Bulb Plants

The Tulip Flower, Daffodil Flower,
Lilies, Crocus and more...

I absolutely love bulb plants! Especially tulip bulbs, or should I say, the tulip flower that is produced from the bulb! While there are several wonderful spring flowers, I have to admit the tulip flower is my favorite (although the daffodil flower is a close second).

For those of you who don’t yet have any tulips or daffodils in your yard, I would strongly suggest that you consider adding some to your landscape. I guarantee you'll love the results!

Photo courtesy of jhritz

So, what is so great about these bulb plants you may wonder? Well, for those of you who live in cooler climates, having to endure a long, cold, flowerless winter, the tulip flower is the first welcome sign of spring. It provides a brilliant dash of color in a drab, grey landscape, as the ground awakens from it’s winter nap. I can get depressed through the winter months and those spring flowers are just the thing to cheer me up and remind me that summer is right around the corner.

Also, the tulip flower and daffodil flower, or any other bulb plants for that matter, tend to produce the most reliable, hardy flowers I’ve seen! And if that isn’t enough to convince you, bulbs multiply, or “naturalize” as the gardeners like to say, every year, producing more and more blooms each spring.

When planted in mass, the effect can be striking! I have always heard that to get the best results from your tulips, you should plant them in groups of 3, or 5, or 7. Not sure why the recommendation for the odd numbers, but it surely does work well.

I like the appearance of a contrast among 2 or more colors, however when planting bulbs in this fashion, it’s best to plant one color in a grouping, and then another color in the next grouping. (In other words, plant 5 yellow tulips in a group, next to 5 red tulips in a group.) If you plant one color right next to the other, or scatter the colors, you may lose the effect that you’re going for. I have also seen some beautiful pictures of a carpet of tulips in one color.

Some popular color combinations are:

red and yellow
purple and yellow
red, yellow and purple
black and white (yes, there really are black and white tulips)
any two pastels (I currently have soft yellow tulip bulbs that I plan on paring with some sherbet orange bulb plants next year)

You’ll absolutely love the flowers come spring. Go with the color combination that suits you...you really can't go wrong with the tulip flower!

Another one of these plants that makes a striking entrance in spring is the daffodil flower. Consider planting a large grouping of daffodils in an area, adding more bulbs every year. The effect is truly remarkable!

The daffodil flower comes in many colors, but I prefer the standard yellow. Buy the bulb that will produce the largest daffodil flower you can find, and you'll be the talk of the town!

You can certainly purchase your bulb plants at a local garden center, however this is one plant that I would absolutely recommend purchasing online, or through a gardening catalog. The size and quality of the bulb you'll get when ordering from a company that specializes in tulips, or other bulb flowers, is far superior to what you'll find at a local garden shop (in my opinion).

One of my favorite places to order tulip bulbs is from Brecks (opens new window). Any company that specializes in selling Dutch Bulbs is a good place to locate these plants.

The bulb plants that I purchased from Brecks were truly superior to any other tulips that I've ever purchased before. The tulips are held on long, hardy stems which withstand wind and rain VERY well, the colors are as vibrant as the pictures, and the blooms are as large as they said they'd be!

Keep in mind that the best time to plant bulb plants is in early spring or late fall.

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Good luck to you in your spring bulb search, and keep me posted on the colors you're adding to your landscape! I will be sure to add pictures of tulips next spring.