Integrate bulbs among your existing perennials for stunning combinations of color and texture
You ’ve got a bit of time left to plant some bulbs . There are some inventive ways to implant spring - blossom bulbs without driving yourself kookie and without the help of a twelve engage helper .
First , hats off to the world-beater of bulbs , Jacqueline van der Kloet . JVK is a fashion designer who specializes in planting springtime electric-light bulb by desegregate them with existing perennials . You may have seen her work featured in magazine : the long blue spring edge at Martha Stewart ’s garden or the Seasonal Walk at the New York Botanical Gardens . This technique is superb and so much easier than void a flower bed , plant a thousand bulb , and standing back to wait for them to flower . Most of us do n’t have that sort of garden real land . take the colors of the subsist perennials and their bloom of youth or leaf times , and then add pops of daffodil , tulips , or other outpouring electric-light bulb to play up the plantings .
secondly , tuck tall Narcissus pseudonarcissus ( Narcissusspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 ) or Darwin hybrid tulip ( Tulipaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 ) in and around cosmetic grasses . This works really well , since both the grasses and the bulbs need very fiddling water after spring bloom time . As a fillip , the growing pasture cover up the dying foliage of the bulbs . I wish to use ‘ blitheness ’ , ‘ Actea ’ , ‘ Mt. Hood ’ , or ‘ Tahiti ’ as tall varieties of daffodil .
Finally , let me partake with you my last - minute act of desperation as it apply to spring - blossom bulbs . I make out you willneverfind yourself in this situation , but now you’re able to say , “ I read about someone who buy too many bulbs and had to bail herself out . ” Get some tumid fibre or peat pots at least 12 column inch across and 6 to 8 inches rich . Black charge card tummy work well too , and you are keeping them out of the landfill . fulfill them a third of the way full with a good quality soil mixing . Place your bulbs on top . fill up the pot with soil , and lightly tamp it down . Water good . If medulla - eat critter are a problem , debase a spell of garden net across the top of the pots . Since my pots were all in one position , I simply tacked down a piece of bird web to protect them . I did a half - dozen pots like this , judge them as I imbed them , and placed them atop a raised garden layer outdoors . Keep an eye on them as they winter ; you will have to cover them with a duet of sure-enough blanket if it commence really inhuman . I watered the pots only if we had no rainfall or snow for a month , and after that , only when the leaf was up a few inches . When the tulip or other flowers are within a couple weeks of bloom , these batch can be drop into big cosmetic containers by the front threshold or gather amid garden foliage .
So get out there and add up some early spring bulbs to your recurrent border . Plant or passel all the bulbs you have on script , and be quick for a keen spring show . Also , look out for Jacqueline van der Kloet ’s upcoming book , A Year in My Garden .
— Mary Ann Newcomer is the author of two record book : Rocky Mountain Gardener ’s HandbookandVegetable Gardening in the Mountain States .
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In a naturalistic woodland planting, mix small heirloom daffodils in shades of soft white and pale yellow with mock orange (Philadelphus coronaries‘Aureus’, Zones 5–9).Photo: Colorblends.com. Design: Jacqueline van der Kloet.
‘Tahiti’ daffodils (Narcissus‘Tahiti’, Zones 3–9) and ‘Elijah Blue’ blue fescue (Festuca glauca‘Elijah Blue’, Zones 4–9) play very well together, yet they are pretty much deer proof and totally drought tolerant.Photo: Mary Ann Newcomer
