Perhaps you’ll want most of your bulbs in the flower garden with other flowers. Daffodils are pretty there, in clumps of named varieties set midway across a border—although the tiniest kinds belong right at the front.
Tulips too in clumps of six to 12 alike make fine garden color early in the year. When tops die, plant annuals like petunias and sweet alyssum hide ripening foliage.
Uses for Bulbs
There are many other uses for bulbs outside the general garden:
For a color escort along a walk or path, hyacinths or tulips are hard to beat when placed in rows. They will also rise to the occasion in special color beds beside a terrace or patio.
Later plant among them such colorful annuals as verbenas, petunias or portulaca to finish out the season.
Underplanting Groundcovers
For underplanting ground covers such as vinca minor, English ivy or euonymus, use such little bulbs as crocus, scillas, and muscari.
For ground covers that grow higher, like pachysandra and lily-of-the-valley, use wood hyacinths or daffodils.
For naturalizing between large shrub plantings, use galanthus (snowdrops), starof-bethlehem, and leucojum.
For late season color interest among beds of irises, use the colchicums and autumn-blooming crocus.
Large-Scale Naturalizing
Far the space around tree trunks, consider planting muscatri, crocus, scillas, puschkinia and any other wee bulb.
For color at a step or doorway, a clump of one kind of hyacinth or tulip will be emphatic.
Narcissus are perfect for large-scale naturalizing. Use drifts of one kind over a hillside or at the edge of woods, to bloom with the wood phlox.
Good Kind of Naturalizing
‘Thalia’ is a good kind of naturalizing. Fence rows are other good places for these plantings.
Crocus, scillas, and other early bulbs do well near the overhang of shrubs. On the south shrubs, trees, and walls will bloom much ahead of their normal dates.
In rock gardens, the little bulbs like eranthis and windflowers are pretty in tight crevices. Little daffodils in clumps look good against gray or red rocks.
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