dormant corm is the single most common way to lose it to rot. Plant March to April in Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay; April to May in Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson and Tasman; and May only in Canterbury, Marlborough, West Coast, Otago and Southland. Space corms 10cm apart in full sun, and expect blooms from August to October in the north and middle of the country, narrowing to September and October further south.
Whichever bulb you're planting, the same two rules cover most failures. Get the drainage right — if your soil is heavy clay, plant on a mound, in a raised bed, or straight into containers, since sitting wet is what rots a bulb or corm, not cold. And once flowering finishes, leave the foliage alone; it looks untidy for a few weeks, but it's feeding energy back down into the bulb for next year's flowers, and cutting it back green while it's still working is one of the most common ways to weaken a planting over time. One bulb worth knowing about separately is gladiolus, which despite the family resemblance runs on the opposite calendar: corms go in through spring, September to December in the north and middle of the country and October to November in Canterbury and Otago, for flowers the following summer rather than the autumn-planting, spring-flowering pattern the rest of this guide covers.
Get the drainage right — if your soil is heavy clay, plant on a mound, in a raised bed, or straight into containers, since sitting wet is what rots a bulb or corm, not cold.