[Juli]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if anyone knows what these bulbs might be. My son found them in our new garden. Someone just gave me some daffodil, crocus and tulip bulbs as a housewarming gift, and they don't look like any of those. I'm just worried about putting them back in the ground if they turn out to be weeds of some sort.

The first picture is of the bulbs right way up, and the second one bottom up.

Thanks in advance,
Juli

[Juli]

I couldn't add the pictures, as they are too large. So here they are as a linked imagine. I hope it works this time.

[VegGirl7]

can't help with the Id I'm afraid (but it does look like a few different ones...    )

I've also found lots of unidentified bulbs on my plot and have put them into pots to find out what they are before putting back into the ground (if I want to)   

[Annen]

Could they be tulip bulbs, some with the skins off?  I've got some dwarf tulips a bit like that.

[Trillium]

Not likely tulips - wrong shapes.

Hard to know what they are since many bulbs are similar in shapes and colours. Top pic, one o'clock might be an allium, 6 o'clock might be a siberian iris.

Bottom pix might be crocus.

[New shoot]

I'd agree with Trillium that the greeny/white round ones are alliums (ornamental onions).

All the garden centres have their spring bulbs in - I'd take them in and compare with the packets, or see if they have someone there in their Sundries department who can help ID them for you  

[allotmentann]

The pot idea is a good one, especially as then you will know how tall the flowers are as well, so know where to plant them. I don't think you need to worry about them being weeds, I have not come across any bulb forming weeds yet. Although you have made me wonder if there any?

[sarajane]

The 2 grey/white ones look very similar to my Sicilian honey garlic (nectaruscordum) which grow about 3 foot tall in the summer

[aelf]

yes, definately alliums in that lot. What ever they are, I think you can be sure that none of them will be weeds 

[Juli]

Thanks everyone.

I'm pretty sure they're all the same, just different sizes and some have a dried layer on the outside and some don't. But they're all the same shape. I know they all look different in the photos, but in real life you can tell they're all the same.

Do allium bulbs smell oniony/garlicky when crushed? Because I crushed one and it didn't smell of anything.

I've compared them to tulip, crocus, daffodil and hyacynth and they're definitely different.

On the subject of weeds and bulbs, in Australia we had horrible oxalis all over the garden and that grew from tiny white bulbs. (Then again, they might technically not be bulbs, as they grew off the roots, not like proper bulbs.) Do you get oxalis in the UK?

It sounds like I will just have to plant them and see what happens in spring

[allotmentann]

I have a horrible problem in my garden with Oxalis Corniculata, it is my weed nemesis, worse than the ground elder by far. That has a tap  root and explodes seeds out of the seed pods if you don't get it first and it is so tiny it is easily missed under cover of other plants. I think there are two more varieties of Oxalis that are considered weeds and both produce little bulbils at the end of rhizomes. So I guess these could be mistaken for flower bulbs, but probably not with the creeping underground stems type. Some Oxalis are really pretty.

[mumofstig]

Do allium bulbs smell oniony/garlicky when crushed? Because I crushed one and it didn't smell of anything.

I've compared them to tulip, crocus, daffodil and hyacynth and they're definitely different.
Do you get oxalis in the UK?

No they don't smell of onions/garlic - well the one sitting in the greenhouse waiting to be replanted didn't

I have a pretty oxalis, one that only opens its flowers in the sun, in both pink and white varieties and it has corms rather than bulbs - so that doesn't look like yours either.

[Agatha]

They should smell garlicky when crushed if they are alliums - I had to dig loads up last year & they were really smelly!

[Trillium]

My ornamental alliums have a faint smell of garlic if cut, nothing overpowering at all.

[GYO Girl]

The pot idea is a good one, especially as then you will know how tall the flowers are as well, so know where to plant them. I don't think you need to worry about them being weeds, I have not come across any bulb forming weeds yet. Although you have made me wonder if there any?

Grape hyacinth (muscari) definately qualifed as a weed for me in my previous garden!  Can't believe how easily they spread!

I agree - plant them in pots.