Ever wonder why your neighbor’s tulips come up every spring while yours never make it past the first season? Nine times out of ten it is not the bulbs, it is when and how deep they went into the ground.

Spring bulbs are hardy, but they have rules. Get these two things right and they come back year after year.

Plant in fall, before the ground freezes

Spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, daffodils, and crocuses need six to eight weeks of cold soil to root before winter. In most of the US, that means planting from late September through November, before the ground hardens. A good rule of thumb: plant when the daytime high is consistently in the 60s. If you plant too late, the bulbs root poorly and come up weak or not at all.

Depth matters more than people think

The standard rule is two to three times the height of the bulb. A tulip bulb about two inches tall goes in four to six inches deep. Daffodils go a little deeper, around six inches. Small bulbs like crocuses only need about three inches.

Too shallow and the bulb freezes or gets nibbled by squirrels. Too deep and it spends all its energy fighting its way up and blooms small or not at all.

Pointy end up, flat end down

Bulbs have a pointy tip. That is where the shoot comes out, so it goes up. The flat, slightly rooty end goes down. If you cannot tell which end is which, plant the bulb on its side. The shoot will find its way up on its own, which is a trick that saves a lot of first-time planters.

Give them sun and good drainage

Most spring bulbs want full sun in spring, which means a spot that is sunny in March and April even if trees shade it later. Drainage matters too. Bulbs sitting in wet soil rot. If your yard has heavy clay, mix in some compost or plant in a raised bed.

Fertilize lightly at planting

Mix a little bulb fertilizer into the soil at the bottom of the hole, not on top of the bulb. It feeds the roots as they grow. After that, the leaves feeding the bulb after blooming is what builds next year’s flower, so leave the foliage alone until it yellows.

My first tulip patch failed completely because I planted in December, two inches deep, in wet clay. Now I plant in October, six inches deep, in amended soil, and I get a full bloom every single spring.