Placing Flowering Plants In The Lawn - Stinze

5 years ago

My mother has been planting, dividing and spreading spring bulbs on this mountain for the last thirty years. It earned her the blog name Bulbarella. We do not have anything resembling a proper lawn in our forest setting, but her obsession can be and is applied to actual lawns with the same results. It goes by the Dutch name Stinze.

Many of you may have seen lawn areas where things like crocus, snowdrops, grape hyacinth or other small blooming plants have naturalized and put on a pretty impressive display. You can do this intentionally. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a derelict back yard with thousands of crocus in full bloom.

The Hyacinthoides hispanica in my mother's garden is just one of the many minor bulbs she has planted and that have multiplied, sometimes explosively, over the years. These Spanish Bluebells cover a good acre plus.

We have the added bonus of a great many native and naturalized wildflowers that join in. This is the winter annual Phacelia purshii.

At the 2017 Philadelphia Flower Show, the landscape designer Carrie Preston showcased the Dutch practice of flowering lawns. https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/events/2017/03/09/visit-new-jersey-gardens/98630574/

Stinze is a thing. https://www.vanengelen.com/stinze

In our woodland setting everything is allowed to die back naturally and anything left standing is cut down over the winter before the Stinze begins again in the early spring. Doing this in a more proper lawn does mean no herbicides can be used and the first mowing has to wait until June. Nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned.

Bulbarella Stinze, now she has a last name.

Featured Answer

pds290

4 years ago

When father knew he was in his final months, he ordered a hundred crocus bulbs. The two of us spent a special day together sitting on the lawn, planting the bulbs, knowing he wasn’t likely to see them in the spring. They have been multiplying and spreading now for 22 years. Every year they bring back wonderful memories of my father. My mother passed away this past year, and in the fall I continued the tradition and planted another hundred crocuses in a different part of the lawn.

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Comments (42)

mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
Beautiful! I’ve started this (crocuses) on my front yard but it will take many years to look as good as your mom’s!
dbarron
5 years ago
I love seeing this.
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cecily 7A
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I love this in other people's yards. In my own yard, I need a mowed area to keep ticks and mosquitoes back from the house. Sure, I have garden beds and wide borders with bulbs but my lawn gets mowed.
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
5 years ago
You can mow the lawn. All you have to do is be a bit lazy about getting around to it the first time, and take a certain amount of care in bulb selection.
saccharum
5 years ago
I love the look of this, plus the fact that the early spring bulbs are an excellent food source for hungry pollinators, when there isn't much else around.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
This is done all the time in parks and gardens over here. The grass is mowed when the foliage is just about finished. And the patches of bulbs don't have to be up close to the house. It's a lawn or meadow with bulbs, not a bulb garden. Small bulbs work best, crocus, snowdrops, species and miniature daffodils etc. I wouldn't use Spanish bluebells near the house due lush floppy foliage which would militate against a decent lawn.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
5 years ago
The Spanish bluebells would definitely not be a good choice for doing this in a lawn situation.
violetsnapdragon
5 years ago
I have bugleweed throughout my lawn (I bet the previous owners planted it in one area and it just.....took over). It looks AWESOME in bloom! It's a country sort of setting, though. I know some suburban areas around here where that sort of lawn would not fly, though. I used to work the MG hotline and a woman came in with this tiny weed and wanted it identified so she could irradicate it and my first thought was, "Oh, for heaven's sake--just mow the lawn and stop worrying about a little non-grass in your grass." Yeah--it depends where you live and what your lawn expectations are. I personally love the wild lawn.
mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
My backyard has poor drainage, so I can’t plant spring bulbs, but it’s a great place for clover, which has now taken over...and I just love it!! You wouldn’t believe how wonderful it smells! We leave windows open and can smell it from inside the house!
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Not sure poor drainage needs to stop you. Wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), snowdrops and Fritillaria meleagris all grow in damp locations in my area.
mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
@floral_uk: Enabler! :-)
Christopher CNC
Original Author
5 years ago
A good kind of enabling.

Smaller bulbs are best for regularly mowed areas or lawn applications. In today's lawn.

In our forest setting we can use daffodils. There are thousands and thousands of daffodils in the wild cultivated gardens along with snowdrops, crocus, puschkinia, chionodoxa, scilla, muscari and the bluebells that come in blue, pink and white. Sadly the first wave of bloom got zapped this year. It happens. No worries plenty left to bloom.
mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
@Christopher: the best kind of enabler! I’m definitely going to look into snowdrops for my backyard this Fall.

I’m also planning to meet the local primary school principal to plant clumps of bulbs in their lawn. I think the kids and teachers would get a kick out of it next Spring!
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
Not just next Spring. The kids from a primary school near me planted daffodils in the grass of a park across the road from the school many years ago and they still flower every year. Some of the children who planted them are in their 30s now.

Just for a little more encouragement, here's a front garden I photographed on March 8th a couple of years ago
mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
@floral: that’s beautiful! Thanks for posting!
Christopher CNC
Original Author
5 years ago
Great picture floral_uk!
Christopher CNC
Original Author
5 years ago
Two of the minor bulbs now in bloom on the mountain top.

Puschkinia libanotica

Chionodoxa
mazerolm_3a
5 years ago
@Christopher: these are absolutely beautiful! What a treat!
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
It begins again with snowdrops.
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Yardvaark
4 years ago
Christopher, got any idea if any low growing bulbs would work in Florida (Tampa area)? I'd love if something compatible could be added to perennial peanut ... especially blue or purple flowering. So far, the only non-huge bulb type of plant I've noticed growing here is rain lilies, but they're taller than what I'd mix in the lawn.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Rain Lilies do come in marginally different heights and different colors, white, yellow and pinks. The biggest I have seen is a pale pink and the smallest a deep rose pink. You can of course grow the much bigger bulbs amaryllis, lycoris and Rhodophiala bifida, but those won't work in a 'lawn' situation.

Your best bet for short, grass like and blue that I know of is Ipheion uniflorum, Starflower. Sister #2 saw those growing at and bought some at Kanapaha Botanical Garden in Gainesville. They don't seem to like the NC cold very much and struggle here.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
4 years ago
I don't know about Florida but over here Ipheion is rather scruffily evergreen, like Muscari, and has a tendency to spread unchecked. It's not neatly ephemeral like crocus or snowdrops.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Spreading unchecked can be a good thing for Stinze. If more evergreen in Florida it would come down to a person's feelings toward 'lawn' quality. I would think the grass like foliage would blend/hide well. Yardvaark is talking planting in Perennial Peanut where that would be more of a contrast depending on mowing height.
katob Z6ish, NE Pa
4 years ago
Beautiful photos, and a great story to go with them! I love what bulbs can do in the right spot with a few decades of freedom.

One of the big disappointments in buying an old, run-down house was that when spring rolled around there wasn't a single snowdrop or crocus anywhere in the neglected yard. How can a property go for 100+ years and no one plants a snowdrop or peony!?

Have you considered spring beauty (claytonia virginiana) for a Tampa lawn? I don't see its range going down to Fl but maybe? My Texas lawn was filled with it and (I thought) it looked great with all the flowers brightening up the brown bermuda grass, and then it was gone once the lawn got long enough to need mowing.
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Yardvaark
4 years ago
Christopher, thanks for the tip in the Ipheion. They seem perfect for somewhere in my mom's yard, if not everywhere. :-) Checked my "go to" spot for hard-to-find-plants -- Ebay -- and see that someone in France is selling the seeds. I ordered some so will be trying to grow a crop this spring. Can't wait to see how it goes.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Surprised you can't find a source Yardvaark. According to this it's naturalised in parts of Florida. http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant.aspx?id=1899
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
All right. We have some real potential here for using Ipheion in Florida gardens. It has made it to the panhandle.

Thinking about Ipheion, yardvaark and his mama's garden, the idea of and textural contrast of scruffy grass like evergreen foliage in the peanut didn't bother me with sufficient quantity and distribution. I don't know if yardvaark is ready for a two texture 'lawn' like that. Or would the Florida heat make it go dormant in the summer? Someone has to plant the idea and test it out.

If the Ipheion blooms at the same time as the Flame Vine fence, which I think it might, orange and blue, you can't go wrong with that in Tampa.

It is also very easy to buy from most any bulb catalog.
kitasei
4 years ago
I planted masses of narcissus in pachysandra and vinca thinking the dying foliage would be hidden. Instead it lies glaringly on top of it... Lesson learned and passed on.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
Scruffily dying bulb foliage is something I make every effort to ignore. My best 'hiding' trick, primarily for daffodils in the more proper gardens I tend, is to cut the floppy scruff of foliage off by one third to a half. That makes the rest of it stand back up, often shorter than growing perennials around it and easier to ignore until it disappears.
User
4 years ago
Allegedly--and I say allegedly because it's another one of those things spouted by the more...cough...classical...without experimentation...is that you can't cut them back in reasonable amounts. Which is not to say that you can cut 'em back to the ground immediately post-blooming. Seriously, they say don't cut them back by half, a third, loosely braid, etc.

You can, of course, if you accept that they'll stay up longer and aren't too aggressive about it. I cut mine back by half and simply live with the fact that they'll finish up around June.

One of these years, I want to try the Crocus In The Lawn trick, since I don't use herbicides. I just haven't gotten there yet.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years ago
I just noticed today coming back from a walk with the dog that crocuses are blooming in my lawn. They were not intentionally planted there - I think they had help from the squirrels. And for that reason they are quite random and a little sparse looking but I don't mind them and they are a cheerful sight at this time of year. They just look a bit feeble compared to the robust patch of lawn daisies nearby :-)
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
4 years ago
One way around the foliage problem is to plant mixed borders. By the time my daffs are getting ratty they are overwhelmed by foliage from the surrounding perennials and effectively invisible. For bulbs in grass the RHS did trials and came up with a figure of six weeks before mowing. This could well be before the leaves are entirely dead. You could also grow meadow plants in the same patch and mow the whole area later in the summer after seeds have dropped.
User
4 years ago
+1 Floral_UK. In my case, the rattiness gets covered by the annuals that get planted in May. Quite literally, a garden materializes after the last frost date. :-)
Sue Hughes Zone 6b in Pittsburgh
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I never had a lawn at my last house, but do now.

I'm researching the best crocus to plant with the most success in the grass.

I found this really good link https://oldhousegardens.com/LawnCrocus

at Old House Gardens, and they say gardeners claim to have the best luck with Crocus tommasinianus

Does anyone know which of the Crocus Tommasinianus are the most purple (like leaning to blue purples not the reddish purples) or nice lavender that's not in the pink range?

I see Crocus tommasinianus names like "Whitewell Purple"," Barr's Purple", "Ruby Giant" (ironically described as being neither "giant" nor "ruby".

Photos on google show such a variance in color for the same crocus names that I'm confused...I don't trust the color enhanced photos used to sell plants.

Oh and I love the photos shared on this post, super inspiring!

I learned tons of new stuff, and loved the story about Bulberella and her new last name!
Christopher CNC
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
The better bulb catalogs in print and online are pretty true to color for the bulbs they sell and they sell by color big time. Look at Scheepers?, van Bourgundian? - don't trust my spelling. The very first photo in the post is the crocus called Tommies by many.

Bulbarella Stinze. It was perfect.
Sue Hughes Zone 6b in Pittsburgh
4 years ago
Christopher C Nc, son of the famous Bulberella Stinze- thanks for that lead! I am sure I can figure out the spelling.
Sue Hughes Zone 6b in Pittsburgh
3 years ago
Ok now it's March 10, 2021 and I finally saw in real life (not photos) a lawn covered in 15 year old established TOMMASINIANUS that look like your beautiful photos. Only problem is the ones I planted in my lawn last autumn are so far behind and some seem to not be coming up at all, compared to the lawn I saw yesterday...sigh...any idea why? and I do have squirrels digging around planting acorns but heard they don't like tommies and their digging is shallow/superficial so not sure they dug them up.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
3 years ago
I can't vouch for what your varmints will do with Tommies. The specific site conditions - sun, soil temps, lawn competition .... are going to effect when your bulbs rise. The secret to getting them like the ones you have now seen in person is plant more every fall.

Here are some crocus from today. A few clumps were relocated by unknown forces. They are happy and multiplying. Multiplying is the next best thing to planting more every fall.
Christopher CNC
Original Author
3 years ago
Here is a picture of the Tommies this spring in the derelict back yard of a nice older home next door to the Catholic church. Older parts of town are good places to look for bulbs that got out of hand.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
3 years ago
My folks weren’t gardeners, but they loved visiting other peoples’ gardens. We regularly in spring made a detour to drive by a yard that had a wash of Crocus vernus in various shades of purple and white. This thread has brought back memories.
Sue Hughes Zone 6b in Pittsburgh
3 years ago
Christopher C Nc Thanks for sharing the photos (very inspiring to see) and info on "The specific site conditions - sun, soil temps, lawn competition" having effect. I thought that would have something to do with it and sure enough today more have popped up...I will take your advice and plant even more this autumn!