Bulbs provide swaths of color and drama for easy-care garden

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Two of the most common things people ask for when designing their landscape are high color and low maintenance.

Color in the garden usually means impressive flowers in spring and summer. Designing for year-round color includes flowers as well as foliage, stems and fruits.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance garden. But there are many ways to design and plant your landscape that can help eliminate frequent repetitive chores and create a low-maintenance garden.

One is to plant bulbs. Most of the bulbs that bloom in spring, such as daffodils, tulips and crocuses, are planted in fall. There are many beautiful choices that can be planted in early spring and summer.

The term “bulb” is somewhat generic. Not all the plants we think of as bulbs are true bulbs. Some are tubers, such as dahlias; others are corms, such as gladiolus, and some are rhizomes, which include cannas or elongated thickened roots, such as Peruvian lily (alstroemeria).

Most of these are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. Each type has guidelines regarding planting. Make sure to follow the directions for planting so you will get full advantage of the blooms.

There are countless ways to use bulbs. Because many of them are harbingers of spring and bloom early in the year, they’re the first show of color in the garden. These early flowers should be only a taste of more to come.

If you want early blooms, plant bulbs in containers indoors and force them into flower, which will also add a garden feel to your home in spring. You will need patience and someplace cold, then cool, to store them.

Plant the bulbs in shallow containers or in pots, as many as possible without having them touch one another. Keep moist in a cold, dark or low-light situation, such as a refrigerator, for two to four months, depending on the variety. Move to a slightly warmer location with low light when roots are creeping out of drainage holes and shoots are about two inches tall.

Move to a final location when the buds start showing some color. With proper care, the flowers can last a long time indoors.

Outdoors, bulbs work well when used along with perennials in borders. Summer flowering bulbs will complement perennials and fill in seasons when perennials aren’t making a show. Bulb foliage will die or freeze back, and most should not be cut until they wither. Interplant with other flora that will develop and cover the unattractive fading tops.

Some gardeners use drifts of bulbs in a naturalized way, creating shoals of daffodils or irises that seem to surge onto the landscape. This works especially well in meadow or edge-of-the-woods situations.

Bulbs can also be used as ground covers, in containers and hanging baskets, and in rock gardens. Miniature narcissus and miniature tulips are enchanting in an alpine-style garden. Summer bulbs add the element of surprise, bringing color at an unexpected time.

There are bulbs for every location and situation. Some, like irises, will grow in bogs or even in ponds; some, like crocosmia, prefer dry, sunny conditions. Lily of the valley likes cool, shady spots. Whatever the conditions in your landscape, there is a summer bulb to suit it.

Here are some other points to think about when gardening with bulbs.

For a formal look, bulbs are perfect. They’re outstanding in knot gardens and in other formal shapes, such as circles and squares. Plant in drifts; strong repetition is one of the easiest ways to create unity as well as formality if planted in broad sweeps of a single color.

If you want a more natural look, you may have to work at it. Using summer- and fall-blooming bulbs to fill in perennial borders is one way to create a more casual design. Some bulbs that lend themselves to this type of use are lilies, alstroemeria and pineapple lily (eucomis). Mix a couple of varieties together.

Many bulbs prefer light, well-drained soil and may require special care. If you are installing them with other plants, you might have to prepare the bulbs’ sites differently than for the plants they are complementing.

Some people have given up on bulb planting because squirrels dig them up and deer eat them. The solution for squirrels is to plant the bulbs under wire mesh anchored with soil. The solution for deer is to use deer-repellent spray. Another strategy is to plant bulbs they don’t like such as crocosmia, allium, iris and some lilies.

If you didn’t plant bulbs last fall and are now envying your neighbors’ colorful yards, don’t. There are bulbs you can plant now, or as soon as they are available in garden centers, for bloom this summer and fall.