How to Select the Best Bulbs

Ahhhh spring! The bright colors of crocus, tulips, daffodils, and narcissus; you know the new season has started and winter is over!

Spring Flower Gardens – The sun is out!

Spring would not be spring without bulb flower gardening. The vibrant colors of an early spring bulb garden just can’t be duplicated. Easy to plant and with little maintenance after planting, bulb flower gardening continues to be a favorite worldwide pastime.

After a cold, gray winter, a spring flower garden works magic on your well-being. Easy to grow, bulbs bloom reliably season after season. With just a little work, bulb flower gardening returns your efforts with an array of diverse and colorful blooms.

Bulb Plants Are Self Contained

Bulb plants are very easy to grow both in the garden and in containers. Because they are so easy to grow, planting bulbs is an excellent way to introduce children to gardening.

The bulb is actually a tiny womb for a flower. In fact, if you split a bulb in half, you probably will see the bud and in some cases, the beginnings of the flower. Everything the flower needs to grow, except water, is contained inside a bulb. All of the nutrients and vitamins are self-contained to ensure successful bloom.

Although the differences between them are slight, many of these flower storehouses that we commonly call bulbs are actually rhizomes, corms, and tubers. Look for these labels in addition to “bulbs” when purchasing bulbs.

When selecting bulbs, always choose those that are firm and blemish-free. A good rule of thumb to remember is “the larger the bulb, the larger the bloom.”

Selecting Bulbs for Your Spring Flower Garden

Think about when you want color in your bulb flower gardening site. There is an excellent color choice available in tulip bulbs. No matter what type of color design you want to create your choices ranges from white to pink to even black tulips. Daffodils, although typically sunny yellow, are also found in combinations of yellow and white. Crocuses are commonly white, purple or yellow.

Flower Garden Design

There is no need to stick to only one type of bulb, as spring bulbs all complement each other very well. Tulips pair very nicely with daffodils and crocuses are a small plant that add color to the lower end of the garden.

You can extend blooming times by planting different varieties of bulbs also extends bloom times. Bulb varieties exist for every bulb flower gardening season:

Some of the most popular early spring bulbs are tulips, crocuses, and daffodils.

• Snowdrops and winter aconite also bloom in early spring
• Grape hyacinth and Grecian windflowers are mid-spring bloomers.
• Lilies and Persian buttercups blossom in early to mid-summer.
• Amaryllis does its thing in late summer
• Begonias, dahlias, eucomis, elephant ears and caladiums are also popular summer bulbs.
• Meadow saffron shows off in the autumn.

When selecting bulbs for bulb flower gardening, the bigger the better. Large bulbs ensure nice, big, healthy blooms. Look for firmness and avoid any with soft spots or other signs of damage.

Don’t buy bulbs that are cracked or deeply scratched. Keep them in a cool, dry area away from sunlight until you’re ready to plant!

Choose Healthy Bulbs

Before purchasing any bulbs, know the differences in bulb types.
Choosing the right bulbs involves more than just selecting colors and cultivars. Type, timing, bulb size, and most importantly, bulb health are equally significant factors in designing your spring garden.

“Bulb” Types

Along with true bulbs, several types of flowers, sold as bulbs, grow from the underground stem growth of rhizomes, tubers, and corms.

• True bulbs are rounded, self-sufficient, underground storage organs. True bulbs are an incubator for a flower bud embryo already inside.
• Many perennial flowers grow from tubers, which are flat underground stems that store food and plant energy.
• Corms are thick underground stems that produce the new roots, leaves, and flowers of their cultivars.
• Rhizomes are modified plant stems that grow horizontally under the surface of the soil. New growth emerges from several different points along each rhizome.

Bulb Health

The first part of selecting healthy bulbs is knowing the bulb parts.

1. The tunic of a bulb is the paper-like outside of the bulb that protects it from damage and keeps it from drying out.
2. The scale leaves are under the tunic and hold all the nutrients needed to grow the cultivar.
3. The first parts of the plant to push through the soil are the immature leaves, closely followed (or so we hope) by the flower bud and the stem.
4. The roots of bulb cultivars grow from the basal plate, which lies at the bottom of each bulb. Healthy bulbs are firm, well rounded, and heavy for their size. Although bulbs come in a range of colors, some even with distinctive patterns, color should be uniform with no dark patches or light splotches. Discard any bulbs with weak spots or spongy areas, which are signs of rot caused by disease or other damage.

Bulb Size

“The bigger the bulb, the bigger the bloom” is a double-edged tip for selecting bulbs.

First, it helps you select cultivars and decide where to place them in your spring flower garden. For instance, crocus and anemone bulbs are tiny imps that beg a front row or outside border seat, while giant tulip or daffodil bulbs stand tall in back rows or keep watch over the center of your garden.

Second, larger bulbs, within a particular cultivar, are generally more robust than smaller bulbs and produce stronger, healthier plants and blooms.

Timing

When choosing bulbs for a spring flower garden, consider both when they need to be planted as well as when you want them to appear.

Most spring bulbs need to be planted in late summer or autumn. However, the reasons for the timing in planting spring bulbs usually aren’t relative to when the bulbs sprout in the spring.

Rather, bulbs usually need to be planted when it is cool enough to keep them from sprouting but warm enough to allow roots to become established before winter.

All spring bulbs need a cool-weather rest period below 50°F in order to sprout successfully. If your climate is warm, you’ll need to provide them with a simulated winter before planting them.

• Tulips — 14 weeks
• Hyacinths — 12 weeks
• Snowdrops and scilla — 6 weeks
• Crocus — 4 weeks

Although crocuses and windflowers are tiny, they are brave little imps and often the first heralds of spring. Generally, they’ll be followed by smaller tulip cultivars and narcissus.

Still, even some of the larger daffodils and giant tulip hybrids may surprise you with an early appearance. The best way to try to synchronize bulb growth with your garden plan is to check the growth patterns of each individual cultivar before purchasing and planting the bulbs.