Flower bulbs push the gardening year right up to the edge of winter and there’s nothing more uplifting than the first garden blooms! For me, one of the greatest joys of gardening is seeing those first spring bulbs breaking through the earth as if by magic.
The lovely daffodil named Thalia
If you enjoy an early spring bulb garden, you’ve probably thought how wonderful it would be to keep those beautiful blooms going from early spring to summer. Fortunately, with the extensive variety of flower bulbs available today, you can easily achieve a long spring season by planting early, middle, and late-blooming bulbs.
Anemones tucked at the feet of perennial Lady’s Mantle
While spring bulbs are in their glory, take a few minutes to evaluate your own garden and perhaps visit others for some flowery inspiration, then plan on ordering your bulbs early before they sell out. As you browse catalogs or websites, try to visualize what you’d like to see in your garden and choose a color palette that appeals to you. Next, pick your favorite early spring bloomers and extend their season’s beauty by using the early, middle, and late-flowering variety plan.
Later-blooming Daffodils with Anemone and Heuchera
For example, Daffodil bulbs can bloom as early as late February here in Northeast Massachusetts and bright yellow Rijnveld’s Early Sensation is one of the earliest. Snowdrops and crocus are also very early bloomers and would make good companions. Ice Follies, a classic early to mid-season bloomer, looks stunning with the smaller bulbs of Early Snow Glories (Chionodoxa forbesii), Hyacinth, and Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica). Thalia, a pristine white beauty, blooms next along with Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) and old-fashioned Bleeding Heart while late-season Pheasant’s Eye looks lovely with the stately globe alliums as well as early spring perennials.
Thalia with old-fashioned Bleeding Heart and Vinca
You can try this method with many spring bulbs including Tulips, Alliums, Hyacinths, Daffodils, and of course the earliest bloomers such as Snowdrops and Crocus. Something to keep in mind is that smaller flower bulbs make great supporting stars for their larger spring cousins!
Alliums make a bold exclamation point in the late spring garden
Seek inspiration and plan your bulb garden now, purchase and reserve bulbs early to get the best varieties, and plant this fall for a colorful and long-blooming display next spring!
I can’t imagine a garden without the early spring blooms of bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops, hyacinth, daffodils, tulips and more! In late spring, the alliums and ornithogalum shine next to my early perennials. All during the spring months, as I watch each different bulb type emerge and bloom in succession, I visualize ways in which to add more beautiful bulbs to my gardens.
Alliums Stratos and Christophii with Ornithogalum in my June garden (photo by Nancy Marie Allen)
LET IT BE
It’s late June and all that remains of my beautiful spring bulb display is yellowing, tattered foliage. As difficult as it is to leave this withered mess untouched, bulbs need the energy stored in their foliage to produce blooms for next spring. Never cut, tie or braid bulb foliage but allow the plants to complete their growth cycle as undisturbed as possible. Be patient for in a few short weeks the unsightly dying foliage will have completely disappeared. Many bulbs self-sow so you’ll also want to leave those seed pods to work their magic in your garden next year. If your bulbs are interplanted with perennials, these large plants generally do a great job at hiding the mess leftover from your spring bulb party as they quickly reach their mature summertime size. Any remaining vacant spots can be filled in with some cheerful annuals.
Daffodils and Grecian Windflowers in May (photo by Nancy Marie Allen)
PLAN AHEAD
While you can still see where your bulbs grow, it’s a good time to think about what you want your garden to look like next spring. Would you like to plant more of a certain bulb variety or try something new? Do you have a color scheme in mind? Take a walk around the garden with a notebook and write down where you’d like to add more bulbs and what types. It’s also great to take pictures so you’ll have a visual aid when fall planting season comes along. If you could use more height and drama in your spring display, try some tall alliums. If you’d like to cover a lot of ground, early bulbs like snow glories (chionodoxa) or scilla will quickly spread themselves around for an abundance of early blooms. And don’t forget summer bulbs, like Oriental lilies, which make a stunning late-season addition to any garden!
Chionodoxa brighten the garden in April (photo courtesy of Preen.com)
MARK THE SPOT
Here’s an easy tip for helping with new bulb placement near existing plantings when you want to add more of a good thing. This year, for instance, I’ll be adding more allium christophii in a garden where some have already been planted. When the foliage is almost gone on my current plants, I’ll “mark” the spot with a rock. In the fall when my new bulbs arrive, it will be easy for me to find where the alliums are already planted and, by doing this, I can avoid disturbing the older bulbs while adding the new bulbs around them. By the way, the giant seed heads of allium christophii can remain in the garden for weeks after blooming, thus extending their season even longer.
Allium Christophii (photo courtesy of Ashridge Trees)
PLANT OUT OF SEASON
Although fall is prime time for bulb planting, there are circumstances when we may have to plant bulbs out of season. When we’re left with large clumps of daffodils or hyacinth which have stopped blooming because they’ve become overcrowded, it’s time to dig them up and separate the bulbs into smaller plantings. Also, after several seasons, some bulbs may spread too far beneath surrounding perennials where they can’t get enough sunlight; these stragglers should be moved for optimum blooms next spring.
Whatever the reason, there will come a time when you need to dig up and move bulbs. However, if you wait until fall to perform this task, it will be hard to find your bulbs which by then will be well hidden beneath the earth and covered by other plants. In this case, to avoid digging blind come October, wait until the foliage has almost completely died back in early summer and then carefully dig around the clump of bulbs. Lift them up, separate them into smaller groups and relocate the bulbs to other areas where they can spread out to bloom again. Put a little bulb food in the new hole and water after planting to help them settle in. The remaining foliage will disappear almost overnight so mark the spot or take a photo if you need to remember where you’ve already planted.
Allium Nigrum with Foxglove (photo courtesy of Swan Cottage Flowers)
SHOP EARLY
It’s hard to think of fall planting when summer has only just begun, but in the gardening world we have to plan ahead and that means shopping early for our spring bulbs. There are so many wonderful bulb websites and catalogs to browse through, it’s easy to create the perfect spring bulb garden for next year. Order now for fall planting so you’ll be sure to get the varieties you want before they’re sold out. It’s always a pleasant surprise to get a box of bulbs in the mail come fall!
Snowdrops provide early food for honey bees (photo courtesy of Garden with Diana)
For more on planning a spring bulb garden, click on this informative link:
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With the advent of spring, I’ve been treated to many beautiful flower photos on social media while, in my own garden, the earliest bulbs are just beginning to waken from their winter’s rest. Over the next couple of weeks, the garden will come alive with tiny blooms while their sweet fragrance will once again fill the air.
The first emerging spring flowers such as Snowdrops, Chionodoxa, Puschkinia, and Crocus may be small in appearance but they can be big on fragrance. Since you would have to be at ground level to catch their delicate scents, many people miss them altogether. To capture this fleeting essence of early spring, I like to cut some of these little gems and place them in vases inside where their soft colors and subtle fragrances can be enjoyed close-up.
As I take it all in, I know it’s just the beginning of many weeks of delightful garden scents as Daffodils, Hyacinth, Tulips, Lily of the Valley and Alliums make their debut! Soon, the fragrances of blooming shrubs and perennials will envelop us. One only has to take a walk on a warm spring day to fall under this intoxicating aromatic spell; all around, fragrance permeates the air!
There are many scents that I enjoy this time of year, but if I could pick just one flower that speaks to me most powerfully, it would be the Lilac. Here in New England, it’s hard to find a yard that doesn’t include at least one lilac shrub. Many people have several different colors and some properties even boast lilac hedges. It’s a perennial favorite and for good reason – there is simply nothing else like the fragrance of lilacs!
White Lilac (Photo courtesy Veri Ivanova – Unsplash)
More than any other flower, lilacs hold the magical power to transport me to another time and place. The scent carries sweet associations of my childhood as I envision the white and purple blooms by the back porch, my mother filling a vase for the house or my little self carrying a small bouquet to school. It’s the fragrance of many cherished memories!
The romantic scent of Roses also has a powerful effect on me, carrying me back to a gentler time when ladies wore long flowing dresses and carried parasols to protect their fair skin from the sun. My mind conjures up images of Downton Abbey, the grand entrance filled with huge oriental vases, all overflowing with fragrant English roses. Thanks in part to the efforts of breeder David Austin, the romance of rose growing has resurged in recent years and it’s easy to find roses of many colors everywhere you buy plants. Once you’ve added fragrant roses to your garden, you will never again want to be without them!
The next time you pass a beautiful bloom, go ahead and give it a deep sniff. Take the time to stop and smell the flowers! It may surprise you to find out that many plants we don’t typically think of as fragrant carry their own sweet scents such as Pansies, Violas, Iris, Astilbes, Daylilies, and even some Hostas. This year, try incorporating some fragrant flowers into your gardens or outdoor pots and experience what the power of fragrance can do for you!
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NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO THINK AHEAD AND PLANT SPRING BULBS!
My love affair with flower bulbs began in 1974 after settling into my first home on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. The house was small and looked like it hadn’t been updated since the Great Depression. The yard was the size of a postage stamp. My husband and I didn’t care about that; we were young and hip and brimming over with enthusiasm. Getting in touch with the earth that our little yard provided seemed a natural course of action; so when spring rolled around we found the sunniest spot, turned over the grass, added manure and planted vegetables. By late summer we were knee deep in tomatoes, zucchini and green beans. Our tiny kitchen became a hothouse of frenzied canning and blanching. We could not believe the bounty that this little patch of earth provided and from then on we were hooked. After adding some roses and perennials, we looked forward to the abundant blooms in our future.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Still burning with gardening fever that fall, I was easily seduced by a package offer of the earliest spring bulbs from a mail-order catalog. These were bulbs that went beyond the familiar daffodils and tulips I had grown up with. The idea of having blooms earlier than daffodils, well before the perennials came to life or annuals could even be planted, thus extending my gardening season by two or more months, was a prospect I couldn’t turn away from. Captivated by the bulbs’ exotic names of “Puschkinia” and “Chionodoxa,” I promptly mailed in my order. I had no idea of the big impact those little bulbs would have on me. When the tiny floral gems burst through the soil early the following spring, I thought, “Where have you been all my life?” and fell head over heels in love with bulbs. It was just the beginning.
Early Snowdrops (Galanthus) Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
MOVING FORWARD
Fast forward 20 years later to my 2nd home further inland with two forested acres and an expansive sunny backyard. So much land, so many gardening opportunities! A large vegetable garden was a given and there was plenty of room for perennial beds. Of course, no flower bed would be complete without my beloved bulbs. I couldn’t wait to get started!
Chionodoxa “Pink Giant” – Photo by Fantasticpixcool.com
An existing foundation garden around the front of the house just begged for the close-up blooms of early bulbs. I planted all the usual suspects and found that crocus and tulips were just a tasty treat for all the critters that also lived in my yard, so I began to look further into the bulb world. Slowly, through trial and error, I settled on the most dependable bulbs for my Zone 6 semi-shaded garden. These included, of course, my first loves of Puschkinia, Chionodoxa and the earliest of all, Galanthus or Snowdrops. Thalia Narcissus thrives in my rich humusy soil along with Hyacinth and the anemone, Grecian Windflower. These are followed by Spanish Bluebells looking like fairy princesses in their violet, bell-shaped blooms. Later bulbs such as the stately Alliums and Ornithogalum bloom well into June and fragrant, exotic Lilies carry on right through the heat of summer.
All of these bulbs thrive in my garden, slowly spreading over time and putting on a spectacular show starting some years as early as February. They take up little space, complement existing garden plants and require minimal care.
Puschkinia – Photo courtesy of Plants Galore
SOME TIPS FOR PLANTING BULBS
When planning your flower bed, plant perennials first, then tuck your bulbs in around them. Always follow planting depth and spacing recommendations. After blooming, when the bulb foliage starts to ripen and turn brown, the perennials will take over and hide the dying foliage. Never remove the spent bulb foliage; the bulbs need it to store energy for next season!
Get a good organic bulb food and follow directions on the package. Don’t over fertilize!
Study your garden’s sunlight and soil conditions and plant accordingly. Take the time to read about your favorite bulb’s preferences. Does it like shade, sun, moist or dry soil?
BE FEARLESS
There’s a world of bulbs that bloom from spring to autumn. Chat with gardeners in your neighborhood; search the internet, catalogs and gardening publications. Take a chance and experiment with something new and unusual. You may find that you fall in love with bulbs, too!
Muscari – Grape Hyacinth – Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
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