When we think of bulbs, the image most often in our mind’s eye is of spring varieties. These blooming beauties include some of the most popular garden flowers: anemone, crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, iris and tulip. Many other rare or lesser-known bulbs – including winter aconite, Spanish bluebell, cyclamen, fritillary, glory-of-the-snow, grape hyacinth, Alpine squill, snowdrop, leucojum and windflower – are also spring bloomers. All of these favorites (and more), are destined to return at the same time each year when we most fervently desire their blooms.
The glory of spring bulbs stems from their vibrant colors, which shoot through an awakening landscape still traced with snow or barren from winter. They refresh our spirit and remind us of the flowers that soon will be seen on landscape trees and in newly planted garden beds.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/Donna Krischan
Daffodils (or
Narcissus) are among the most popular of spring bulbs. A massed planting of daffodils in a meadow truly is a tribute to the glory of spring.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
When forced to bloom early, potted
hyacinths can bring springtime fragrance and color inside your home as you wait for a dreary winter to pass.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Tulips and
forget-me-nots make good companion plantings and are attractive when mixed together in a garden bed. The low-growing forget-me-nots provide cover for the taller tulips’ basal leaves and the bed’s soil, adding the contrast of their deep blue and profuse blooms
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Simple container plantings of
windflower can dress up a patio table or cheer up the living room.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
These amazing plants paint color on gardens still filled with dwindling snow and winter-bare branches. You’ll remember their beauty long after their petals drop and your beds are filled with annual and perennial blooms. They’re great for growing along paths, fences and borders. You can feature them in a formally designed island bed or let them reign in woodland or turf in drifts of yellow-headed daffodil or crimson hyacinth. Moist, shady areas provide the right environment for water-loving Louisiana iris, jack-in-the-pulpit and lily-of-the-valley. Spring bulbs also are good choices to provide points of color in containers.
Despite their name, spring bulbs are planted in autumn. They lie apparently at rest until stirred by spring’s thaws and warmth. All at once, in what seems like a matter of days, they poke through the soil or snow with emerging flower spikes that soon open to bright, colorful blooms. For a time, while trees remain bare, these bulbs become the focal points of our gardens and landscapes, sporting little more than swelling buds that will someday open to flowers and new green leaves.
Then, too quickly it seems, the bulbs’ time passes, their flowers fade, and a few months later, little remains to remind us of their presence other than withered brown foliage. We’ll gently lift and divide them, then put them in storage until autumn’s cooling temperatures remind us that spring bulb planting time has come again.
In climates where conditions mimic those native to the bulb species, the bulbs can remain in the garden from season to season. If you live in such a climate, choose species tulips and daffodils that are suited for naturalizing – planting in beds or beneath turfgrass. They’ll bloom for years, needing only occasional division as they become crowded and plants compete for nutrients. Gardeners living in climates with conditions different from those natural for the bulb species should lift, cure and store the bulbs to prevent decay, then plant them anew in the autumn as temperatures cool. Some showy spring bulbs produce scant, diminutive blooms in their second and subsequent seasons; they should be dug and discarded after they bloom.
Tulip is the queen of spring bulbs. Prized and bred for centuries, tulips have an astounding range of forms, flowers, color options and appearances. Among those from which you can choose are early-, midseason- and late-blooming varieties with single, double, fringed or multiple flowers. There also are Darwin, Fosteriana, Gregii, lily-flowered, parrot, Rembrandt, triumph, viridiflora, and water-lily hybrids, cultivars and species tulips – each with its own appealing features.
Flag iris, crocus, daffodil, anemone and hyacinth round out the finalists for the most popular spring bulbs. Like tulips, they’re also offered in literally thousands of cultivars and hybrids, along with many hundreds of species – or wild – varieties. (Visit the Learn2Grow Plant Database for more information on specific bulbs, corms and tubers.)
If you’ve never grown spring bulbs in your garden before, give planting them a try in fall. They’re sure to be a highlight of your landscape come spring. They bloom reliably before most other plants and seeds germinate or begin to send up sprouts from their roots. Fresh shipments of new hybrids arrive in garden centers in early autumn, giving you the best choice at that time for beautifying your spring landscape. (Unusual, rare and specialty spring bulbs also are available directly from growers.) If early color is your goal, plan on using spring bulbs to meet your objective and brighten your yard!
