Garden Designs and Spring Blooming Bulbs

Suggestions for the bulb garden -- perennial companion plants, bulb planting diagrams, wildflower bulbs, and layering bulbs for months of blooming color.

Iberis sempervirens 'Little Gem'
Item # 59555 		Iberis sempervirens 'Little Gem'
Little Gem Dwarf Candytuft

each $5.49
3 to 6 plants $5.29
7 or more $4.99
Chrysanthemum x superbum 'Snow Cap'
Item # 37061 		Chrysanthemum superbum 'Snow Cap'
Snow Cap Dwarf Shasta Daisy

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Aethionema schistosum
Item # 11060 		Aethionema schistosum
Fragrant Persian Stonecress

each $5.49
3 to 6 plants $5.29
7 or more $4.99
  • Topics: Bulbs, Garden Design
  • Author: David Salman
  • Keywords: bulbs, labeling, fall planting, spring blooming, Bulbs, gardens
  • Date: April 2001

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Spring is the time to enjoy all the hard work you did planting bulbs last fall. It’s always such a pleasant surprise seeing the first splashes of color out in your sleeping-late winter garden. When the Galanthus, Crocus, and miniature wildflower Iris start to bloom you know that spring is just around the corner. This is also the time to study at your bulb plantings while looking forward to the fall when it will be time to plant more.

Where Did I Plant Them?

I made a concerted effort this past fall to make diagrams of where I planted my bulbs. This helps me remember not only where I planted them but what I planted. Labeling bulbs doesn’t work very well. For so much of the year, the labels just clutter the garden, marking bulbs that have gone dormant many months earlier. And of course there are all those bulbs I planted the preceding years when I didn’t take the time to make planting diagrams. This is when a camera is helpful. Photograph your bulbs; this helps you know where to fill in existing plantings and where to plant new bulb beds this coming fall.

Perennial Companions

You see so many beautiful photographs of huge bulb plantings with nothing but bulbs in the picture. I have to ask myself what happens in that garden after all those bulbs flowers fade? Well probably an army of gardeners will come in to trim back all the fading bulb foliage and then completely replant the area with annual flowers. But who has an army of gardeners at their direction and the budget to completely re-plant the garden with annuals each year? It is more practical and interesting to integrate your bulb plantings into the perennial garden.

The small wildflower bulbs are perfect for planting into rock gardens and patches of groundcovers. They will color up that spot before the groundcovers bloom or provide complementary colors that coordinate with the blooming groundcovers and small rock garden species. The foliage of Crocus, Galanthus, miniature Iris, miniature daffodils, many wildflower tulips and small Allium is not noticeable after the flowers fade and will disappear entirely by mid-spring.

Other later blooming mid-sized bulbs can be mixed in with other mid-sized perennials with spectacular results. Many early- to mid-spring blooming perennials like Alyssum montanum ‘Creeping Basket of Gold’, Aubrieta, Aethionema, Iberis and others make excellent companions for daffodils, Greigii and Fosteriana tulips, Scilla, and Muscaria.

For the larger taller Darwin hybrid tulips and garden daffodils, mid- to late-spring blooming cottage garden perennials like Chrysanthemum ‘Shasta Daisy’, Nepeta, Papaver, Aquilegia, and Linum perenne are just a few of many excellent companion plants. By mixing the bulbs into the perennial garden we will enjoy the show without the worry of what to do after the bulb flowers fade. The perennials will grow up and fill in around the fading bulbs and cover their scruffy leaves.

The Nature of Wildflower Bulb Species

Many of the smaller wildflower bulbs like Crocus, miniature Iris and miniature Tulips and Daffodils will take two to three seasons to fill-up their piece of the garden. Don’t be critical of their performance that first spring. These little gems multiply underground doubling the size of their clump with each passing year eventually creating carpets of color in your garden. This process can be hurried by planting these little guys more densely. Dig a wide shallow hole (4” deep) and sprinkle the bulbs so they are two or three inches apart. This can be easier than digging hundreds of small holes with the bulb dibble.

Layering Your Bulbs

If you only have a small area to plant, condense your bulb plantings by layering the bulbs in the soil. This allows you to concentrate a large number of bulbs into a small space to provide that area with months of non-stop bulb color. For example, dig a 3 ft. by 3 ft. wide by 8” deep hole. Plant your large garden daffodils and tall Darwin hybrid tulips. Cover them with soil leaving a 6” deep hole. Next drop in the miniature and wildflower daffodils, Hyacinthoides (Spanish Bluebells) and the Greigii and Fosteriana tulips. Cover these bulbs with soil, leaving you with a 4” deep hole. Finish planting the hole with the smallest bulbs like the Crocus, miniature Iris, wildflower tulips, Muscaria and Scilla. All these bulbs will coexist nicely with each group occupying a different layer of the soil. With the arrival of spring your new layered bulb bed comes into bloom beginning in early spring and continues through late spring. Plant some daylilies and late spring blooming perennials into the bed so their flowers and foliage will cover the fading bulb leaves and continue the succession of color in the bed.