Creating a Beautiful Landscape

Ideas and inspiration, tips and opinions, guidance on style for your home landscape. I believe that most people with a little education n design concepts and exposure to great landscapes can create their own plans.

3 Tips For Landscaping Successfully With Ornamental Trees

August 27, 2018 by Ilona Erwin

What are Ornamental Trees?

These trees are usually small with special features like interesting bark, showy flowers, or eye-catching foliage. An ornamental also has a pleasing shape and fits easily into modern yards. This may seem like a tall order of outstanding characteristics, but the “ornamental” part of the description means that the trees are selected and bred to deliver in a big way.

The main feature, however, is that the size is smaller than majestic shade trees.

Examples:

ornamental cherry trees — Cherry trees along a path

Using Smaller Size Trees

Because of the more compact dimensions, a greater number of this type may be included in a suburban landscaping plan. The shorter heights may not interfere as much with overhead lines. (Though it is still wise to give utility lines a wide berth from your trees).

Read more about Positioning Trees in Your Yard on Ilona’s Garden website.

First Tip for Success

(1) Even though more trees can be planted, avoid a “spotty” look. One of the key rules of good design is to repeat elements in a cohesive way. With ornamental trees, choose to have groups of the same choice, or use the primary cultivar in several spaces within the landscape plan.

Dotting a different tree into each possible spot create a disjointed effect that lacks harmony. It is a common mistake made with perennials. The same rule applies to trees, perhaps more so.

I edge very close to disregarding this design principle at times. Something of a “collector” there is a wide selection of many desirable trees in the ornamental class. But the rule is to use a number of one plant, the effect being so much more pleasing.

Success Tip #2

(2) Choose specimens that do well in your climate zone and planting conditions. Nothing undermines the good looks of your landscaping than unhealthy trees. Or worse: dead ones! Buy from a reputable local nursery for best results or do your research to discover which of the ornamental trees thrive best on your property.

Consider:

Soil pH
Soil structure: sandy, loamy, or clay
Drainage is very important. Good or poor drainage, and whether the tree tolerates the moisture levels of the soil.
Insect and Disease problems likely in your area. Some trees are resistant to problems and some much more susceptible.

Ornamental Trees in Your Landscape

Tip #3: Visit an Arboretum

This is one of my favorite tips for successful landscaping of all types. Visit a local arboretum. In my own area of Ohio we have two that I love, Chadwick and Dawes Arboretum.

No book can match the real world lessons of how a plant may look at maturity in the yard. While trips to parks and neighborhoods are great places to pick up ideas on trees to plant, the Arboretums will provide the names and placement inspiration. Taking notes can be as simple as snapping photos of favorites and their plant labels.

Learn from Arboretums

Making a Garden Plan

1910 garden plan showing ornamental trees

With these tips, once the trees are in place, bring bulbs and groundcovers to the base of the trees to accentuate the beauty of the season they are most attractive. Many will “play nice” with perennials and other plantings to create lovely pictures in a chosen season.

Dogwoods with spring flowering bulbs and Virginia bluebells is a scintillating spring example. Think of your own, and make pictures that bring special beauty to your property.

Are You Ready To Plant?

With these 3 tips to guide your landscape plan, choose some ornamental trees which match your situation and conditions. Fall is an ideal time to plant trees. For most species it is better than the spring. Put together a plan that includes those chosen for fragrance (Crabapples, Witch hazels), winter interest (Contorted Hazel, Stewartia Pseudocamellia), or autumn color (Acer palmatum spp, Fringe trees).

These are only a few of myriad choices available, and if you match the choice to the property (tip #2) this may well be your favorite part of the garden landscape.

All Season Garden Color with Bold Foliage Effects, Masterful Contrasts

July 3, 2018 by Ilona Erwin

Be Bold with Color

Red scheme: Geum ‘Blazing Sunset’ , Anthriscus s. ‘Raven’s Wing’ , Streptanthus albidus peramoena “Jewel Flower” bring strong contrast, bright color together with pleasing effect. By anniesannuals (originally uploaded to Flickr as Spring Garden 08) [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons.

Foliage color is a fine way to introduce variation in all seasons; so consider the addition of variegated foliage, purple tinted leaves, golden and some of the other types of leaf or needle color. Flowers, combined for bold contrasts or subtle harmonies, are the glory of three of our four seasons.

Ways to Introduce Color Into Your Garden

Everyone thinks of spring and summer for color in the garden… but who plans their fall garden for bursts of color? And most of us decide that we need flowers to brighten up the garden views, but who puts colorful foliage plants first on their list? Or brings berried trees and shrubs for winter beauty?

The smart gardener like you, that’s who!

During autumn, foliage becomes the primary focus. Sometimes in surprising places such as the gold of hosta or Convallaria majalis.

Convallaria majalis in fall — Leaves of the Lily of the Valley plant turn a golden orange tipped in bronze.

Leafy contributions most commonly thought of are Autumn changes, but other seasons have their fair share of gold, purple, chartreuse, and even pink and red tints. Conifers come in different shades for winter, even twigs may add some color to the garden landscape, whether bright green, yellow, or coral red.

Do You Use Foliage For Accent?

…as part of the color plan in your landscape. Remember the colors of your house when choosing colors for your yard.

Flower Colors with Brick Houses

Great Plants for Foliage Color

Entryway Accents

Whether it is the large swathe of a perennial border or a small addition of containers by the steps, flowers can deliver color in any hue you desire.

A group of flowers can bring a combination of colors to create moods of harmony, calm, or excitement.

There are certain places that most people like to have some color, and that is at the entry or closely surrounding the house.

Like the glint of a jeweled necklace framing a face, the colorful accent of garden color close to the home’s entry seems most pleasing to the owner and their visitors. Perhaps that is due to the idea that a special spot of color bids welcome and speaks of the anticipation of the hospitality within.

I don’t know if that is simply an idea we have cultivated with flower arrangements and houseplants or if that is something hardwired into the human psyche, but it seems to work in that mode.

“Bright plants or flowers do a lot to enhance the entry.

Think “yellow” when adding accent plants to your home’s entry. Yellow is a great color for this purpose. It draws the eye and makes people feel at ease, which is exactly how you want them to feel when entering your home.”

– Home Staging

Strong Contrast

Because of the possibility of combining different types of foliage, purple and gold plants together are a popular combination. Too much of this constitutes what I call “a garden no-no”. It looks harsh and unnatural to the point of being annoying.

So you like hot pink, leopard prints, red heels, and dangling chandelier earrings all at once? Yes, and some people like the garden equivalent. It is your garden, after all, but most of us viewing it don’t like such strong color contrasts en masse as well as you, in that case.

There are always those case which break the rule, so I rarely make hard and fast ones for the look of a garden; there are people who have an unfailing artistic sense who can create even the most garish elements into something appealing.

Employ Shape, Color, Contrast, and Texture

Distinctive shapes highlight the interesting range of leaf color in a front entry.

Combos I Love

I love a touch of contrast, a golden accent here, a grove of purple-leaved trees there, a large amount of gray foliage and purple foliage with grays.
I like the combination of golden and glaucous foliage- “glaucous” being the blue effect that some leaves have.
I like purple foliage combined with red and bright orange flowers for a “wow” effect in a sunny spot. Quite amazing color effects can be done done with either only leaves or leaves and flowers in this pairing.
Try some of your most adventurous ideas in containers- they last for the one season and if you love the effect you can use it on a grander scale at a future date. If not, it was fun to see your idea for a time and to change it up the next year.

Color Can Be Bold

Try two or three plants of the same kind to give a bold splash of foliage color in a garden.

Golden Foliage Plants

Caryopteris Variety

Golden Caryopteris

Goldflame spirea

Take, for instance, the Goldflame spirea. The original form of this spirea shrub is very nondescript (although I like it). It has pretty pink flowers in season, but the rest of the time is a fairly dull green plant with small leaves.

In its ‘Goldflame’ form the spring leaves start out with a range of dawn colors of pink, reddish tinge, and pale gold, become a deeper golden color for summer and turn tints of yellow, pink, and orange for fall…while the bright pink flowers will bloom in their season, as well. It grows best in part sun/part shade where its colors is most welcome, and the contrast with green leaved plantings becomes a brilliant spot of color even when nothing is blooming.

Two Gold Leaf Beauties

Golden Spirit Cotinus Coggyria

Golden Coggyria leaf

Sutherland Gold Elderberry

Elderberry with gold foliage

Smoke Tree – Interest through foliage and bloom

Coggyria is an ornamental tree with varieties that include strongly colored leaves in gold or purple tones. Its name comes form the frothy look of the flowering parts; they look like a cloud of softly color smoke. It is a very interesting addition to the landscape.

Purple Foliage Plants

Berberis thunbergii var. Atropurpurea

Berberis thunbergii var. Atropurpurea brings color contrast into the spring palette

Berberis thunbergii var. Atropurpurea brings contrast into the spring palette.

Purple Berberis foliage is very popular. It is tough and comes in a variety of cultivars. It takes hedging exceptionally well. A drawback is the fact that it is sometimes considered an invasive non-native shrub.

Because of the drawing power of colorful plants, especially when pattern plays a part, these are plants to accent, and not overdo in your garden plan.

Color Can Be Subtle

Variegated plants are those with color variations along with the usual green: green and gold, green and cream, pink, green and gray. When introduced into a mostly green backdrop they provide a lift to the whole picture.

Many plants have variegated mutations. Some I really like are the large shrub Cornus elegantissima, variegated hollies, and the many types of hostas with beautiful gold or cream streaking the green or bluish-cast leaf color.

Where do subtle effects go wrong? When too bland and lacking in personality, the beauty of a plant can be lost.

Color Through The Seasons

Autumnal Hues

Plan for an autumn garden with spectacular color. Plants take on a whole new look when the first cold temperatures of fall touch their leaves. What flower can compete with the golden, scarlet and glowing orange hues of the trees in their autumn garb?

Don’t let your garden be dowdy when the October fling of festivity comes around. Any other time of year such competition seems gaudy, but not in the fall! Choose some of your shrubs and even perennials for their end of season tints.

Some trees are grown only for the beautiful leaf colors they turn in the fall. Look for those to brighten your yard. Note in a journal the plants that have beautiful fall color like hostas and balloon flowers, then combine them to good effect for this season’s show.

The golden autumn leaf color of the Ginko tree in the photo at the beginning of this section is a wonderful example of autumn leaf color at its finest.

Plan For Fall Leaves

Trees are grown for shade, form, flowering, and other properties, but one of the most visually satisfying is the autumn color they can provide

photo by bosela — Autumn Gingko leaf tints.Photo by bosela

The fall color of the Gingko biloba tree is a golden clear yellow. Choosing such trees and shrubs give the autumn a richness that shimmers against the clear blue skies and surprises the eye after the summer of green background.

Great Accents Or Garden No-Nos?

Strong visual impact can come from the often brassy or moody shades of foliage variation. Or the patterns of variegated leaves in the landscape can either be a focal point or become too much of a good thing when dotted throughout a garden space or massed together in a mish-mashed, unidentifiable collection.

The Garden No-No

Too much of a good thing can tire the eye or create a heavy imbalance which is more disturbing than delightful. Very dark purple leaves, extra powerful contrasts plunked into the middle of the yard, harsh and grating colors with no transitioning or mellowing partners … those can all be disconcerting “no-no’s”.

Winter

Winter berries bring much needed color to the landscape and stand out all the more. Additionally they attract birds .

Winter berries bring much needed color to the landscape and stand out all the more. Additionally they attract birds.

Don’t overlook berries or fruits as colorful additions to your garden plan.

Witch Hazel Early Blooms

Shrubs which bloom quite early with the added bonus of fragrance. [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],

Remember These Sources Of Landscape Interest

Leaf ColorWhether it is the autumn color or foliage variations…remember to use leaves to create a great color show in your landscape.</p
Flowers In Your PlantingsAnnual and perennials flowers, yes, but remember trees, vines, shrubs, and ground covers may all have bright beautiful flowers during three (in some places four) seasons of the year.</p
BerriesBerries are king in winter, and they give color and a wildlife food source. Often overlooked when planning garden plantings, but one of the secrets of a really great garden. Remember to plan for colorful berries, they can be red, but also yellow, orange, even blue or purple.

Bravely Paint Your Garden Using Color Theory

Painting With Plants

Using color in your garden is much like creating a painting, with easy to learn concepts of color harmonies as the basis for making a gardens that gives visual joy to all who see it.

Find ideas on creating all season beauty in your yard, and keep reading for a primer in color theory for the garden, all included in this page.

Rainbow spectrum or a carefully chosen palette, flowers are a main source of instant impact. They reign in spring and summer seasons. Leaves and stems will also hold their own with both bold and subtle effects.

The Nature Of Color

Monet Was a Master of Garden Color Effect
Monet’s garden at Giverny is a revelation. It was a master’s use of plantings that gave him inspiration for many of his most famous works. If you need color inspiration ideas, take a tour of his paintings.

Monets Garden,as he saw it — Monet’s Garden, as he saw it.

Color theory for the garden

Here is just a little about color to get you started, learning more about color theory is one of the best ways to improve your design sense for inside AND outside the house.

Warm colors are red, orange, yellow.

Cool colors are blue, purple, green.

Marvelous Coleus Colors — Marvelous Coleus brings bright spot to shady places.

Color Harmonies:

Complementary colors: opposites on the color wheel

Analogous color scheme: colors that are next to each other.

Monochromatic colors: colors all in the same family; i.e. all blues.

Triadic Color: three colors evenly spaced on a color wheel.

More on Color Theory and its use in the garden:

All About Garden Color

Color Theory

Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener’s Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel

Gain confidence in your use of color, learn from the experts. Nothing has helped me more in imagining plans and creating beautiful planting arrangements than books that hold advice from widely respected designers. It is all the better when photos of actual gardens inspire the process of putting together plants that bloom well, and at the same time.

Sometimes we are too timid, fearing that colors will clash or we don’t know whether something we are planning will work. Allow garden artist Keeyla Meadows to entice and inspire you to go beyond the ordinary.

Flower Power – Any Color of the Rainbow

Colorful Border — Colorful Perennial Border

Take Cues From Your Favorite Things

Think about your own ideas of color and how those from your environment or even your wardrobe could cue the design of some color additions to your yard for landscape interest and visual pleasure. There is something to be said for those small joys of the day, such as looking out the window to see a picture of something colorful and bright.

Monochromatic Designs

Color mutations and varigation of leaves are loved by gardeners for good reason. Golden leaves or purple ones create a new way to add color that lasts much longer than a plants blooms. They may have seasonal variations as well. The solid forms don’t have the spotty, too-busy look that variegated leaf plants may contribute to a view.

This type of plan requires self-discipline, with only one color chosen to create the look. Often used in plantings of conifers or one color gardens that rely on flowers for their main source of color.

Example of a Complementary Scheme

Strong complimentary hues of the same saturation bring excitement wherever they are placed. Just don't overdo it.

Strong complimentary hues of the same saturation bring excitement wherever they are placed. Just don’t overdo it.

Powerful Opposites

Purple and Yellow Complementary Colors

Hues speak messages to us- depending on our experience and culture, but also sometimes by the effect on our physiology.

Color can be calming or exciting, it can whet our appetite or soothe our irritability. Consider this when designing a garden for yourself.

Monet’s garden at Giverny is a revelation. It was a master’s use of plantings that gave him inspiration for many of his most famous works. If you need color inspiration ideas, take a tour of his paintings.

Garden Color Tips – Choose Color Like a Pro

Warm colors, red, orange, yellow stand out and draw the eye; cool colors, blue, purple, green, tend to recede into the background.
Gray foliage is a great mixer- use it to separate colors that don’t look good together.
Too much contrast is not a good thing, choose your contrasting effects wisely, and use them sparsely.
Strong contrast can make a statement, so at times it is good to go bold. But remember the previous caveat: don’t overwhelm your garden with too much contrast, but don’t be so afraid that your garden becomes boring. You can always move plants around, or even take them out altogether.

Don’t Use The Most Garish Color

…that you can find, or combine the most contrasting colors available unless it is small doses. Instead, why not have less color but more change in texture? Coarse large leaf plants combined with small fine-leaved ones?

A serene garden is almost always done in soft pastels or shades of green and white, while hot color gardens create a feeling of convivial cheerfulness.

What do you wish to be surrounded by? Don’t allow your yard to be simply a backdrop, but make it into your preferred environment with the use of color.

Hidcote, the Quintessential All Season Garden

Many examples of masterful use of flowers and foliage for beautiful pictures throughout the years may be seen in great gardens such as England’s Hidcote.

More for me than you, Garden Planning

February 6, 2017 by Ilona Erwin

I haven’t surfed garden blogs in forever, it seems. But today was different and I garnered some great ideas that I hope to put to work for me this year. We’ll see. It all depends on both how diligent I am and how much traveling I need to do. (Since I am the sole gardener, traveling can really put a wrench into my gardening plans).

OK. Idea #1

Growing a blue garden phlox called ‘Moody Blues’. This and the next idea come from Sue’s Garden Journal.

blue phlox — I am not always super successful with this type of phlox, but I would love to see these blooms in my garden.

Next. Idea #2

Planting the ends of my vegetable beds with flowers. I already plant flowers along with my vegetables (I can’t help it, it is an obsession). The look of neat little ends is tempting to me. I snipped a picture of how it looks in her garden and a homemade graphic of how I envision mine.

Notes about Sue’s Garden

She’s a more ambitious and a neater gardener than I can be at this time of my life. I note from my own experience that the stone edging is pretty, but needs weeding attention. The whole reason I like this idea is that I often have to weed the perimeters of the raised beds. A problem made worse by chickens who like to scratch in the mulch ( an idea which originally was meant to reduce weeding).

Not sure what I would do about those chickens, but the edges facing the lawn (necessary because the septic system is underneath) and house would be laced with flowers. This would not only look pretty, but draw pollinators, and fill in vulnerable spaces with desirable plants. Any area filled with desirables is less space for the UNdesirables. I love the way her garden mixes flowers and vegetables.

My vision:

My vision is similar, but without the fieldstone. I think I will need something, but not sure what. old fence boards (cut to size) laid flat could work. I’ve used salvaged brick in other parts of the garden.

I like the the thought of the boards, but not totally convinced. The flowers I would most like to see in this picture are the little single Tagetes (Marigolds). They would serve double duty as nematode controls, hopefully.

If I am to gain control of this garden in the new season, weeding and preparation will have to be aggressive in the earliest part of the Spring that I can work the soil.

What I like about this idea is that it cooperates with the situation I already have:

raised beds
mulched paths
mown grass

I do admit that two of the raised beds on the side need to be recovered from weeds. One was mostly reprocessed this past fall, but the bed with strawberries is more of a challenge.

Idea #3

You may remember my front walk ‘lavender hedge‘? Well, after reading an ode to the fragrance of lavender plants, an idea was sparked for me.

I have a raised planting area along the back deck approach. Nothing grows there. Not mint, nothing. I think it is too dry for what I attempted to grow. So, this year I will try herbs which like dry feet, lavender to be precise; and maybe a rosemary just to see if it will survive.

Those are my humble ideas for the garden this spring.

New plans for a garden don’t have to be unique or cutting edge trendy. They may simply be a good solution for a particular problem, or inclusion so something that has proven pleasing elsewhere.

I remember reading an English garden writer years ago, it may have been Margery Fish or it may have not. The point was made that some flowers can be perfectly suited for planting even though they were spurned by the garden world cognoscente. Such blooms as lobelia, pelargoniums, alyssum, and petunias. It made a lot of sense to me: why should we be plant snobs?

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

February 2, 2017 by Ilona Erwin

Front garden entry — Berberis thunbergii atro nana “Crimson Pygmy” (5); Spirea bumalda “Gold Mound” (1) ; Prunus laurocerasus “Otto Luykens” (6) ; Spirea bumalda “Limemound” (1)

It is increasingly the Holy Grail of garden designs: making a landscape low maintenance. For many reasons, reducing the work load of our outdoor spaces has become a priority.

We are busy with many activities
We are aging
Viewing flowers rather than weeding flowerbeds is preferable

That is not the definitive list, by any means, but it does hit the highlights of why this style of landscaping is increasing in desirability.

What are the Characteristics of Easy Care Yardspaces?

Perennial Plantings. The more permanent the planting, the less work it involves annually. Chores of caring for the plants are still present, but the larger larger spaces that are taken up by the individuals and groups of trees, shrubs, and long lived herbaceous flowers will cut down on weeding and replanting.
Larger Groups. This is basic to good design, too. using a larger number of the same kind reduces work in two ways: symbiotic health of the plants is increased and the required care is given to the whole grouping.
Like-minded Plants. Culturally harmonious in moisture fertility, and light requirements means they stay happy together and the gardener doesn’t have to cater to one or two unhappy plants in the group.
Hardy and Tolerant. Under your garden conditions, the plants should be varieties that are easier to care for to begin with… persnickety ones demand more cultivation, attention, and replacement.
Mowing Ease. In your design, tailor the shape of beds and tree wells, as well as the position of low hanging branches to aid in ease of lawn maintenance (if you have a lawn).

Those are my top 5 tips for creating a more low maintenance space.

More Gardening Tips

A formal, manicured style is much more work than a naturalistic design.

There are other refinements like using mulch to suppress weeds and conserve moisture.

Increasing the amount of shrubbery for fragrance, flowers, and foliage interest is another improvement to be made in most landscapes. Don’t overlook the value of well-behaved shrubs.

Dwarf shrubs add color and seasonal interest.

One consideration related to suggestion #5 is whether a plant is a thug, having invasive traits. Think, before introducing it to the garden. Sometimes it is a fine line of definition that divides the ground covers from the invasives. Find out “what is considered what” in your own area of the country.

Soil building is foundational to better gardens with less care.

Two Ways

1 Starting over from scratch in designing the yard might be the quickest way to ensure that it adheres to all the best practices in lowering the workload. Use hardscaping to control and access portions of the garden. Plant only easy to grow, healthy trees, shrubs, and flowers.

2 Most of us are in the second group, however. We inherited a garden, and important large trees, or we have a love of growing a wide number of things, both easy and more challenging. Yet, the need to have a less demanding landscape is imperative for us.

For gardeners in the second group, some hard decisions need to be made: removing certain plants and even woody specimens. Forgoing types of plantings or styles that are labor intensive is another choice sometimes made, sometimes forced upon us.

Both efforts -whether starting from the beginning or taking over an established landscape- benefit from improving the soils with compost and amendments.

Perennial Plant Examples to Use

pink daylilies — ‘Catherine Woodbery’ is a tried and true Hemerocallis.

Take a look at any public planted spaces and you will quickly find an array of what landscapers choose:

Daylilies
Russian Sage
Veronicas
Ornamental grasses
Rudbeckias
Sedums

Those backbone species don’t need to be the entire composition of your own place, but can start out your short list of easy care plants. Use choices planted in berms and along roadways to give you ideas for what works well in your climate and/or urban conditions.

The Most Important Consideration

The garden should serve the home and the people in it. At the same time, recognizing that it fits in the greater ecology of the planet, the use of the earth surrounding our houses should be healthy for plants, animals, and humans alike.

Lower maintenance goals work alongside this greater one, since designing in tandem with nature means the garden will require less to look good. The plants are healthy when they have the soil, light, and moisture that is best for their needs. They will then need little to no interference of chemical support.

How To Plant Dutch Bulbs For Fabulous Spring Flowers

August 19, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Start Spring With A Big Pop of Color

Apeldoorn Tulips |

Though the usual sequence is to plant the bulbs in the fall for bloom in the spring, some growers cheat the system by chilling those sold for spring bloom. This is necessary for Southern gardens which don’t get the required cold temperatures.

Presented here are some of the fine selections that you can plant in your own gardens to brighten up the Springtime with color and fragrance.

Find out if the small bulbs, tulips, or daffodils might be best for you.

Planting and maintenance tips, secrets to success, all included for your pretty garden.

A Healthy Look

Fat, Healthy Tulip Bulbs

These Are Always Planted In Autumn

Though planted in Autumn, Spring is the best time to make lists of varieties to order or look for when the season rolls around in late August.

Pick Healthy Bulbs

Dutch Perfection

The Dutch have perfected the bulb growing for ideal blooms.
Most bulbs are shipped to stores and gardeners at planting time ,starting about September.
Bulbs come in different sizes according to variety, but also due to quality.
They produce 4.32 billion tulip bulbs annually, some of which will grow cut flowers.

Fat Bulbs: Heavy Means Healthy

Because tulips and other fall planted spring bubs are grown in Holland to ideal size, it is important to get the largest bulbs you can. Look for tight tunics (the brown skin), a feel of heavy weight for the size, to indicate freshness and health.

Although bulbs differ in look, they should feel heavy, since the lighter they are the more they may have dried out. When taking care to get the best bulbs, be sure to plant them promptly. This allows the roots to get a start on the winter.

When ordering online, the catalog should record the diameter of the bulbs offered, usually in centimeters. This is the way to gauge the quality of what is offered.

10 cm. minimum for tulips, 12 cm. is better
Daffodils depend on variety and class, but look for those with 16 cm. bulbs for best results
Not sure of size? Choose according to feeling of weightiness

Big impact from a small size: plant in large groups. Glory of the Snow

How To Plant And Naturalize

Put Those (Plant) Babies In The Ground

Bulbs are simply a storehouse which contain the baby plant in entirety. Everything needed for a beautiful blooming plants is right inside the bulb along with a storehouse of food for that year. This is why we can “force” bulbs for inside the house during winter months.

It also explains two other things: why forced bulbs are useless to plant in the ground and why we need to leave the foliage growing after blooming. The foliage is fattening up the storage bulb and creating the next year’s flowers.

First Steps For Fabulous Results

Find a sunny spot- most spring flowering bulbs need full sunshine.
Make sure the soil is well-drained. These bulbs will rot in soggy ground.
Dig holes or a trench 3 x deeper than the bulb’s height.
Sprinkle in the fertilizer.
Plant bulb root (or plate) side down and cover with soil.

Mixed Triumph Tulips (25 Bulbs) – Assorted Colors of Tulip Bulbs

Add pretty color with old fashioned looking Triumph tulips. They are a bit shorter than Darwins, but their large flowers are held on sturdy stems.

These bulbs are grown to flower this spring, and don’t forget that they can look lovely in containers plantings, too.

Nothing says spring like a bunch of colorful tulips.

Plant them towards the front of the flower bed.They bloom mid-Spring.

Blooming Together For A Spring Picture

Daffodils and grape hyacinths usually bloom together. They are just one example of the layering technique, where large sized bulbs are planted deeper with small ones are planted a few inches higher.

This produces a carpet of contrasting color for the larger blooms of Daffoils and Tulips. It is a favorite method of Dutch growers in their display gardens.

How To Mix Bulbs Together In Pretty Combination In Your Garden

Check bloom times on bulbs for the greatest likelihood of pretty garden pictures.

Given the variability built into Mother Nature it still is no guarantee that the bulbs will all flower on cue. However, the upside of that truth is that sometimes many flower simultaneously with other plants that you didn’t expect.

This past winter delayed everything in my own garden, and provided quite a few surprises, but in normal years the inner clocks of the flowers are dependable.

The garden always surprises.

Good combos?

Small bulbs and earliest daffodils
Early Kaufmanniana tulips with crocus
Choosing two or three harmonious tulips of the same class
Daffodils and Scillas
Tulips and Hyacinths

My Favorite Spring Flower Pairings

Low growing perennials like Moss phlox ( Phlox subulata), Iberis sempervirens, ‘Basket of Gold’ Alyssum at the feet of tulips are probably the best of the blossoming spring show.

The moss phlox and Iberis are also attractive groundcovers all season long with attractive foliage that persists and smothers many weeds.

Moss Phlox With Red Tulips, And Yellow Daffodils

In my driveway garden, this carpet of moss phlox is paired with red tulips and golden daffodils.

What Flowers Make You Think Spring?

While there are many perennials which flower in springtime, it is the Dutch flower bulbs like Tulips, Daffodils, and Crocus which most of us identify with the beginning of the new garden season.

In fact if you would choose an icon for the Spring, it might well be one of those blooms. Although they may not come first to mind, there are a plethora of other flowers that bloom from bulbs in the spring: Hyacinths, Frittilarias, Snowdrops, Glory of the Snow, Eranthis, and numbers of lesser known like the Alliums and dainty bulb forming Irises.

Start the garden out right with a plan that includes a display of these easy care bulbs with good looking perennial plants to bloom with them, or cover them later.

Cover The Ground With Perennials

I like to grow perennials with Spring flowering bulbs, not just to cover the dying foliage, but also as companions that bloom in tandem with them.

Low growing perennials are the classic pairing, Phlox subulata, Arabis, Basket of Gold are just a few. Forget-me-nots and pansies create bright, colorful panoramas of bloom along with the larger flowers of tulips and daffodils.

Another Landscape Idea

Perennials that are slow to emerge will give the bulbs time to bloom and then cover the fading foliage. Hostas are ideal, but daylilies are better for sunny spots and keep the color going into summer months.

What Sort Of Fertilizer Should I Use?

Add Long Lasting Fertilizer

Fertilizers such as bone meal or the special formulation sold for bulbs create perennial vigor and bloom.
Organic fertilizers are often slow acting and soil building which is just what bulbs like to produce gorgeous flowers.

Fertilizing For Bulb Maintenance

Be sure your flowers come back year after year and bloom to maximum results by adding fertilizer when planting and annually thereafter.

Scotts Bulb Continuous Release Plant Food, 3-Pound (Not Sold in Pinellas County, FL)

I personally prefer to add bone meal, which has a typical analysis of 3-15-0. The middle number is phosphorus which aids in root growth and promotes blooms.

Fertilize as you see the shoots emerge, and then after bloom each year.

Remember that roots are growing under ground in the fall, and that is another period of time to add slow release fertilizers.

The food that is formulated especially for bulbs takes out the guesswork.

Scilla Hispanica or English Bluebells Naturalize In Shady Places

Naturalizing

Scatter

“Scatter” is the operative word in naturalizing.

Whether you scatter the bulbs on top of the ground before planting, or scatter seed after the flowers set seed, the effect is as if mother nature herself were at work.

Have you ever seen pictures of a river of blue flowers among trees? A lawn with an endless parade of spring flowers such as daffodils, or even a hillside covered in crocus? They probably did not get there by accident, but by the artful planting in a style called “naturalizing”.

Chionodoxa is a good choice for naturalizing

Some bulbs will helpfully seed and multiply, but many need a gardener who distributes bulbs each year in a way that looks so unstudied that it seems as though it had to be Mother Nature.

It is easy to do. Simply choose the bulbs you wish to grow, a spot where they can be left alone after blooming (remember they need time for leaves to die down), and patience.

How To Naturalize

Scillas and Chionodoxa are easiest to grow this way. Crocus is a little more difficult, because rodents may eat them and they don’t spread through seed in most gardens.
I like to scatter the bulbs in the area I want to plant them, and then use a shovel or trowel to open the ground. Drop in the bulb with a bit of bone meal. Done!
Under shrubs and trees when a neat lawn is required; in the lawn itself, if you don’t mind some weeks of shagginess for withering foliage.
Along a driveway, mulched during bulb dormancy, is a pretty way to naturalize Grape hyacinths.
In lightly wooded areas, on hillsides, within a shrubbery.

PLANTING BULBS IN FALL TO BLOOM IN SPRING.

5 Best Small Spring Blooms
One of the ways I like to combine these small bulbs is to have a garden with all blues, naturalized in the grassy areas and under trees. A mix of Scillas, Glory-of-the-snow, blue Muscari, are a melange of blue color spilled over the ground

My Daffodils Multiply Every Year

Bulb Garden Maintenance

SECOND STEP FOR KEEPING BULBS BLOOMING THROUGH THE YEARS

After bulbs bloom, snip off dead flowers, leaving stems.
Allow all green parts to wither and die down, or lift bulbs and keep in a cool, dry place.
Allow to grow in situ until bulbs no longer bloom well. Then lift, divide, and move.
Don’t allow to go to seed unless they are minor bulbs which you wish to naturalize. Seed formation weakens daffodil and tulip flowering. Allow all strength of plant to go to bulbs.
Lightly fertilize in following fall to help roots and plant prepare for next year.

Snip!

Take off the spent flowers to prevent bulb strength going into seed production.

Garden Snips I consider my garden snips to be invaluable for the job of dead heading and a surprising number of other garden tasks. Read my review of the economical, favorite brand I use.

Spring Garden Harmony

Choose colors, heights, and bloom times

Fall Planted Spring Bulbs

Plant Type	Colors	Depth
Tulips	many colors,except blue	6 to 8 inches
Daffodils	mainly yellow and white, but also oranges	6 to 8 inches
Fritillaria imperialis	yellow, orange	6 to 8 inches
Hyacinths	blue,purple,pink,white,salmon,	6 to 8 inches
Hyacinthoides hispanica	blue, white, pink	4 inches
Alliums, large	Purple	6 inches
Minor bulbs: crocus,scillas,galanthus,iris,etc	multi-colors and single colors	3 to 4 inches
Alliums, small	rose, yellow, white	3 to 4 inches

Quick color and planting depth chart

International Bulb Society
all the FAQ concerning bulbs

Low, Low Maintenance Spring Bulb Garden, Nothing Easier

May 29, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Americans, especially Generation X, don’t want to be bothered with lots of gardening chores. Why would flowering bulbs appeal to people who want an easy, low maintenance garden? Find out.

Your Home’s Style And Type of Garden Brightened With Bulbs

Whether your home is formal or informal, there are plant pictures made with flower bulbs that will enhance the look and fit with the style.

They are usually very low care, and low cost.

Which plan or combination will give the look you want?

Wishing for a natural style like a rock garden? One filled with small bulbs partnered with low growing perennials like moss phlox? Or an Alpine scene with miniature conifers?
Perhaps beds of naturalized bulbs which are later covered with all season, low-maintenance plants like sun-loving spurge or shade garden hostas?
Are you dreaming of containers filled with colorful bulbs mixed with annuals and foliage plants?
Or maybe your front yard of formal foundation plantings which come alive with color in spring or summer and return to strong green lines for the rest of the year?

Reasons Why To Use Bulbs In Your Landscaping Plan

Darwin Tulips in many colors — Tulips come in a wide array of colors and make a great show in mid-spring.

Flowers grown from bulbs are often bright and colorful- they come in every hue in the spectrum.
Most often healthy and without problems, they count among the easier plantings in the landscape.
Don’t like them? Simply lift, and dispose.
Economical when planting the more common varieties which are loved for good color, tried and true performance, and ease.

Flowering Bulbs Can Provide Any Of These Pictures

Dutch Bulbs Brighten Landscape — Source: Tino Stulen, on Flickr

Regular clumps of one type of bulb will give a repetition of color and form that can be used in both formal and informal plans.

Mixed among ornamental grasses in a modern plan, a summer flowering bulb like Liatris gives sparkling lavender or white color just as its common name implies: “Blazing Star”.

Summer bulbs such as Cannas or tubers like Dahlias are large splashes of color in any landscape. Lining a foundation or filling a bed with a pop of splashy color, they have strong form and tropical color.

Any one of these ideas for planting a garden of bulbs could create quite a feature, and an entire landscape can come alight with several areas dedicated to the addition of flowers that come from tubers, corms, bulbs, and other underground storage stems or roots.

Gen X Can Garden

Born between 1960s and the early 1980s?

The media reported on this generation calling them “slackers”, saying that they were lazy and spoiled. The garden community thinks they have gone MIA,

…But I think they are just very busy building their lives in ways that don’t involve putting lots of hard work into their gardens. That could change, but one thing that is true for every generation: We all appreciate a plant that gives back more than we put in with beauty and value in our yards.

GEN X FINDS THE PERFECT PLANT

Even busy GenX homeowners will appreciate a landscape that looks good, yet requires so little work for a great return. It is the ideal way to add value to the yard in a way that last year after year.

When it comes to many varieties like daffodils and scillas, they multiply with no work at all.

Summer Tender Or Cold Climate Hardy?

Which choice is for you? Summer blooming, but tender or spring blooming cold hardy plantings? Tender bulbs are planted in the spring, and cold hardy bulbs are planted in the fall.

Timber Press Pocket Guide to Bulbs — Handy Book On Bulbs

Pocket Guide to Bulbs (Timber Press Pocket Guides) Compact size makes it perfect to keep handy when making your plant orders or visiting the garden center. Useful for quick reference when making notes in your garden journal, or when checking facts.

Plant Once For Years Of Beautiful Flowers

Why Plant Them? Because They Are Beautiful

When so much beauty is available for your yard at such a reasonable cost in time, effort, and money, this is how to plant when you don’t want to work all day in the garden.

They are easy.
Miniature plant factories with everything needed to make a good show.

From Spring To Summer and Early Fall

Crocus are cold climate favorites — Crocus are early blooming. They are among the most beloved of cold climate bulbs and a symbol of spring.

Hardy Cold Climate Bulbs For spring

Many bulbs are just planted once and then multiply for years afterwards. They don’t require much care or maintenance and they disappear for the summer (go dormant).

Even if you only have a small urban strip of a garden, or can’t see yourself digging and weeding, this kind of garden can improve the curb appeal while never cutting into your summer leisure plans.

Naturalized Eranthis Is Example Of Small Bulb Beauty

Eranthis hyemalis — This is a closeup of the pretty green and gold Eranthis.

Even small bulbs have a big impact when grown in large numbers. many of these “naturalize”, which means they multiply on their own as if growing in a natural setting. Most have polite ways of spreading, but you can easily plant large number and instantly get the same results.

Scillas, Puschkinia,and Chionodoxa all do this, but a lesser known choice is the Winter Aconite, or Eranthis hyemalis, featured here.

Grow Chionodoxa

I have a short video of a beautifully naturalized planting of Eranthis:

Looks Like Nature Planted Them

Naturalizing is planting informal “drifts” of dozens or even hundreds of bulbs among other plants. — Rodale’s Veronica Fowler

Summer-blooming bulbs and tubers

Hardy	Tender	Container
Crocosima	Gladiolas	Begonias
Liatris	Dahlias	Caladiums
Lilies	Agapanthus	Freesias
Hardy Amaryllis	Calla lilies	Dahlias
Resurrection lily	Cannas	Cannas

Splashy Summer Dahlias

hot colored dahlias — Dahlias come in many sizes and forms. They are tender bulbs in cold climates, but their color and decorative forms make them an outstanding addition to the garden.

Dahlias, Cannas, Caladiums, and Gladiolas are summer bulbs, not hardy in cold Northern climates. They make a big splash of color from their flowers or foliage, and don’t need much care, but they must be lifted and stored for winter in a cold climate.

They can also be grown as annuals each year.

Lilies In August

Oriental lilies have an exotic look with loads of sweet fragrance. Their late summer bloom time brings color and perfume into the garden when midsummer flush of many perennials are over and the annuals look tired.

Late Summer And Early Fall Bloomers

Autumn Colchicum is delicate and looks something like crocus flowers.

Resurrection or Surprise Lily

This old fashioned favorite is also called “Naked Ladies” because the thick strap like foliage appears in the spring only to disappear long before the stalks of pretty pink lily like flowers appear later in the summer.

Now you can understand its other nicknames like “Resurrection lily” and “Surprise lily”. The spidery petals are a pink that harmonizes well with almost any other color.

They will grow in average soils, even in clay. Sun or part shade, and average moisture. Plant 5 to 8 inches deep, with the shallower depth in heavier soils.

3 Bareroot Pink Spider Lily/ Surprise Lily/ Naked Lady Lily/ Resurrection Lily/ August Lily/ Raidanti Squamigera

Liatris From The Prairies

Prairie flowers bloom in midseason summer months. They are American natives which make them hardy and a good feature for natural gardens.

Cyclamen hederifolium is a small groundcover bulb which gives late summer/ early fall bloom.

Its graceful pink flowers are charming and perfect for Fairy gardens.

The heart shaped, variegated leaves are handsome, and this is one of the few plants that will grow in somewhat dry shade.

A related plant is Cyclamen coum, which will bloom in the spring.

Which Bulbs To Plant Once And Forget?

SPRING TO EARLY SUMMER

Perennial Tulips
Scillas
Eranthis hyemalis
Grape Hyacinths ( Muscari spp.)
Snowdrops
Chionodoxia
Alliums

SUMMER

FALL

Colchicum
Fall Crocus
Cyclamen hederifolium
August or Resurrection lilies

Where To Put Bulbs In The Garden?

Trim walkways
Underneath the shrubbery
In containers
Around trees
Next to the Front door
Amongst the groundcover plantings

Around Bushes and Trees, or Along Walkways

Planted around garden ornaments, features, or paths, seasonal color accents and gives additional texture to the landscape design.

Fronting the shrubs, in spaces between tree roots, under a late groundcover of hostas, the flowers appear before the foliage, they take little soil and fade away before summer heat.

In Containers

Many containers utilize dahlias and cannas, Spring displays of tulips are not as common in the USA as in England or other places, but give big impact when they are.

A large flower pot all with one type in a single color makes a strong statement and gives drama.

Tall growing bulbs like drumstick alliums, scattered about within groundcovered areas could bring another dimension to a neglected area of the yard in early summer.

Plant Around Trees

Planting around a tree — Source: Planting Bulbs by LollyKnit, on Flickr

A favorite way to include color is in the soil area around trees. Bulbs don’t require much soil, water or fertilizer and so don’t interfere with the needs of the trees. They provide a spot of color before the trees leaf out.

General Bulb Growing Advice

Requirements: Good Drainage Is A Must
Wet or poorly drained ground in the number one reason for failure with these plants. Sunshine is necessary, but good drainage above all else.

If you are planting large numbers of bulbs, especially in grassy areas for a naturalized look, consider using a planting auger. It quickly drills into the ground, so you just have to add a pinch of fertilizer and drop in the bulb. Heel in to close up the space.

Heavy Duty Bulb and Bedding Plant Auger 28 In. Long by 2.75 In. Diam.

Make easy work of planting a large number of bulbs. Auger attachment quickly creates planting holes.

Daffodils, crocus, anytime you want to make quick work of a bulk amount of planting, this will drill separate holes. Assures depth without having to dig up entire trench.

The ideal solution for planting under trees, on hillsides, or in the lawn areas.

Whether you are the Boomer or Gen X generation, you will appreciate the way it takes the hard work OUT of putting in your flower bulbs.

Buried Treasures: Finding and Growing the World’s Choicest Bulbs

A Few Last Tips

I bet you didn’t realize there were so many types of flowers that grew from bulbs or how easy they may be. Now, it is a matter of choosing which type you would most enjoy and planting them.

Some are very small, as you may have noticed, while some, like the lilies are very tall. Viewing your yard, which do you need? Tall and fragrant for beside the deck, or small spring bulbs along the bushes in the front yard, or perhaps medium sized with giant blooms like summer flowering begonias for your porch containers.

If you give bulbs what they like at the outset (sunshine, good drainage, good soil, and a little fertilizer) they will demand very little from you and last for many years.

It is not the best idea to mix bulbs into perennial beds. Perennials often need division and cultivating during the season; this involves slicing into the soil. Invariably bulbs will become dislodged and are often sliced with a shovel.

Too shady a spot is not a great place to plant your bulbs. Almost all varieties need sunshine, ranging from full sun to part for best blooms.

Remember that poor drainage can result in rot and the loss of your bulbs.