This is the only time of the year we can plant bulbs that will go through the winter and provide us with splashes of colour for weeks next spring.
As with most plants, their impact in our gardens can be significantly enhanced by combining them with other bulbs, spring flowering perennials and shrubs. Part of the art of gardening is learning which combinations to use for the greatest impact.
For a few years now, the Dutch bulb industry has put together some brilliant bulb collections to heighten their overall effect. You can find some of these pre-packaged combinations in garden stores now.
Calypso is a mix of bright pink tulips, deep blue hyacinths and soft yellow narcissus, which will all bloom together.
Sunny Days is an uplifting combo of dwarf early yellow tulips and deep blue muscari (grape hyacinths). Violet Skies combines late-blooming, purple double tulips and soft blue scillas.
The Sun Showers collection has bicolour orange and yellow tulips blended with double yellow narcissus that have a bright orange perianth.
Sweet Frosting has fringed pink and white tulips paired with white narcissus that have a soft coral perianth.
Peach Fuzz mixes bicolour pink and peach tulips with white narcissus that have a peach coloured perianth.
These combinations, among many others, will really fire up any cool spring garden.
Iberis (candytuft) has certainly become the number one, in-demand, spring perennial because of its low-spreading habit and long-lasting pure white or soft lavender flowers.
It’s a natural home for partnering with crocuses, blue muscari, early miniature Tete-a-Tete daffodils and the short, early blooming botanical tulips that come in many colours. Plantings of arabis, a traditional white ground cover, and aubretia, with its many shades of purple, make excellent places to naturalize any of these bulbs.
Early blooming PJM rhododendrons, with their lavender flowers that last for weeks, survived the devasting cold of last winter. These hardy rhodos are an ideal home for early yellow narcissus. Another one of my favourite compact rhododendrons is the soft yellow Patty Bee. It looks amazing when surrounded with pink and blue scillas for a long-lasting punch of early colour.
Winter-flowering white, pink and deep purple heathers make terrific companions for a wide range of early, mid and late season bulbs. Planted now, they would provide a long and continuous display.
To enjoy the full impact of our spring bulbs, we need to be a little more creative in partnering them with other complementary bulbs or with a wide range of early-blooming plants.
The synergism of bulbs and perennials, working together, should be the aim of our spring gardens. The results of these companion plantings are something to look forward to with anticipation.
The promise of next spring begins now.
