Create
a Bulb Masterpiece
November
is here already? Visions of Pilgrims, turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie,
football, and my favorite, college basketball, are dancing through everyone’s
heads. Let the gluttony ensue! Of course this also means the hectic holiday
season is on its way, not to mention, all the leaf raking and fall cleanup. Try
to push these thoughts away and think spring! If we are lucky, someone else can
worry about the holiday feast; we will be outside planting our bulb gardens!
No
perennial garden would be complete without at least a few flower bulbs to start
the year in style. How welcoming is the sight of the first crocus, snowdrop or
daffodil poking it’s head through the cold ground? Someday, the dreams of my
yard looking like a Dutch paradise, with rainbows of tulips as far as the eye
can see, will become a reality. For now, my garden (and my budget) will not
permit this. Consequently, I like to plant groupings of more unusual bulb
varieties and colors for maximum impact. Gone are the days of a small row of
yellow daffodils nodding their way down a walkway. It is time to experiment
with something different.
The
choices of spring bulbs are almost mind-boggling now. Don’t know what a
Fritillaria imperialis is? Pick one up and amaze your friends this spring. How
about Galanthus nivalis, Allium giganteum, Eranthus, or Muscari armeniacum?
There are Tulipa fosteriana, gregii, lily-flowered and Darwin hybrids in colors
straight from an artist’s palette. If you can’t pronounce the name of a bulb, it
is a definite must-have! Plant early-, mid- and late-flowering varieties
together for continuous spring color. Short on room in the flowerbed? Layer
them like a bulb lasagna, larger bulbs on the bottom, smaller ones above them,
and the really tiny ones right on top. This makes no difference in how they
will grow and will create a tiered effect. The same area of your garden will
remain in bloom for weeks with little effort. When in doubt, the planting depth
for most bulbs is 2 to 3 times the height of the bulb but, for those who don’t
like math, the bulb package usually comes with simple instructions. The only
fertilizer bulbs need is a small scoop of bone meal in the bottom of the
planting hole, as the bulb itself stores most of the food it needs for the season.
Have
you ever taken a trip to the country in the spring and noticed old homesites or
the edges of back roads and woods? If so, you probably have seen daffodils,
crocus or grape hyacinths (muscari) rioting in colorful, untended clumps. This
means they have naturalized and escaped cultivation. If you would like this
same natural effect in your garden, this is actually the easiest and most fun
way to plant bulbs. Simply pick varieties that naturalize well, such as the
aforementioned varieties, as well as scilla and wood hyacinths. Grab a handful,
throw them down, and plant them where they fall. This will look like Mother
Nature herself put them there, because she never plants anything in perfectly
spaced rows, she’s too laid back for that! This is a fun job for children to
help with because they don’t like to be neat either (they also enjoy throwing
things sometimes). If they know you are allowing them to play in the dirt on
purpose, they will probably do the entire job for you while you “supervise” from
the nearest shade tree! Speaking of trees, bulbs naturalize well under them.
They look gorgeous with a colorful spring skirt of daffodils or wood hyacinths.
Plant ferns or hostas with them to hide the fading bulb foliage.
Every
deck, porch and patio also needs pots and tubs of bulbs. Plant these in the
lasagna technique as well and plant bulbs closer together than you would in the
ground. Shorter varieties work best in containers. For the prettiest effect,
use ivy or vinca vine around the rim and fill the top with pansies in your
favorite color combination. The pansies will delight your eye fall through
spring, then surprise! Your fall-planted bulbs will rear their pretty heads and
steal the show. Find some fragrant bulbs such as Dutch hyacinths for containers
near doors or walkways. Don’t forget to force a few tulips, daffodils, crocus
and hyacinths indoors to brighten up a dreary winter. Pre-chill them in a
refrigerator (not the freezer!) for about 12 weeks to fool them into thinking
it was winter. Pot them at soil level in containers with a drainage hole, water
well, and keep in a cool, semi-dark room for about a week. Bring them out to a
well-lighted area away from direct heat and enjoy! Paperwhite narcissus and
amaryllis are the easiest to force indoors, as these are warmer climate bulbs
and need no pre-chilling. They will start to grow as soon as they are planted.
Remember to keep pots of bulbs in a cooler spot in the house away from heat
sources and they will bloom twice as long.
Fall
is always the best time for planting anything. Make sure you pick up a lot of
bulbs to complete your creation. In a garden, we can all be Van Gogh, Rembrandt
and Picasso, with flowers and soil as our medium. A garden is like a constantly
changing work of art. It can always be moved, dug up, divided and added to.
There are few rules so, whatever strikes your fancy, go and create your own
masterpiece!
Dawn
Leith
Durham
Garden Center