Planting a Flower Bulb Garden

One of the easiest gardens to maintain is one made solely up of flower bulbs. Provided that you have a variety of bulbs for the spring, summer, and fall seasons, a flower bulb garden will remain in bloom throughout the year until wintertime. Prepare your garden soil right after the last frost, making sure the soil is well drained. Design the garden area so that your taller plants will be in the back, with the lower growing plants in the front. The best way to plant the bulbs so the garden appears full during the entire growing year is to alternate the bulbs and the seasons they blossom the most in. For example, if you have tulip and crocus bulbs planted for the spring, plant iris and fall crocus bulbs near the spring bulbs. That way your garden won’t appear bare during the different seasons of the year.

Below is a list of flower bulbs that blossom in the spring:

Tulips. These come in every color imaginable, grow an average of 18” to two feet tall. Prefers the full sun.

Crocuses. These 6” tall flowers come in white, yellow, and purple. They will grow well even in partial shade.

Daffodils. These bright yellow flowers grow to 18” tall and like the full sun.

Red Crown Imperial. This big, showy flower has green spikes forming a crown on the blossom that hangs upside down from the stem. It grows to three feet tall and will keep insects away.

Yellow Crown Imperial. Like the red crown imperial, it grows to the same height and makes an ideal insect repellant.

Grecian windflowers. These pretty flowers have daisy like petals and come in solid as well as bicolors: pink, white, blue, purple. They grow from 3” to 4” tall.

Rudy Triteleia. These beautiful star shaped flowers that form globular clusters grows 24” tall and will bloom though the early summer.

Dwarf Iris. These miniature iris bulbs come in blue, yellow, and purple and grow to 5” tall.

Double Poppy Anemone. These showy flowers come in purple, pink, and white and grow from 8” to 10” tall.

Early Snow Glories. These star shaped flowers in pastel shades of pink, purple and white grow to 5” tall.

Spring Starflowers. These flowers come in white, blue, and purple and grow 5” tall.

Alliums. These flowers come in blue, yellow, white, and purple. They grow to three feet tall. Alliums will blossom throughout the summer and early fall.

Amaryllis. These flowers come in rich deep jewel tones of burgundy, yellow, orange, pink, and white. Grow from” to 16” tall. These will also blossom throughout the summer and early fall.

Flower bulbs that blossom in the summer:

Iris. These come in yellow, blue, purple, pale yellow, and white. Grows from 18” to two feet tall.

Day lilies. Come in yellow and orange. Likes partial shade. Will grow from 2 to 3 feet tall and continue to blossom through the fall.

Landini Lily. Deep purple-red in color, grows to 3 feet tall.

Lavender Mountain Lilies. Purple in color, these flowers grow from 12” to 15” tall.

Gladiolus. These beautiful flowers  come in many different bright colors. Grows from 20” to three feet tall.

Four o’clock flowers. These come in yellow and purple, grows 2 to 3 feet tall.

Flower bulbs that blossom in the fall:

Fall Crocuses . These flowers, like their spring counterparts, come in purple, white, and yellow. They grow from 6” to 8” tall.

Cyclamen. These butterfly-shaped blossoms come in several shades of pink and grow to 5” tall. These will also grow in partial shade.

Lily of the Nile. Clusters of blue or white flowers grow to three feet tall.

Astilbe. These spiky flowers come in white, purple, red, and pink. Grows from fifteen inches inch to twenty inches high.

Chrysanthemums. These popular flowers come in yellow, white, purple, pink, red, orange. Grows from 18” to 30” tall.

Fertilize your flower bulbs in the early spring and once again in the fall. While there are special bulb fertilizers on the market, they can be expensive, but your bulbs will benefit from regular flower fertilizer. Keep the bulbs watered at least twice a week during the dry periods. Pull out any weeds that inhibit flower growth. Remove gladiolus and tulip bulbs before the winter frost comes. Many of these make beautiful cut flowers for a vase: tulips, gladiolus, Iris, daffodils, astilbe, windflowers, lilies, and chrysanthemums. Enjoy your flower bulb garden!

Image Credit: Geographer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.