Have you ever dreamed of glorious spring and summer flowering bulbs, a garden awash in color and unique shapes? Now is the time to look at your bulb catalogs and devise a planting strategy, which offers the most varied show imaginable, with a minimal effort on your part. Order your bulbs by mid-September to arrive at fall planting time.
Spring is always an exuberant and fragrant happening – make 2008 the best ever.
Your goal will be to show color throughout the spring and well into mid-summer. Minor bulbs, small wonders, emerge through the snow such as winter aconite and snowdrops, followed closely by scilla, pink or blue chionodoxa and anemones, all faithful repeat performers in a garden. They will increase in numbers and beauty as the years pass and herald early spring before the big hitters, daffodils and tulips arrive in April.
A few years ago I was introduced to the world of charming miniature daffodils. What a delight and how perfect for a smaller garden, especially when paired with the above minor bulbs. Little gem and minnow are early season trumpets; fragrant sundisk and hawera round out the spring. Clearly these are bulbs destined for a budding connoisseur.
You have seen yellow carpets of faithful King Alfred in gardens, a great investment in bulbs that will bloom year after year. Thousands of exciting new daffodil cultivars are now on the market, but relatively few have the stamina of a King Alfred. If you are content to have an old faithful blooming for you, this is the bulb. You must be the decider. And yes, daffodils are shunned by deer and rabbits.
Tulips add the finishing touch to your spring garden, early, mid-season, late, tall, short, ruffled, fringed, frilled, multiples, designer colors and pastels – the variations and selections are overwhelming.
I have had great success with Tulipa Viridiflora, managing to coax them through four-five seasons. Most tulips lose their oomph in the second year and the bulbs have to be taken out. Life expectancy for most tulips is rather short, despite bulb food application. But, there is a plus as well – you get to select new, magnificent shapes and dazzling colors more often.
Great companion plantings for early summer bulbs are Siberian iris with their graceful foliage and dark green sword-like leaves and of course, daylilies, which give you months of effortless bloom. Again, thousands of different cultivars are available. Peonies, poppies, columbines and alliums should also be part of your spring and early summer garden. Once you have planted them, they will please you year after year. Columbines are prolific with their seeds and you can gift them to friends and neighbors, resulting in patches of pink, lavender, white and purple. Ideal for a woodland garden.
Looking ahead to summer, you will want to add lilies to your garden and the time to plant these bulbs is also late fall. Oriental lilies are best known for their perfume, hardiness and disease resistance. They make a wonderful grand summer statement. Capture and hold their fragrance by planting them close to your quiet spots and natural windbreaks. You will create invisible scented clouds in your garden. Plant your oriental or Asiatic lilies in groups of eight or 10 and enjoy a wonderful “wow” vista.
So many bulbs tempt us and great catalogs are available. Be adventurous and introduce a few new bulbs to your spring garden.
Gypsy moth has invaded areas in Central New Jersey and devoured foliage on stately old oak trees, breaking homeowners’ hearts. Survey your property in September and October for egg masses and remove and bag them. Most vulnerable are oaks and maples. Plant resistant species such as walnut, ash, tulip, locust, sycamore, American holly, dogwood, juniper and viburnum. More on this subject in September.
Gotti Kelley is a longtime member of the Navesink Garden Club and is on the Board of The Garden Club of New Jersey