Mixing bulbs in your landscape with blooming annuals and perennials provides you the best of all flowering worlds. Not only do such plantings bring color and interest to the garden, they keep the landscape in bloom three seasons of the year: They begin with a bloom of spring bulbs, segue to colorful seeded annuals or bedding plants, make way for the simultaneous blooms of summer bulbs and flowering perennials, then wrap it up with a final show of autumn-blooming bulbs as nights turn frosty.
Showy florist’s amaryllis and annual impatiens bedding plants are good companions in a sunny or filtered-sun spot.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Bearded irises mix with oriental poppy and evergreen shrub plantings. The effect they achieve is well-suited to this free-flowing, natural landscape.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Provide growing conditions that will keep both your bulb and flower plantings healthy. Bulbs need periods of drought to force them into dormancy and avoid fungal disease, while annuals and perennials require consistent irrigation. Divide your beds with clearly defined watering zones so you can apply or withhold water as needed. Drip irrigation systems that deliver pinpoint watering are an ideal solution; set one circuit of your automatic irrigation controller to water the bulbs according to their needs, a second for the annuals and a third for perennial flowers, shrubs and trees.
Deep-rooted, drought-tolerant annuals and perennials are the best companions to most bulbs. Globe amaranth, baby’s-breath, Dahlberg daisy, common geranium, lavender and morning glory are the great choices to mix with hardy begonia, dahlia, society garlic, lily and ornamental onion. For full-sun locations in early spring, mix Iceland poppy with daffodil and tulip for contrast in color and foliage. In shade, surround bluestars, Canterbury-bells and forget-me-nots with plantings of anemone, bluebells and bleeding hearts.
Clearly mark bulbs that require lifting. (Ice cream sticks make good shallow markers.) Whatever you use, place the markers as the bulb foliage begins to yellow to signify the locations for digging after the leaves have withered.
Rock gardens are a natural fit for many combo flower plantings. Stones define a bed and draw your eye, framing the plants. Place your landscape stones and install any permanent bed residents first, beginning with trees and woody shrubs. Then plant naturalizing bulbs and perennial flowers, finishing with annual bedding plants or seeds. Gather stakes, string, a shovel, bulb-planting tool, fertilizer, bulbs, plants and seeds, then take the easy steps shown in the following pictures and described in their captions.
Mixed Rock Garden - Step 1
Use stakes, string or plastic tape to mark the places where trees and shrubs will be planted in the planting bed, then define the bulb and flower planting areas with rocks.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Mixed Rock Garden - Step 2
Install your trees and shrubs in planting holes as deep as and twice the width of their original nursery containers or root balls. Mark each planting hole for later reference.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Mixed Rock Garden - Step 3
Use a shovel to excavate bulb-planting areas, fertilize, plant, then cover. Mark the spaces you’ll plant with inset summer bulbs and perennial flowers.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Mixed Rock Garden - Step 4
Place your perennials into their reserved sites. Avoid disturbing newly planted trees, shrubs and bulbs.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Mixed Rock Garden - Step 5
Rake the soil around the plantings. In spring, plant summer and autumn bulbs, and seed annual flowers (or plant them as bedding plants). Apply mulch to retain moisture and block sunlight from weeds.
Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
