LITTLE ROCK — Nothing is prettier than a field of daffodils blowing in the breeze, or a bed of bright red tulips, or the sweet smell of purple or pink hyacinths. Spring-blooming bulbs are one of the easiest ways to add color to the landscape with very little effort.

In many cases, these same bulbs will continue to flower year after year. All of these spring bulbs are easy to grow, and need to be planted now.

The rainy autumn we have had has delayed putting many plants, including bulbs, in the ground. It has been hard to find a dry week - but there is still time.

WHAT’S A BULB?

If you plant it in a dried, bulbous state in the fall, most gardeners will call it a bulb.

By definition, a true bulb is a modified leaf bud, consisting of a basal plate, a short thick stem and fleshy scales. When you buy your bulb, it contains all of those parts- leaves, flowers and stems. The bulb itself serves as a storage organ. While not all spring-blooming bulbs are true bulbs, most underground storage organs, including rhizomes, corms, tubers and pips, are collectively called “bulbs.”

THE BLOOMING PARADE

The first bulbs to begin blooming each spring are the old-fashioned snowdrops and snowflakes.

The common snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) and giant snowdrops (G. elwesii) bear beautiful white flowers. Then follow the spring snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) with white flowers tipped in green dots. Both of these bulbs will return for years with very little care, and can be grown in sun to partial shade.

Keep in mind that shade from deciduous trees is usually not a detriment to early spring bulbs, since they will have completed their life cycle before the trees are fully leafed out.

Crocus bulbs bloom next. Many gardeners have started naturalizing some crocus bulbs in their lawn. By the time for the first mowing of your grass, the life cycle of the crocus is completed. And they will re-bloom year after year. These small plants produce grass-like foliage with clusters of yellow, purple, white or pink flowers. There are several species, and all of them multiply quite nicely each season.

NEXT, THE NARCISSUS

Narcissus, as a family, encompasses quite a few different species that many gardeners lump together as daffodils or jonquils. There are early bloomers that start in late January, and late bloomers that blossom into April or early May. Some are fragrant, like the jonquilla and tazetta with their clustered white or yellow flowers.

Others have large solitary flowers or come in small clusters. Some are singles and some are doubles. The doubles can pose a problem since they are not as forgiving of temperature extremes, but the rest shine in our gardens year after year.

Flower colors range from white to yellow, with shades of pink and orange. Deer leave them alone, since they are poisonous. Because of the diversity, there are several months of blooms in this family alone.

By midspring, the large fragrant hyacinths show their lovely clustered blooms. In shades of pink, purple, red and white, they will re-bloom annually as long as you fertilize.Along with these are the grape hyacinths (Muscari) with their grass-like foliage and clusters of blue, purple or white flowers. Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides), and Scilla are lovely bulbs that bloom in the woodland garden and return annually with their nodding blue or purple flowers.

SHOWY TULIPS

Then come the tulips, which many consider the showiest of the spring bulbs. While they produce amazing blooms, temperatures can dramatically alter their bloom period, and they often don’t re-bloom well in the South. Many gardeners would not have a garden without tulips, and treat them as annuals, planting new bulbs every fall. Tulips have the widest range of flower colors and types, and some will come back better than others.

The last of the spring bulbs are the Dutch iris and the flowering onion plants (Allium).

CHOOSING BULBS

When choosing your bulbs, select those that are firm and free of blemishes. Size is also a consideration, since the size of the bulb will determine the size of the bloom. Selectingbulbs that bloom early, midseason and late-season can also extend your plant palette.

Think about the color combinations. Contrasting colors or even a single color can make a bold statement in the landscape.

Many gardeners want bulbs that come back year after year with outstanding flowers. Gardeners will find that the timing of the flowers plays a role in this, and that it is easily achieved with crocus, daffodils and hyacinths, but not quite as easy with tulips and Fritillaria, bulbous plants in the lily family that often have nodding bell- or cup-shaped flowers.

WHEN TO PLANT

Spring-blooming bulbs can be planted from October through December, even into January if you pre-chill them. They need 12 to 16 weeks of cool temperatures (below 50 degrees) for them to stretch and elongate. Without natural chilling outdoors or forced chilling in the refrigerator, the bulbs rarely exceed a couple of inches in height. This presents a problem when someone finds a bag of bulbs in the spring that they forgot to plant the previous fall.

The actual flowers last longer if they bloom during cool weather, but chilly temperatures also aid in foliage power. If you have ever been to Holland during bulb season, the weather is cool - and their bulbs are fantastic.

Here in the South, a warmspring means a much quicker bloom display, and late-flowering bulbs often die back before they have the chance to set size for the next season.

All spring bulbs need a minimum of six to eight weeks of growth following bloom. It is during this “green” period that they are manufacturing the food for next spring’s blooms. The later the bulb flowers, the warmer the temperatures are getting. Spring bulbs thrive in cool temperatures.

INDIVIDUAL OR MASS PLANTING?

You can plant bulbs individually in holes, or collectively in large pits. Typical bulb-planting tools, meant to get bulbs into the ground individually, often shatter when dug into our rocky soils. Mass planting is often easier and creates a great display of color - with an even more emphatic wow factor than a single row of color.

With mass planting, you dig a trench or pit, and begin to layer in your bulbs. Large bulbs like tulips and daffodils should be planted deeply, while small crocus or snowdrops can be shallow. A general rule of thumb is to plant the bulb two to three times as deep as the bulb is large.

Once you have finished layering in your bulbs, plant pansies, violas or other winter annuals on top. The spring bulbs will grow up through them and add to the color combination.

Make sure the site is welldrained, but also workable after our rains. Digging in wet soils can ruin soil structure, and standing water and bulbs are not a winning combination.

With a little effort in the cool days of fall, you can have a riot of color for months in your spring garden. Go buy some bulbs, then dig a hole, drop in a bulb, and sit back and wait for spring. Who could imagine those unassuming, small brown uglyduckling bulbs could turn into the beautiful swans of blooms next spring?

Coming next week: Sconces come in

myriad sizes, shapes,

styles and prices and

complement indoor or

outdoor spaces. They’ll

even work as focal

points.

HomeStyle, Pages 37 on 11/07/2009

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