Have you ever been curious about what many of the odd bulbs are in the bulb catalogs? Did you ever try to get a few new ones each year?
It’s fun if you can get up on your nerve to order those things you have never seen. Order several different species and varieties of each genus.
Different Species Of Bulbs
Alliums
Take the onions or alliums. A few may be uninteresting, but most will be very nice. Try Allium Moly with its yellow flowers, albopilosum with its huge heads of pink, or the unusual Narcissus with its hanging pink flowers.
Crocus
Crocus offers a long season of bloom. Besides the common large Dutch crocus, try some species such as ancyrensis, an early yellow, and even earlier Tomasinianus and its varieties. Sieberi is similar and equally early.
Another good early yellow is susianus. And instead of getting mixed Dutch crocus, try some of the named varieties.
Bulbous Irises
The bulbous irises offer great variety. Danfordiae is early yellow, reticulata early purple, and the English, Spanish, and Dutch irises give their bit in June.
Fritillaries
The Fritillaries are fascinating. The guinea hen, meleagris, always attracts attention with its purplish or white checkered bells. And they will stay with you for years.
Crown Imperial
The old-fashioned crown imperial is showy if you do not mind the odor. It will stay in some gardens but has never liked mine.
Hyacinths
What pleasure the hyacinths give! If you hesitate at the price of the top size, buy the bedding size, either by varieties or mixed, as I do.
The flowers are a bit smaller but just as fragrant. The less-known fairy hyacinth, ‘Borah,’ is small but very free flowering.
Try ‘Rosalie’ and ‘Vanguard,’ which are also miniatures. We have enjoyed Hyacinthus amethystine in our place for years—no question about it staying with you.
Altho, the star of Bethlehem, is a nasty weed that takes over; its sister, Ornithogalumnutans, is a lovely white-flowered bulb.
Squills
The squills are worth knowing better. Early blue, Siberia, is fairly common. Occasionally we see the white form of it.
The late flowering squills should be in every garden. Scala campanulate, the English squill or wood hyacinth, is a must.
They bloom at the same time as Darwin tulips. The colors are white, pink, and lavender blue. They multiply and stay with you.
That is more than many of us can say of the May flowering tulips. Like many other spring bulbs, squills can be planted under masses of ground covers such as English ivy, Japanese spurge, and periwinkle.
Spring Flowering Bulbs
Other spring flowering bulbs you should try include the following:
- Chionodoxas
- The many grape hyacinths
- Oxalis
- Anemones
- Sternberg
- Winter aconite
- Leucojum
- Mills
- Lriteleia
It is optional to get quantities.
Label Growing Plants
The biggest job is writing the labels or making a garden plan so you can figure out what each one is.
Too many homeowners are content to call an unknown just a “hedge,” “shrub,” or “evergreen.” Why garden if we do not know the names of the growing plants?
Controlling Pests
Spider mites, or red spiders, as we used to call them, are still multiplying on primroses, arbor-vitae, and other plants.
Malathi or aramite are the easiest miticides to obtain, alone or mixed in an all-purpose mixture.
Get the dust or spray on the underside of the leaves. You can tell they are there by the tell-tale tannish-grayish color of the leaves.
Repeat the application in ten days for the babies hatched from eggs the chemical did not kill.
Since September is a good time to plant hardy flowers, you better order the new ones now for delivery.
This month, prepare the soil with plenty of organic matter and fertilizer. If you can plant without a trowel, just digging with your hands, that is good soil.
44659 by V Ries