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Uncommon bulbs add special interest to the garden.
There’s a lot more to planting bulbs in the garden than just daffodils and tulips. In fact, it’s the "other" bulbs that can make such a big difference in the spring garden. I’m going to mention a few of my favorites here. All of them will naturalize easily in good garden soil and will treat you to an annual color display with little effort on your part. One of the most asked-about bulbs in my spring garden is grape hyacinth, or Muscari. They bloom for several weeks and make beautiful color companions to daffodils, tulips, and other early perennials. A particular grape hyacinth, Muscari armeniacum 'Christmas Pearl' is especially nice because it blooms earlier and longer than other varieties. It has 6-8" spikes covered with grape-like, long-lasting dolphin violet blooms; It forces easily to bring a little spring to a sunny window and has a delightful fragrance, reminiscent of grapes. Because its foliage lasts a long time and new leaves appears again in the fall, I use grape hyacinth as a marker bulb and plant a few in each of my other bulb plantings. Seeing the Muscari foliage, I can easily locate my dormant bulb beds. One of the prettiest white-flowering bulbs is Summer Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum). The flowers are pendulous, scalloped, pure white bells. The tip of each petal is marked with a green dot. The variety ‘Gravetye Giant’ looks like a giant Lily-of-theValley, nearly two feet tall. Summer snowflake is beautiful when planted with perennial geranium, tiarella, lamium, and ajuga. Another bell-shaped flower is Hyacinthoides 'Excelsior', or Spanish bluebells. The lovely bell-shaped flowers are held on 8-12" stems and are a deep violet blue. This bulb is shade and moisture tolerant but also seems happy in full sun; Spanish bluebells are fragrant and a great naturalizer. Use them to add some interest to hosta beds or combine them with ferns. One more little bell flower is called Silver Bells, or Omithogalum nutans Each flower stem carries three to twelve, 6-petaled, silver, green, and white bells. The bulb is a great naturalizer and re-seeds easily in shady areas. The flowers combine beautifully with bleeding hearts, Siberian iris, and peonies. Although most spring flowering bulbs do not like "wet feet", Camassia is an exception. It thrives in damp soil and beside streams and ponds and even tolerates heavy clay soil. Camassia is native to the United States and was actually part of the diet of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Also called Quamash, or Wild Hyacinth, this bulb grows tall spikes covered with star-like flowers. The variety, ‘Semiplena’ has three-foot spikes of creamy white semi-double flowers blooming in late spring and early summer. It makes a nice partner for peonies, Sweet Williams, and Siberian iris. A flower sure to attract the attention of garden visitors is Nectaroscordum siculum ssp. bulgaricum. With a name like that it better be good, don’t you think? Each bulb produces one large baseball-sized flower made up of many greenish white, bell-shaped, florets tinged with plum and pink. The flower stem approaches three feet and the blossom is superb as a cut flower. Use this bulb to add an exotic touch to the late spring garden and get the neighbors talking. Don’t be put off by the unusual names or the exotic nature of the lesser-known bulbs. Like tulips and daffodils, these bulbs are a cinch to plant and grow, even if your thumb has not even a tinge of green. Once planted they will give you years of color and enjoyment.
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