When to Plant Bulbs in Canada: Month by Month Calendar

When to Plant Bulbs in Canada (Short Answer)

Plant hardy spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, daffodils, alliums and crocus in fall, from late September to mid November depending on your zone, once soil temperatures drop below 15C. Plant tender summer bulbs like begonias, cannas, dahlias and gladiolus in spring after your last frost date, which falls between mid April and early June across Canada.

Everything below expands on those two sentences: exact dates for your zone, what to do in each month of the year, and what to do if you have missed a window.

The Two Kinds of Bulbs (and Why the Timing Is Opposite)

Every bulb you can grow in Canada belongs to one of two groups, and they want opposite treatment.

Hardy bulbs need our winter. Tulips, daffodils, alliums, crocus and their relatives require twelve or more weeks of cold to trigger blooming, and a Canadian winter in the ground provides it perfectly. You plant them in fall, they root before freeze-up, and they flower in spring.

Tender bulbs cannot survive our winter. Begonias, cannas, dahlias, gladiolus and calla lilies come from warm climates. Frozen ground kills them, so they go into the garden only after the last frost in spring, bloom through summer, and in most zones come back out of the ground before winter.

Bulb Planting Calendar for Canada: Month by Month

Dates here are for mid-range zones (5 and 6). If you garden colder or warmer than that, shift by the zone tables further down.

January. Nothing goes in the ground anywhere in Canada. This is planning season: browse catalogues, map next year's beds, and check any stored tender bulbs for rot or shrivelling. Gardeners in zone 8 coastal pockets can still tuck in fall bulbs very early in the month if the soil is workable, but it is the last call.

February. Order your summer bulbs now, while every variety is still in stock. Check any stored tubers or corms again; discard anything soft.

March. Start tuberous begonias indoors, six to eight weeks before your last frost. In zones 5 and 6 that means mid to late March. Full details in our begonia planting guide. Dahlias can also be pre-started indoors in pots for earlier blooms.

April. Harden off indoor starts on mild days. Gardeners in zones 7 and 8 can plant gladiolus corms and other tender bulbs outdoors late in the month once frost risk has passed. Everyone else waits.

May. The big month for tender bulbs across most of Canada. Once your last frost date passes and soil has warmed, plant cannas, dahlias, gladiolus and calla lilies, and move your started begonias outside once nights stay above 10C. Plant gladiolus in batches every ten to fourteen days for continuous blooms; our gladiolus guide shows how to stagger them.

June. Last call for tender bulbs in the coldest zones, 2b and 3, where frost risk lingers into early June.

July. Nothing to plant, and that is fine. This is the month to order fall bulbs. Popular tulip and allium varieties sell out by the time planting season arrives. Ordering in July gives you the best availability.

August. Still ordering season for fall bulbs. In the garden, deadhead and feed your summer bloomers, and note which gaps in the spring border you want tulips or daffodils to fill.

September. Fall planting begins in the coldest zones. Prairie and northern gardeners in zones 2b to 4 plant tulips, daffodils, alliums and crocus from mid September onward, aiming to finish about six weeks before the ground freezes. After the first frost blackens foliage, start lifting dahlias and cannas in these zones. Our canna guide covers lifting and storage.

October. The main fall planting month for most of the country, zones 5 and 6 especially. Soil is cool, roots have time to establish, and squirrel pressure is easier to manage than in warm September soil. This is also lifting month for tender bulbs across the middle zones. See the tulip guide for depth, spacing and squirrel defence.

November. Fall planting continues in zones 7 and 8, including coastal BC, where late October through November is the sweet spot. In colder zones this is the last realistic window; bulbs can go in as long as you can still work the soil. Finish lifting and storing tender bulbs everywhere.

December. Zone 8 gardeners can plant stragglers early in the month. Everyone else is done. Mulch newly planted beds after the ground begins to freeze, and check stored bulbs once before the holidays.

Fall Bulb Planting Dates by Canadian Zone

The trigger is soil temperature, not the calendar: plant once soil has cooled below 15C but roughly six weeks before it freezes solid, so roots can establish. These windows hit that target in a typical year.

Two notes that matter more than the exact week. First, later is safer than earlier: bulbs planted into warm soil can sprout prematurely, while bulbs planted late but before the ground is frozen almost always catch up.

Spring and Summer Bulb Planting Dates by Zone

Tender bulbs follow your last frost date. Begonias get a head start indoors; the rest go straight into the ground once frost risk has passed and soil has warmed.

Cannas, dahlias and calla lilies can also be pre-started indoors two to four weeks early in pots if you want earlier blooms, but unlike begonias they do not require it. Gladiolus corms always go straight into the ground.

Can You Plant Spring Bulbs in Spring in Canada?

Not in the ground, no. Tulips, daffodils and other hardy bulbs need at least twelve weeks of sustained cold to form flowers, and a Canadian spring is too short to provide it after planting. A tulip bulb planted in April will sit there and, at best, produce leaves.

There is one workaround if you find yourself with leftover fall bulbs that should’ve gone into the ground already. Bulbs can be potted in containers in late fall and held somewhere cold but not hard-frozen, like an unheated garage, and then brought out in spring. If you have unplanted bulbs in April, the best advice is unglamorous: they rarely keep until next fall in good condition, so pot them, chill what you can, and bring them out into the warmth of spring.

What Happens if You Plant Bulbs Too Late?

Later than ideal is almost always better than not at all. As long as you can physically dig the hole, a hardy bulb planted in November, or even into a December thaw, will usually still bloom in spring. It roots less before winter, so the first display may be slightly shorter or later, but the bulb survives.

If the ground has genuinely frozen before you got there, pot the bulbs instead: a container of tulips or daffodils kept in an unheated shed or garage over winter, then moved out in March, beats a bag of bulbs rotting in the basement. For tender bulbs the late question runs the other way. A canna or gladiolus planted in July will still grow, but in short-season zones it may not have time to bloom before frost. Past the end of June in zones 2b to 4, pot it and grow it as a patio plant instead.

Shop Bulbs by Season in Canada

Fall planting starts with the classics. Browse our Tulip Bulbs Collection for fall shipping, and pair them with alliums, which squirrels and deer leave alone; the allium guide explains why they are the low-maintenance choice.

For summer colour, order tender bulbs in late winter for spring shipping. Start with [LINK: /collections/spring-lilies] and explore begonias, cannas, dahlias and gladiolus throughout the shop. Every listing states its planting season, so you always know which side of the calendar you are buying for.

For a deeper look at the fall-planted group specifically, see our guide to spring flowering bulbs in Canada