Last updated on February 11th, 2012
WHY DO YOU PLANT BULBS? Is it because the first April tulip — like the purple, heirloom ‘Van der Neer’ pictured up top — sends you over the moon? Is it because the snow-white Galanthus, the golden Eranthis hyemalis and the blue-violet Anemone confirm for you that spring is here…even before the snow has melted?
I plant bulbs because, at winter’s end, I wish to see from my windows a technicolored landscape here, when the rest of world is still bleak and gray.
I plant bulbs because the scent of a hyacinth — like ‘White Pearl’, above — fills me with drunken glee.
I plant bulbs because one of life’s little pleasures is Chiondoxa, which here forms a blue-white sea beneath a crabapple tree.
And these are but a few of my reasons for digging around the mud each autumn. What are yours? Why do you plant bulbs?
Related Posts:
Photo Gallery: 12 Reasons to Stay Home in April
Hyacinths and Other Early Blooming Bulbs
Blooming Bulbs for the February Window Garden
Andrew Thompson says
Kevin, I plant bulbs for the scillas that turn my soggy April lawn into a carpet of blue. I used a screwdriver to dig hundreds of holes for these tiny, tiny bulbs.
Adele says
I have yet to meet a spring-flowering bulb I did not like. Just seeing them poke out of the soil after the long winter makes me smile. I just planted 50 white tulips in my azalea bed. Can't wait see them in bloom.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Andrew – that's how I plant scilla too! Love how they multiply year after year.
Adele – White tulips against the evergreen azaleas…what a beautiful effect you'll achieve!
Gardenlady says
Kevin, I plant bulbs because no other plants offer so much beauty for so little effort. I have bulbs everywhere!
Love your Van der Neer tulips. What are the blue flowers beneath them?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Gardenlady – My 'Van der Neer' tulips are planted in a bed of blue-flowering Vinca minor. Love the combo.
erin says
You can never have enough daffodils come spring…
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Erin – Amen to that. And the deer and rodents won't eat them. I've added some new varieties to my collection this year…'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Pipit.'
If you can, Erin, be sure to plant 'Erlicheer'…a white variety…fully double blossoms, (about 15 to a stem), wonderfully fragrant, and absolutely dependable either indoors or out.
Anonymous says
It gives me something to look forward to after a long and dreary northeast ohio winter.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Anonymous…not to mention a long and dreary Upstate New York winter!
Erin says
Will do. I have more white daffs than yellow. I just love the white and peach ones.