There is no limit to how tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths can be used.
The gardener is no longer bound by rules in placing them in the garden than the painter in painting colors on canvas. But the gardener must work according to plan just as the painter does.
He must consider the planting as a whole and select background and companion plants that possess qualities that bring out the full beauty of the featured bulb.
In the past, tulips were usually grown in geometric beds that best suited their stylized beauty. Now, they are used more freely, more imaginatively, with delightful results.
Many varieties have a satiny finish and strong, bold colors and forms that contrast interestingly with other materials in the garden.
Tulipa Praestans ‘Fusilier’
For example, the hot scarlet Tulipa praestans Fusilier quickens even the dullest pulse when set among gray rocks against evergreens. The impassive stone under dark evergreens makes it look like a living flame.
Indeed, tulips are effective almost anywhere: in a raised bed at the edge of a terrace, as small cherry groups here and there, or as parts of a mixed border planting.
They are incredibly lovely with azaleas and many of the numerous perennials and biennials that bloom when they do.
Blue Phlox
One of the best companion plants for them is blue phlox. It grows about 18 inches high and blossoms in sun or shade.
It is charming with the delicate pink Princess Elizabeth, the pale yellow Niphetos, or the Blue Parrot tulips.
Companion plants, incidentally, should serve a dual purpose. They should bloom at the same time as the spring-flowering bulbs and hide their withering foliage later in the season.
By and large, one or two are enough to set off any variety of bulbs featured in a planting.
Daffodils
Like tulips, daffodils grow best in thick clusters or groups instead of in thin lines. Those gardeners lucky enough to have large places can use immense, dramatic drifts made by several hundred bulbs.
As the years go by, the bulbs will multiply into several hundred more if properly cared for. But a dozen bulbs planted in front of dark evergreens are as charming, if less breathtaking, as 50 planted in a mass that juts out into gravel or crushed bluestone path.
Daffodils blooming under flowering cherries or crabapples are springtime incarnate. All trees are enhanced by clumps of daffodils nodding beneath them.
Nothing is more picturesque and idyllic than daffodils naturalized in rough grass or dancing in irregular drifts on a bank that slopes toward the street.
Hyacinths
For centuries, men have delighted in hyacinths, in their delicately sculptured bells clustered as thick as bees on spikes, in their entrancing colors and rich scent.
Hyacinths are elegant in massive formal plantings. If space and the budget permits, a symmetrical bed of hyacinths in the traditional style is a fine thing to own.
Yet, for instance, very appealing results can be obtained with a few clumps set between the house and a brick or flagstone terrace.
In such a situation, the rich perfume will drift indoors on balmy spring evenings to sweeten the house. When hyacinths go, they can be replaced by petunias or another colorful plant that will bloom faithfully until the first frost.
Groups of purple and blue hyacinths in front of evergreens, forsythia, or other early blooming shrubs also are lovely.
44659 by Philip Klarnet