AARGH! I tried posting earlier today but it never showed up! Trying again.....

I haven't planted bulb in years now - although I did buy some bulbs last year for a friend's daughter to plant in the garden at her first house. Here, the bulbs are a part of spring gardens but most of the bulbs are ones that 'naturalize' (i.e. will survive on their own for years and will spread (either by seeding or the bulbs dividing themselves and making bigger clumps). Some of the bulbs here go back 20+ years... I should plant more but planting is a PITA! When I planted the big bulbs years ago I did use that auger/drill tool - very handy! I plant them with perennials and shrubs that help hide the dying bulb foliage. 'Botanical' tulips are very interesting and should be more widely grown in gardens. My favorite narcissus is 'Pheasant's Eye' as it looks and smells like the ones that grew in my maternal great-grandmother's garden. I'm not sue if it is the same variety or not, but close enough....

So bulbs are important to the spring garden but they are just one element in the larger picture, so are not an overwhelming planting....

I need to get a better picture of this - but it shows Grape Hyacinths with white narcissuses under the Chinese wisteria in early May. There are also Queen of the Night tulips which bloom a few weeks later and a couple of Angelique tulips which are not as good at 'naturalizing' but still show up in places...

I have to agree with katob, I love your bulb display, Woody! Very simple and so effective!

Katob, it sounds like you have a lot of bulbs in your garden, would love to see some photos.

For me, bulbs are just a part of the procession of plants in a part of the garden. I do not have a 'bulb bed' of any sort - the bulbs are just another plant in the garden. A couple of weeks after the scene in the picture I posted above, attention shifts to other things in that garden area:

pm2 - you said somewhere that you are not a fan of orange - me neither, but I do have some Orange Emperor tulips under the ninebark shrub in the south border along the driveway. There are pink roses with small single flowers on one side that leaf out and bloom later with Peachy Cream roses on the other side and orange Paprika roses at the west end of the bed - they also develop orange hips in late fall. The ninebark has rather wimpy white-pink flowers in early summer but now has deep red Midnight Marvel hibiscuses blooming with it. I planned the bed to shade from cooler colors at the east end, peachy colors (there are daylilies in there too) as transition colors in the middle, and then hotter orange and red colors on the west end. It mostly works well. This year the ninebark did not leaf out well - maybe too hot in this south-facing bed in the heat and humidity this year....

May:

September:

Experiment, experiment :-)

Woody, It sounds like we approach adding bulbs in the same way, added in with the shrubs and perennials without a bed dedicated to bulbs. Nice transition to the flowering Wisteria.

I like the way you’ve used orange in your beds. I’ve seen that Paprika rose and I like that too. I also have a Ninebark with pale pink flowers. I should do more with the bed it’s in.

Your orange tulips look nice where you placed them. Funny, I have an orange tulip too [g]. I planted three different varieties back in the 1980s, and believe it or not, only one keeps coming back, year after year…. ‘Apricot Beauty’. I moved it 2 years ago, then realized I put it too close to a pink Hyacinth. I’m going to pair it with a dark purple hyacinth, instead.

Exactly, Experiment, experiment! That’s the fun of it.

I think I can call my vegetable beds bulb beds! Tulips go in late fall after things are dying down. In the spring they fill the beds with bloom. By the time the warm weather crops need planting they're ready to lift and store, so maybe I can consider them bulb beds with an off season cover crop of beans and squash ;)

Everything else is crammed in under other perennials, so it's a little harder to give them attention when they need it. Right now I'm trying to focus on colchicums, so as they come into bloom they're dug, divided, and replanted in some new spots I've made up, but I suspect I don't have enough new spots, so more things might have to get pulled. Here's the colchicum 'Disraeli' which was divided a few days before this picture.

Sedum and thyme will supposedly fill in around the colchicums, but I always end up with random things like a big wooly thistle seedling in the spot where colchicum 'Pink Star' is supposed to shine.

Other bulbish things flowering today are the last of the Formosa lilies

and some Lycoris x caldwellii trying to fight off the hyacinth beans

I think people mean the spring bulbs when they talk about bulb planting, but more and more I want things coming up in the fall and winter... and spring as well, so I'm planting all year!

katob - I like those bulb pictures! It sounds like you are willing to do more work than me :-) I do not dig up any bulbs to divide or store and then replant in the fall. That's why I only plant bulbs that 'naturalize' :-) I find it very useful to plant in certain combinations with perennials. For instance, hostas and small bulbs go well together - the small bulbs flower before the hosta leaf spears appear and by the time the hosta leaves spread open the bulbs have finished flowering and the hosta leaves hide the foliage dying back. I think all hostas need early-blooming small bulbs planted with them. I don't grow colchicums but do have a few autumn crocuses which, similar to colchicums, bloom 'naked' in the fall and their somewhat grassy leaves emerge in spring and can look messy dying back. That makes them a perfect companion to hardy hibiscuses as the crocuses bloom around the time the hibiscuses get cut down in fall and then the crocuses produce their foliage in the spring before the late-emerging hibiscuses appear but when the crocus foliage dies back, the hibiscus foliage is emerging, which hides the messy crocus foliage - a perfect combination!

Some pictures (from various years....)

Some bulbs and hostas in the patio beds in the backyard:

mid-May:

late-May:

(the white corydalis is a common and long-blooming groundcover here....)

early July:

(the white stuff on the hosta leaves etc. are fallen flower petals from the fringetree in the patio bed - it it very late to leaf out but then provides shade for the hostas there.)

Autumn crocuses with hardy hibiscus:

As you can see, I think bulbs make great elements suitable for use in lots of places in the overall garden :-)

Yep, I am also planting more summer bulbs than spring bulbs because geophytes seem to have a definite advantage in unirrigated gardens.

I love when theres so much going on in a planting. Layers of color and interest throughout the year and things to look forward to as they come up and take the stage. It’s ungrateful but I get bored with ”Flowers all year”.

woody I’m still willing to do the work… for now… but one day the mood changes and everything gets given away to friends, winter, or the compost pile and it’s on to the next plant distraction. At least I don’t feel any need to go to a gym with all this hard labor!

Crocus don’t do well here because of the rabbits. They rarely touch anything else but each spring they relentlessly mow down every crocus flower and then later the foliage as well. For a while since crocus are cheap, I thought I could out-plant them, but so far That hasnt worked.

Okay, so this thread - and an enticing email from a bulb supplier - got me to buy some bulbs. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, but I did buy some King Alfred type daffs and some giant crocus, and got a dozen pink darwin tulips for free. Daffs and crocus are one thing I will always add if I am up to planting bulbs (and snowdrops too) and while the email was what prompted this particular purchase, this thread has had me thinking more and more about those bulb catalogs sitting unopened on the dining room table. But let me add they are mostly unopened due to time constraints, not (only) lack of desire. This weekend is supposed to be rainy so perhaps a nice cup of tea will go very well with some bulb browsing!

:)

Dee

oooooh just saw this on Fine Gardening's instagram—a variegated white camass, 'Sacajawea'

https://www.finegardening.com/article/a-native-bulb-with-a-stunning-spring-show

Definitely going to order.

I see that @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) and @rosaprimula mention fritillaria. I have probably tried twice to grow this plant from a Fall planted bulb but w/o success. What is its optimal location? (If I see mention of "sharp drainage" I will scream ;))

" If I see mention of "sharp drainage" I will scream ;) "

LOL!! They are bulbs - would you expect some other advice ?? 🙄

I have only grown a couple of the smaller species, F. meleagris and michailovskyi, and neither are very fussy about siting - light shade, decently rich soil. This is what a popular bulb supplier writes as preferred growing conditions: Fritillaria fancy a home with well-drained soil but will tolerate various light conditions, from full sun to partial shade to dappled shade, depending on the specific variety. If you notice puddles of water 5–6 hours after a hard rain, scout out another site or amend the soil with organic material to raise the level 2–3 inches. These plants are great for containers or outdoor plantings but will not thrive in soggy soil or standing water.

They are bulbs - would you expect some other advice ??

Right. And I have had no issues growing many different types of bulbs, 'all' needing good drainage and yet I have not had success with fritillaria.

Ah, actually, the little snakeshead frit (f.meleagris) do rather well in surprisingly boggy soil, such as round moats, drainage ditches, river banks...where you might see the taller asiatic primulas such as p.wilsonii, p.bulleyana, p.beesiana, p.florindae...which is why I have never really managed to grow these in my unrelentingly dry soil...yet I can grow crown imperials very well. All fritillaria are not the same - they have diverse needs and habitats. I would say that there will definitely be some you can grow...although you will need to be aware of the red lily beetle.

I have been down the fritillaria rabbit-hole and have grown quite a number from seed but no longer grow any apart from some naturalised imperialis in my wood and a small pot of f.pudica in the greenhouse. (one you might try, Rouge)

http://www.fritillaria.org.uk/fritillaria-know-them--grow-them.html#:~:text=These%20rather%20taller%20and%20easy%20species%20%28FF.%20acmopetala%2C,in%20the%20greenhouse%20or%20outside%20in%20a%20frame.

I would say that there will definitely be some you can grow...

I thought I could! I thought I could! I say this as I have a friend who I 'discovered', by accident has a quite large grouping of Imperialis in his backyard. Ignorance is bliss as he cares nothing about gardening.

(Are fritillaria self naturalizing?)

Theoretically...but, I planted 25 bulbs in my wood, back in 2012. Every April, I see a patch of roughly 25 plants, so I would say, probably not...but if you were more conscientious than me and didn't just leave them in rough grass, then maybe yes. When happy, the smaller frits such as michailovskyi, uva vulpis and meleagris will definitely naturalise.

RP's correct about different frits requiring different growing conditions. I've tried Crown Imperialis several times to no avail, even tilting the bulb at planting to avoid winter soil moisture from collecting in the dished center. I've never managed to get one to reappear in spring. OTOH, my checkered or snakeshead frits have formed a slowly expanding colony over the years. The conditions one species thrives in are apparently inhospitable to another.

Well, I have only planted bulbs once maybe ten years ago, but this year will be the second time. Fall was always so packed with kids (esp being a homeschooler until recently) I could only dream of doing any decent fall gardening chores. All those gardening posts reminding us to NOT do fall clean-up--boy, would they be happy with me. My garden was completely neglected from Sept 1-May 31. And in May it got the barest of attentions as I tried to get varnish on boats for summer.

On top of that, I struggled to justify the cost of some, like tulips, knowing they would die off within three-ish years. But, the crocus I planted, which have not been eaten, were thrown around when that area was tilled, and many of those little buggers survived and expanded, breaking through the Oak Leaf Tarp each spring.

Prairiemoon has been the biggest influence to restart bulb planting. This year I've got scilla and daffodills on the way, and I just ordered some alliums. I even splurged on Costco for some amaryllis. Now to figure out where to plant everything.

And, katob, I must throw credit to you for your amazing blog posts and snowdrop love. Good grief, you make spring bulb season look so easy, and perhaps after these orders come in and I try to plant I will be rightly peaved with you for making it look so promising. ;-)

Deanna, just keep picturing your spring garden of bulbs as you are planting the bulbs! ;-)

Does anyone else have problems with frits and scarlet lily beetle? I used to have a great colony of F. meleagris under the apple tree, but after killing my lilies, the beetles now have time to go after my frits, including my new crown imperials. Not many meleagris left now, and we will see about the crown imperials, I guess.

Uh oh. Deanna please don't blame me! -or just plant more, and something is bound to amaze you :) that's my usual go to

Since this weekend is turning into a complete washout so I spent this afternoon making up labels for the newest goodies. A friend sent snowdrops and of course that made my heart sing on this gloomy day.

This year the lily beetles have arrived full force in my garden and I'm giving away the asiatics and probably a few others as well. I did not see any beetles on the frits so maybe there were still enough lily leaves to keep them happy? The tiger lilies seemed to be the favorite, so I might keep them, spray them, and hope they work as a trap crop? Those beetles are so disgusting.

Sad that your meleagris colony is under attack. I finally got mine going and am not prepared to lose them to those slimy little grubs, and yes they love the soggiest part of my yard. Another bulb which loves it there in the muck are the leucojum which coincidentally I have to dig tomorrow for a friend, and am not looking forward to it after all the rain. It will be a mud-fest.

If you dread bulb planting, I suggest a big shovel, dump em all in and cross your fingers. Clumps look better anyway, and imo deep holes and soil prep are way overrated!

Also I don't have "sharp drainage" anywhere in my garden, It's all a thin layer of heavy silt over shale and rock construction debris and water sits or runs off rather than soaks away. Only a few bulb types get special attention in a raised bed. I usually plant all my bulbs shallowly or they work their way to the surface over the years.

I forgot, that I also grow Leucojum and I love that bulb. No insects or rabbits bother it. The timing of the bloom is perfect in my garden, right after some of the daffodils finish. I planted some leucojum in between a few daffodil groups and that extends the display making the daff foliage appear to be blooming again in white bells. I just deadhead the dead daff blooms and it works great. I also have some in a patch of vinca that livens up that planting and then the ripening foliage disappears into the vinca.

We used to have bad infesations of the Red Lily Leaf Beetle. They were awful and I had to hand pick because I grow organically. I had stopped buying lilies until the beetles stopped being a problem and I've since added more. In New England, one of the colleges worked on a predator wasp for the beetle that I believe was effective in reducing their population here.

I placed my small order today, 100 or so of my favorite 'garden variety' tulips (angelique, black hero, queen of the night, orange princess). Tulips don't like our rainy climate and very rarely come back so it's a labor of love and money each fall. It's a joyful ritual each year for me - I don't mind planting them, it's exercise on a crisp sunny fall afternoon. I have learned to not plant early tulips, the moose get to them every time - by the time the late ones bloom the native moose food is available and they leave them alone.

Also, my husband found some tulips from Lowes today - luckily he likes planting them too... now that he's retired he does much of the gardening.

Lat, where do you live that there are moose to contend with?! lol What an idyllic scene you paint - A husband who is retired and you both enjoy planting tulip bulbs on a crisp fall day.

:-)

I knew I had a few pictures of the Leucojum....

You can see the Leucojum in the upper R corner and the Daff foliage in the middle where the blooms have already gone by and been deadheaded. Hyacinths added from a pot of bulbs we enjoyed in the spring from the grocery store and a Hellebore lower Right.

Here is the same area just a little right of the first photo, where the Leucojum are blending into more daffodill foliage and epimedium in the front.

More epimedium in the Vinca bed under a mature Maple. You can see the Leucojum peeking up in the upper Right corner. I meant to go back and add more to that bed, and too many other things to do...maybe I'll order some this year and get that done.

VERY nice pm2!

I am in anchorage alaska near a park that moose thrive in - thanks for saying idyllic, its been a sorely needed dry few days !!

your gardens are fabulous prairie moon and woodyoak and all of the earlier posts, I’ll catch up next rainy day , soon

Thanks, Lat62, Alaska....we watch a lot of shows that are set in Alaska. An amazingly beautiful part of the world, but definitely challenging. I hope you will come back and post photos of your tulips in the spring. The combination you plant sounds eye-catching.

That combination of daffodil foliage with the Leucojum is a great idea, prairiemoon, I love it. Has anyone besides prairiemoon succeeded in getting rid of the lily beetle? I have handpicked them for years, and when just about all my lilies were gone, I thought they would move out or die too, but now they have found the fritillarias :-(.

You got it, prairiemoon, in terms of tulip pics, if this guy doeesn't get them first, haha!

(pls excuse the light reflection)

Rosaprimula, I would love to grow crown imperial and have sharp draining, rather sandy soil. My hesitation has been that I thought they disliked crowding/competition? I may be confusing then with Eremurus which i’ve also wanted to try. Seeing that it naturalizes has me rethinking this. Perhaps I can shoehorn some in!

Oh boy, Lat62, Wow - Look at that moose! And it looks like he is an adolescent, yes? I guess I will stop complaining about the rabbits...lol.

Does anyone grow gladiolus? They are one of my favorite flowering plants but unfortunately they are not hardy here...

I also loath planting bulbs. They arrive right at the end of the intense fall gardening season (fall planting, transplanting, cleanup), and I'm worn out. I do plan to use an auger this year (any recommendations on brand?) I did order some that will be delivered soon, but I always forget what I ordered all those months ago. Definitely no tulips.

Camassia: I happen to live in a place where they are native (Willamette Valley Oregon) and they are all around the edges of our neighborhood in untended areas...so gorgeous!! (I'm a freak for purple). I collected seed this summer and am trying to germinate, because I'm weird that way, always wanting to grow the most locally native natives, as is possible. Nothing has happened yet, perhaps after winters cool, wet stratification...they will be sitting outside in small pots all winter.

Ohh, Anemone blanda, that is one I have on order, pretty easy to plant actually.

perennialfan—I grow glads here in 6b and even though everything I read says they shouldn’t be hardy, they always overwinter just fine in the ground.

perennialfan I planted gladioli here about 15 years ago when I was selling bouquets, and I still have some (about a dozen?) that return reliably. Very unexpected. I have noticed they are spreading a bit as well, but very slowly.

I'e often thought of using an auger for bulbs, and have used a dibble, but then (and I'm only guessing this for an auger since I haven't actually used one) then you have a hole, and you need soil to fill it. You never seem to have enough loose soil to backfill the hole. So I have in the past lugged a bag of topsoil along with me when I plant. Eh, it just adds to my dislike of planting bulbs lol.

That being said, I am looking forward to my small order of daffs, crocus and tulips. And I do plan on buying a bit more this season. It's been a few years since I planted any new bulbs.

:)

Dee

P.S. That moose is something! That's one thing I don't have to worry about in my garden lol!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned grape hyacinths. Yes they are small but when they are planted in mass the effect they create is absolutely stunning...

I just received my order of 400 tulips. Since I don’t get enough natural winter chill they’ll be going in the fridge soon, for planting in December. I loosen all the soil with a digging fork first, then it’s pretty easy to use a trowel to make holes for each bulb. I don’t have to plant them very deep since they’re annuals for me.

Wow that must quite a beautiful display in bloom, socalgal. You'll have to post pictures next spring!

Perennial fan I have some grape hyacinths and I do enjoy them. I used to add some every year but then I stopped. My great-aunt had a slope of them that was actually quite gorgeous in spring, but when she was sick and I was helping her with her garden a few years in a row, I realized how promiscuous they are lol. It was an awful lot of work taking them out from where they don't belong! So I stopped adding more and figured just let the ones I have do the job!

:)

Dee

It’s 200 tulips for my home and 200 for a park where I volunteer. The neighbors are starting to expect my annual tulip display and look forward to it!

"I'm surprised no one has mentioned grape hyacinths."

In climates like mine these are rather weedy. They remain evergreen and produce masses of sprawling messy foliage all year round. They also spread by seed and bulblets and can take over a bed. So they're not particularly popular unless you have plenty of space.

socalgal- I also look forward to seeing your pictures each spring, you really do a nice job with them!

The grape hyacinths are sprouting here and yes it's a messy look, but most winters I can count on the rabbits to trim them down for me. When it gets nice and cold and the grass goes dormant, the grape hyacinths are a nice green tonic for the bunnies... until the crocus sprout of course, then they eat every last one of those...

If the rabbits don't get them I'll trim them off late winter so they're a little neater. Also they get deadheaded for the seeds... which all seems like a lot of work as I type it, but that long lasting blue color is worth it! -Oh and when they get crowded I'll dig, toss all the small ones, and only replant the largest bulbs... and that's even more work... hmmm.

The last of this year's snowdrop haul went in this weekend. Now I'll wait for frost to wipe out the last of the vegetables and the tulips can go in there. I feel remarkably prepared until an early snowstorm catches me with a couple hundred tulips still out of the ground!

Well I planted half my bulbs yesterday, at my daughter's house, and I remembered why I hate planting them lol! Come on, can anyone (at least perhaps in New England) really dig down six inches to plant daffs? Luckily for me they seem to do fine planted at about 4 inches.

Then when I went to plant some small early daffs I mistakenly dug up last year's crocuses. I could have sworn they were about a foot over to the left....

Still have my daffs and crocuses to plant at my house. I think I am going to put the crocus in the lawn. I love that look and planted them for many years. But I really haven't planted bulbs for several years now, and since I am on pretty much solid rock ledge, many of my crocuses have rotted over the years. Time to replenish! (Oh, and I'm lucky if I can get those crocuses planted an inch deep lol! Rocks, rocks, and more rocks....)

kato this year I made a list of chores on paper, and I felt very accomplished when today I counted that I had crossed off 10 of 21. So, yay me lol. Of course, some of those left are things like "plant hostas" - of which I have about half a dozen to go in the ground. Compared to some of the things I've already done like "plant new Iceberg rose" which is only one thing. And last on the list is my very favorite chore of all (not!) - dig and store dahlias. Ugh. But it will be awhile before I can do that I think.

:)

Dee

Go Dee! Isn’t it always like that? You finally find a spot which is perfect for a few bulbs and boom! you thought the same thing last year and already planted a few there. Of course the shovel doesn’t just lift the bulbs, it slices right through.

Yeah I don’t mind planting bulbs, but digging cannas and dahlias? ugh. Of course it’s after frost and everything is slimy on top of cold!

Someone I know, not me of course, is know to plant bulbs so shallowly they poke up out of the ground bu the second year. Roughing up the soil and covering them with mulch or compost is so much easier than digging… is what this person says…

I totally agree with that person, haha!

Funny story - I used to have a garden maintenance business and some of my customers would work with me. One long-time customer bought a TON of bulbs one year - bags and bags of daffodil bulbs, about 20-25 huge bulbs to a bag. Ugh. So she shows me where she wants them (several different spots) and we get to work. After a couple of hours I go to find her on the other side of the yard, and I come upon her just in time to see her, with her legs spread out in front of her, a VERY shallow hole in front of her, and she's muttering to herself as she takes the bag, dumps all the bulbs in this very shallow hole which of course does not hold all of them, and then piles up the loose soil on top of this bulb pyramid. I started laughing and she just says, "I'm done. I don't care if these bulbs never bloom!" But I completely understood where she was coming from because I was feeling the same way! (side note - that darn pile of bulbs actually bloomed the next year!)

:)

Dee

My 2023 bulbs: mostly fosteriana tulips!

Excellent pic @mazerolm_3a! I love the early flowering of fosterianas but alas each year less and less have appeared :(.

Thanks @rouge21, I’m planting them to replace Darwin tulips that were planted 10 years ago, but are dwindling. I’m hoping the fosterianas will last just as long!