The Best Bulbs for Each Situation
October 8th, 2019
We live in a part of the country where most spring-blooming flower bulbs do very well.
A “river of hyacinths” I once planted in my back yard.
Southern gardeners salivate to grow the kind of stunning bulb masses we can do March through May, but their winters don’t provide the chill times bulbs need in winter.
Unfortunately, not a lot of us take advantage of this benefit of Pennsylvania gardening.
I think it’s a combination of work, expense, timing (people are more in fall mode than planting mode come October), the fact that you have to wait months to see the fruits of your labor, and frustration with animals, which is mainly an issue with tulips and sometimes hyacinths and crocuses.
If you pick the right bulbs and get them in the right spots (like any plant), you’ll greatly improve your early-season yard color and reward yourself with flowers that come back year after year with relatively little work.
I have favorites for each situation, if you’d like to give some of them a try. October is the best month for planting spring bulbs in Pennsylvania.
For more ideas, check out my PennLive garden column on 12 out-of-the-ordinary ways to use spring-flowering bulbs.
Hardly anything ever eats daffodils.
Where animals are lurking: Daffodils.
Rabbits, deer, and rodents mainly feast on tulips, most crocuses, and sometimes hyacinths. So you’re safe with most anything else, although daffodils (Narcissus) are at the top of the bullet-proof list. (I’d pick alliums as a close second.)
Daffodils are readily available choices with trumpet-shaped flowers that come in a variety of sizes, bloom times, and colors (gold, yellow, white, and peachy pastels).
In shade: Siberian squill (Scilla siberica).
Most of the small-flowered, early-emerging bulbs do fine with even with a few hours of sunlight.
I like the blue flowers of Siberian squill.
I like Siberian squill for their vibrant blue bell-shaped blooms, which usually peak in early April. They grow only about four inches tall and usually spread like a groundcover, so long as they don’t rot in soggy soil.
Early risers like these are able to absorb enough sunlight to recharge themselves before overhead trees (the leading cause of landscape shade) leaf out.
A second good option here is striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica), which bloom in late April with blue-streaked white flowers on eight- to 10-inch plants.
In wet spots: Summer snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum).
Summer snowflakes look a little like extra-tall snowdrops.
Most bulbs rot in soggy soil, but summer snowflake is a species that tolerates “wet feet” better than most. They get white, bell-shaped flowers in April to early May.
Quamash (Camassia esculenta) is my second wet-spot choice. It’s one of the few native American bulbs and produce spikes of purplish-blue flowers in late April to early May.
Otherwise, deal with wet spots by adding soil and amendments to create raised beds that lift bulbs out of the sogginess. Then you can grow whatever you want.
Out front: Ornamental onions (Alliums).
The big-flowered alliums are some of the best Dr. Seuss-like plants that will impress any passersby but especially kids.
Allium ‘Globemaster’
Allium ‘Globemaster’ and ‘Purple Sensation’ get tennis-ball to softball-sized, round, purple flowers atop two- to three-foot stalks in May to early June, while Allium schubertii and Allium christophii have similar-sized flower heads that look like exploding purple planets.
They return reliably most of the time and expand with age (making up for their higher initial cost).
Along paths: Hyacinths.
Hyacinths make sense in any high-traffic area (or near windows) because of their fragrance. They’re among the most fragrant of any flower.
These perfumed beauties grow about a foot tall, bloom in April, and get fat flower spikes of purple, blue, white, pink, or pale yellow.
Front of flower beds: Glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa forbesii).
These short bloomers are very good at colonizing into masses that are ideal for adding spring color along the front of border or foundation gardens.
Blue glory-of-the-snow in bloom.
You can either interplant them among perennials (glory-of-the-snow are up and blooming while most perennials are just starting to leaf out), or you can plant annuals between clumps of them or even right over top of them in May as the glory-of-the-snow foliage dies back.
Glory-of-the-snow is an April-blooming bulb with star-shaped flowers of blue or pink.
“Tommy” crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) are my second choice here. These are types least likely to be eaten by animals.
Back of flower beds: Daffodils or alliums.
You’ll need something taller toward the middle or back of foundation and border beds, and these two are the most reliable of the taller options. Either (or both interplanted) are also good choices along fences.
Crown imperials (Fritillaria imperialis) are another good choice with their showy red, gold, or orange flowers, but they’re not as long-lived as daffs and alliums, at least in my experience.
Snowdrops in bloom.
Window views: Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis).
Snowdrops are extremely early to flower, often blooming as a late-January or February snow melts. That makes them perfect choices in any bed or border that you can see out a favorite window when it’s too cold to go strolling in the yard.
Snowdrops look like tiny dripping snowballs with their hanging white flowers.
They also colonize and tend to get better with age.
In pots: Tulips.
This is the place to try tulips, unless you’re gardening on another planet where there aren’t rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, voles, and deer – all of which lust for tulip bulbs and flower buds.
Secure chicken wire over the pot after you plant your tulip bulbs to keep the rodents from burrowing in. A taller pot also discourages rabbits (except for flying ones), so you’re down to hoping deer don’t get the bulbs before they open.
You might need to water your winter-resistant bulb pots a few times over winter during thawed periods where the soil goes bone dry.