New orders delivered in 2-6 days

(888) 847-8637
Generic filters
Search in title
Search in content
Filter by Custom Post Type
Products
Pages
Posts
Filter by Product Categories
All Bulbs
Allium Bulbs
Apparel
Bulbs for Cutting
Bulbs for Naturalizing
Bulbs for the South
Daffodil Bulbs
All Daffodil Bulbs
Daffodil Blends
Daffodil Bulbs for Naturalizing
Daffodil Bulbs for the South
Double Daffodil Bulbs
Fragrant Daffodil Bulbs
Gold Standard Daffodil Bulbs
Jonquils
Landscape-Size Daffodil Bulbs
Miniature Daffodil Bulbs
Uncommon Daffodil Bulbs
Deer Resistant Bulbs
End-of-Season Specials
Featured This Week
Hyacinth Bulbs
Indoor Bulbs
Amaryllis Bulbs
Paperwhite Bulbs
Peruvian Amaryllises
New This Fall
Paperwhites
Planting Tools
Rodent Resistant
Shade Tolerant Bulbs
Shop by Bloom Time
Early
Early-Mid
Late
Mid
Mid-Late
Very Early
Very Late
Shop by Color
Apricot
Blue
Cream
Green
Lavender
Maroon
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Yellow
Specialty Bulbs
Color Your Grass™
Crocus Bulbs
Grape Hyacinth Bulbs
Other Spring-Flowering Bulbs
Tulip Bulbs
All Tulip Bulbs
Cubed Tulip Blends
Cut Flower Tulip Mixes
Darwin Hybrid Tulip Bulbs
Double Tulip Bulbs
Perennial Tulip Bulbs
Squared Tulip Blends
Tulip BedSpreads®
Tulip Blends
Tulip Bulb Singles
Wild Tulip Bulbs

Bulbs and Broadened Horizons: The Accent is on Bulbs

by Tovah Martin

 

You already know what bulbs can do in spring. But what you might be missing is all their feats during the rest of the growing season. This morning, I noticed a dragonfly perched on a spent daffodil flower spike in my meadow. It’s been many weeks since that daffodil was on my radar. But the dragonfly knew it was still standing tall. And that dragonfly/daffodil moment was a flag waver for what bulbs do for the natural web. Sure, the daffodil’s moment of splendor was long gone. For me, those flower spikes are just a remainder from the first perk of spring when all the Narcissus Delibes’ scattered irregularly through the field blossomed before the rest of the meadow woke up. Now, the daffodils are just a memory. But not for the dragonfly. She was perched on that strong vertical spike—perhaps depositing eggs, or maybe just resting after a long night spent reducing the mosquito population. Helping that dragonfly in her pursuits is one of the pleasures of gardening. That’s one of the many functions that bulbs perform in summer. But there’s much more.

 

Allium Moly with Amsonia

 

Bulbs are the obvious heroes of spring. They come galloping to the rescue just when we’re starved for flowers and desperately need nature in our lives. Even at that point, it’s not only about us—flowering bulbs provide ready fodder for pollinators when they first venture out. Without bulbs, we’d all be deprived of the buzz associated with the starting gate of the season. But those perks don’t pause when the flower fervor is over. Bulbs keep right on working their magic after the spring rush and they continue performing their good deeds in design.

 

Bringing Bulbs and Design Together

Bulbs are gregarious and play well with others. Sure, an eye-riveting mono-tulip display is like a walk in the park, but that concept can also translate into your front or back yard on a smaller scale. Be creative…Find clever ways to incorporate bulbs into a field as an accent. Or merge bulbs as a moment in time before the rest of the garden is up and running. Go ahead…Take a throwaway space that will be gobbled up later in the season by shrubs or voluminous perennials and tuck in some tulips to give that little piece of real estate a “value added” moment. Use bulbs to accent when spireas, Japanese maples, and other shrubs are displaying their early season flush of color. Plug into bulbs for their design functions beyond just a dab of color. Before other performers are up and running, bulbs can serve as your first vertical accents sending your eye up above ground level, expanding the dimension of your garden. That’s a critical function in a composition and bulbs do it so well. Future posts will tell you the nuts and bolts of exactly how bulb integration is done as well as clever ways to make it happen helping you open that window of opportunity. So stay tuned.

 

Putting Bulbs to Work

Gone are the days when bulbs were solely seen as a stand alone moment. Now they can be part of a succession, easing the gaps between venues. Bulbs are valid as spring slips into summer. Alliums of all types are great transition bulbs, but bulbs of all types fill in gaps rather than leaving a space void. They claim real estate, preventing weeds from stepping in, helping you fill your garden with a solid mass of splendor. Before hydrangeas leaf out, put bulbs in that blank space.

Daffodil foliage with Carex

 

Bulbs in Action Later in the Season

Allium Moly with Salvia

Think about bulbs as little design solutions. What’s more riveting than a herd of round allium flowers forming exclamation points in your garden? Alliums are available in a series of colors; they can serve as groundcovers running between perennials or around annuals or beneath shrubs. And they range in size from petite butter yellow-blooming Allium Moly and its equally petite pink counterpart Allium Unifolium that follow on the heels of the sensational spring bulbs to taller Allium Ambassador, Globemaster and Mount Everest that serve as exclamation points. Way into July, the tall and sleek drumstick allium—Allium Sphaerocephalon is making its statement. Beyond being just a throwaway moment, they add verve and make that space meaningful. Combine them as accents between mounding perennials such as nepeta, salvia, scabiosa, hardy geraniums, or threaded through ornamental grasses. Or set them up as conspirators beside other spires like foxgloves and gaura to provide the orb shape to give the display attitude. Camassias also add meaning to an unmown field, standing tall between the blades, giving the meadow meaning while its gaining girth. And again, the benefits are not only about us. Pollinators go spastic. Those florets are always buzzing. The more you plant, the more efficient their work will be. If you were a bee, those flowers furnished in the lull between spring and summer bloomers would be a lifesaver.

After the Glory Days

The blossoming allium orbs are a clear design solution. But what about the discrete design duties that bulbs perform after their glory session? Right now, I still have iris and daffodil foliage wading in a garden filled with mounds of low-growing sedges. Again, the flowers faded months ago. That foliage is adding another dimension to the garden that I didn’t predict. It’s adding attitude and taking the scene to another level. The off-season amaryllis making growth before going dormant can serve the same function. It’s amazing what benefits follow every time you make an effort. When you plant, insects applaud. The real thrill of gardening comes when you tweak to make your yard part of a bigger picture. The dragonfly just provided one more reason to plant more daffodils.

 

Recommended Articles

Where Do Tulips Come From?

Most people associate tulips with Holland, but they didn’t originate there.
Read More

Fingerspitzengefühl

Colorblends will ship no flowerbulb before its time.
Read More