During September, narcissus and many of the small flowering bulbs, such as snowdrop, crocus, grape hyacinth, and so on, should be planted. If you plan to naturalize daffodils, plant the bulbs in drifts. Make the holes at least 5 inches deep with a grub hoe or spade; then place a bulb in each hole, replace the soil and sod, and tamp it down with your feet.
Shrubs
Once your plants are an inch or two high you will have another decision to make. Even the best garden soil tends to form a crust after a hard rain has beaten the air out of it and a hot sun has baked it. That crust makes it hard for the soil to drink up the next rainfall, and often forces much of that rain to run off uselessly to lower ground. To prevent this, gardeners cultivate the soil with a hoe. A “dust mulch” results, which diminishes loss of water by evaporation. There is, of course, a second important reason for cultivating the soil: to eliminate weeds.
Since at this time of the year we are especially concerned with fall planting and dividing, the principal perennials which are best handled at this time may be enumerated as follows: Anemone sylvestris (snowdrop anemone), Brunnera macrophylla (Anchusa myosotidiflora), Caltha palustris flore pleno (double-flowered marsh marigold), Convallaria majalis (lily-of-the-valley), epimedium (barren-wort), helleborus (Christmas rose), Lathyrus vernus (spring vetchling), Nepeta mussini and N. grandiflora, and paeonia (peony). To these one should also add adonis (pheasant’s eye), ere-murus (desert candle), Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebells) and Papaver orientale (Oriental poppy). These latter plants are completely at rest by the end of summer, and August-September is the only safe period to transplant and divide them.