You have opened that bag before. Kitchen table, contents tipped out, and one bulb near the bottom gives slightly when you pick it up. It is squashy at the shoulder, lighter than the others, and you already know what it is going to do in spring, which is nothing.
That single soft bulb is why this page exists. When you buy flower bulbs online in Canada you are trusting somebody else to run the check you would have run yourself with the bulb in your hand.
The short answer is this. Buy from a seller who tells you when their stock arrives from the grower, states the bulb size on the pack, says plainly who opens the boxes, and ships close to your planting window rather than months ahead. Price is the last thing to compare, not the first.
I am Darrell Smith. I have been planting bulbs in Vancouver gardens for more than twenty five years, and I open every box that comes into our shop. Most of what follows applies to any seller in the country.
How do you tell a good flower bulb from a bad one?
Pick it up. A healthy bulb is heavy for its size and firm the whole way round, with a dry, hard base plate where the roots come from. Reject anything spongy at the neck, hollow feeling, fuzzy with blue green mould, or carrying a long pale sprout. Loose papery skin is cosmetic and fine.
That last point is the one people get wrong most often. The papery tunic flakes off in transit on almost every tulip, and a bag of half naked bulbs looks alarming but is usually fine. Small nicks and scrapes are fine too. What you are feeling for is the flesh underneath.
A soft bulb has already started to rot in the middle. Nothing you do at planting time reverses that. It goes in the compost, and a decent seller replaces or refunds it without an argument.
What the number on the bag actually means
On a bag of tulips you will see something like 12 up, 12 plus, or 11/12. That number is the circumference of the bulb in centimetres, the distance around its widest point, not the width across. Twelve centimetres and up is top size for tulips.
Daffodils are graded the same way, and often by nose count as well. A double nose bulb has two growing points, so two or more flower stems in its first spring instead of one. Crocus corms are sold as 7/8, 8/9 or 9/10 by the same measurement.
Here is the honest version. A bigger bulb carries more stored food, so it produces a larger flower and sometimes an extra stem in the first season. From the second year on, your soil, your drainage and the sun that spot gets in March decide the result, not the grade you bought. Size buys a better first spring. It does not buy a better garden.
If a listing states no size at all, that is worth noticing. It does not always mean the bulbs are small. It does mean nobody is telling you.
Why does delivery timing matter more than price?
Because a bulb is a living thing. Bulbs shipped in July have to sit somewhere warm for two or three months before the ground is ready, and heat is what turns a firm bulb soft. A seller who ships close to planting time in your zone is protecting what you paid for.
Ask when the boxes land in the country. Most Canadian sellers receive their shipment from Dutch growers in late summer and send orders out through the fall. Planting runs from late August in zone 2 and 3 to November on the coast.
If a bulb reaches you well before your planting window it needs somewhere cool, dry, dark and airy to wait, and that is not a cupboard next to the furnace. The details are in our piece on how to store flower bulbs before planting.
Questions to ask before you buy flower bulbs online in Canada
Send these to any seller you are considering, including us. The ones who answer straight away tend to be handling the stock themselves.
- When does your stock arrive from the grower, and when will my order ship? You want the two dates, not a season.
- Who opens the boxes, and what happens to a soft bulb? If the grower ships direct to the customer, nobody in Canada has looked at your bulbs.
- What size are the bulbs? Circumference in centimetres, or the nose grade for daffodils.
- What happens if the grower shorts a variety I paid for? A fair answer is your choice between a similar variety of the same value or a refund, on a stated timeline.
- Can I cancel, and until when? Look for cancellation any time before the order ships or is collected.
- Do you ship to my province, and how long is transit? Three days to Alberta and eight days to Newfoundland are different problems in October.
- Is the variety restocked during the season? Usually no, and a seller who says so plainly is being straight with you.
One more thing, not about the seller. If squirrels have dug up your plantings before, the variety list matters more than anything on this page, and our notes on stopping squirrels digging up bulbs will save you a season.
How we handle it at DH Garden Centre
Here is what we do, and you can hold any seller to the same standard.
Our bulbs come from a Dutch supplier in small lots, a handful of packs of each variety rather than pallets. When the boxes land I go through the packs by hand before any order leaves the shop. Firm and heavy stays. Soft at the neck, light for its size, or showing mould goes in my bin instead of your order.
I cannot tell you every bulb will bloom, and nobody honest can. What I can tell you is that every bulb in your order was held in a hand before it was packed, and every variety on our list is one I have planted in this climate.
The small lots have a consequence worth knowing. Nobody reorders partway through a bulb season, so once a variety is spoken for it is gone until next autumn. That is also why pre-orders are held on better terms than the shelf in the fall, because ordering ahead is what lets us set your packs aside under your name rather than selling them to whoever walks in first.
If you want to see the varieties we set aside for this fall, the full list is on one page, with pickup in Kitsilano or shipping anywhere in Canada.
What to do the day the box arrives
Open it that day, even if you cannot plant for weeks. Tip each bag out and run the hand test on every bulb. It takes a few minutes and it is your only clean window to raise a problem.
Anything soft, mouldy or badly sprouted, photograph it and message the seller the same week. Anything good goes into a cool dry spot with air moving around it until your planting window opens.
Then think about the ground rather than the bulbs. Most bulb failures in this country are drainage failures, and if your beds hold water in winter, improving clay soil matters more than any upgrade in bulb grade.
Ordering for the spring you actually want
Picture the end of March. The strip by your front path has crocus open and narcissus buds coming, and the neighbour asks when you did all that. You did it on a cold Saturday in October, in about an hour.
The deadline on this is not ours. It is the ground freezing, and that date is set by where you live, not by a sale. Once the soil is solid at planting depth the season is closed.
If you are still working out which varieties hold up in your zone, start with our guide to the best spring bulbs for Canadian winters, then look at what we have set aside from this year’s small lots when you know what you are after.
If you would rather watch than read, Darrell covers the bulbs Darrell reaches for first in autumn in a short video on our channel.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to buy flower bulbs online in Canada?
Yes, provided the seller receives and inspects the stock in Canada rather than drop shipping from overseas. Ask when their shipment lands, who opens the boxes, and their policy on a short or damaged item. A seller who answers those three plainly is usually worth ordering from.
When do online bulb orders ship in Canada?
Most Canadian sellers receive Dutch grower shipments in late summer and start sending orders out in September. That lines up with planting, which runs from late August in zone 2 and 3, through October in much of the country, and into November on the south coast of British Columbia.
Are bigger flower bulbs worth paying more for?
For the first spring, yes. A top size bulb holds more stored food, so you get a larger flower and sometimes an extra stem. After that first season the soil, drainage and light in that spot decide the result. Bigger bulbs are worth it for pots and front of border plantings where the first year matters.
What should I do if a bulb arrives soft or mouldy?
Photograph it on the day the parcel arrives and message the seller that week. Do not plant it, because a soft bulb has already begun rotting inside and it will not recover. Most sellers will replace or refund the item. Keep the rest of the order somewhere cool and dry while you wait.
DH Garden Centre
3742 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6R 2G4
Open daily, 11:00 to 18:30
604-929-7335
If you are in Kitsilano or anywhere on the Westside, come in and do the hand test yourself. I would rather you learned what a good bulb feels like than took my word for it.
