Fall bulbs: Don't put away gardening tools just yet
Planting large numbers of daffodils or tulips in sweeping swathes create magnificent spring displays. However, incorporating bulbs into the landscape as companions to existing plantings adds continual blooms from early spring to fall.
Very early spring-blooming bulbs open the curtain on spring and give winter the proverbial hook. In spring, bulbs are colorful companions to woodland wildflowers and complement spring-blooming shrubs. Planted among summer-flowering perennials, bulbs offer additional interest with their unique and colorful blooms. And in fall, bulbs offer blooms when many perennials are waning.
Planting bulbs is often dismissed by gardeners ready to hang up their shovels for the season just at the time most bulbs must be planted. Bulbs don't take long to plant and pay back the effort in dividends.
Snowdrops, scilla, crocuses and winter aconite are some of the most popular choices of the earliest-to-bloom bulbs. They awaken the garden with a rainbow of color and colonize in blooming carpets. Plant them in a bed of ground cover or around perennials that will later occupy the space. These bulbs are small and easy to plant in holes just a few inches deep.
Chionodoxa is another small, quick-to-plant bulb ideal for woodland gardens, blooming just as the first perennials are exploding into color. The earliest blooming tulips, like single early, double early and emperor varieties, and daffodils, like Ice Follies, February Gold, Ice Follies, Rijnveld's Early Sensation and Tete a Tete, are jaunty companions to wildflowers.
Later-flowering daffodils and tulips increase the property value of areas planted with day lilies or ornamental grasses. They contribute color when these areas are devoid of blooms and then their unappealing yellowing foliage is obscured by their neighbor's lush leaves.
Cover the ground under lilacs and crabapples with late-blooming tulips, like lily-flowered, parrot, single late and double late types, and daffodils, including Sir Winston Churchill and Yellow Cheerfulness.
Add vertical accents to perennial borders in early summer with the globe-shaped blooms of alliums or the trumpet-like flowers of lilies. Plant Allium Globemaster to rise 3 feet above a grouping of catmint or salvia. Lilies shine like candles in the summer border and are available in soft, pastel shades or bold, brilliant hues.
In fall, Colchicum Waterlily is stunning planted beside perennials with purple foliage. Autumn crocus differ from the rest in that gardeners don't have to endure winter before they see them bloom. They flower in just a few short weeks.
The general rule of thumb when planting bulbs is to plant them two to three times as deep as they are tall. Large bulbs like tulips or daffodils are generally planted 6 to 8 inches deep and small, minor bulbs just a few inches deep. Most bulbs like to be dry during their dormant period so avoid planting them in low spots in the landscape or borders with perennials that require consistent moisture. When planting bulbs, fertilize with a fertilizer formulated for bulbs.
Even though it is unattractive, never remove the declining foliage of bulbs until it is completely yellow. Until then, the foliage is feeding the bulb for next year's flowers.
• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist, garden writer and speaker. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.