Watch out for spring fever when ordering plants

After a long Chicago winter, it is easy to let spring fever take over when ordering plants from catalogs and buying plants from garden centers.

Take the time to select plants that are well suited to your garden's growing conditions and fulfill your design criteria to help ensure a successful garden.

Putting the right plant in the right location will result in a better looking garden that will have fewer problems and require less maintenance.

Protect tulips from deer and rabbit damage by spraying them with a repellent or covering them with netting. Repellents will need to be reapplied after even a moderate rain. Netting will need to be adjusted as bulbs grow and may need to be weighted down to keep it from blowing away.

There are some bulbs that do not need to be protected. Animals do not typically eat daffodils, Siberian squill and ornamental onions (allium).

Keep monitoring the garden for any perennials that may have heaved out of the ground over winter. The freeze-thaw cycle in spring, which causes ice to form and then melt repeatedly, can push plants out of the soil.

This is especially likely for plants that were installed late last year and did not have time to spread out roots or that were not mulched for the winter.

I prefer to stay out of the garden when soil conditions are wet to minimize soil compaction.

Plant cool-season annuals such as pansies and primulas that can tolerate a light frost in early April to add color to your garden.

These annuals can be used as underplantings to bulbs to complement their flowers and to carry color over until summer annuals are planted in mid- to late May.

Choose plants that are well-developed with lots of flowers and buds. The cool-season annuals do not have much time to develop flowers after planting.

Install bare-root plants as soon as you can after they arrive in the mail or you buy them.

Unpack the plants and make sure the packing material around the roots is moist. Store the plants in a cool place that will not freeze until they can be planted.

It is a good idea to soak the roots of bare-root trees and shrubs in water for a short period of time before planting. Do not let the roots dry out.

Prune only broken branches and roots before planting. There is no need to prune to compensate for transplant shock.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.