Gorgeous Bulbs To Plant In Fall For A Beautiful Spring Garden
Bulbs to plant in fall for a vibrant spring garden.
Well, way too soon, I’m told it’s now fall. It’s hard to believe as we have the best weather at this time of year. When most other places are cooling down, this little part of West Marin is lovely and hot and the ocean is warm enough to swim in for about two weeks (if you’re tough like my husband, not a wimp like me).
The days are still and sunny and it’s the best time to be outside in the garden. In fact, I’m writing from my little table on the deck outside the kitchen, kept company by the hummingbirds zipping around between two feeders, defending their little patch from any other hummingbirds that dare to visit.
It’s time to start thinking about which bulbs to plant in fall.
The flower beds are still putting on a colorful show, with purple lavender, yellow alstroemerias and pink pelargoniums stealing the limelight, not to mention incorrigible nasturtiums which are clambering up the side of the bath bed, heading towards the bird bath. The lotus ground cover is still covered in red claws and is creeping across the driveway towards the wood pile. The little Rose of Sharon plant that came to me in pieces in the spring is just putting out its first mauve blooms; such a delicate version of the hibiscus we’re used to. But now is the time to order fall bulbs for a great show in spring.
Great bulbs to plant in fall.
These are the bulbs you plant towards the end of October here and in mid April in the southern hemisphere. They over-winter underground and then burst out in spates when the weather warms up in spring. Some come up very early in the season, like a teaser, whetting my appetite for the show that’s yet to come. Snowdrops and oxalis do that. Some only show their faces when it already feels like summer, like the alliums I almost gave up on earlier this year. If you plant well, you’ll have spring flowers from February to June.
Now that I’m living in a cooler climate, I can grow crocuses. I planted some saffron crocuses last fall and got lots of grass-like foliage but no flowers. Then I discovered that they are fall bloomers so I had to wait until now. I’m happy to say that they’ve started sprouting again and I’m hopeful that I’ll have my very own home-grown saffron by the time they are done.
I was warned by a nursery expert that I should not plant any fall bulbs too early as they might bloom by Christmas and, indeed, some of my Dutch irises are already shooting up in the flower bed after their summer rest. I have a little pot of freesias that have decided it’s time to grow, having slept all spring and summer long. That’s because I bought them as flowering plants totally out of season, forced and raised in a hot house. If they don’t bloom before Christmas, I’m trusting that they’ll bloom next spring.
I bought lots of tulip bulbs last fall, most of which I planted in my roadside bed, all of which were chomped by critters of some sort. The bulbs I planted inside the garden survived and were beautiful so I kept all the bulbs in their pots during the summer. Yesterday I had a look and, not very surprisingly, very few had survived to make babies. The climate in Northern California is too mild for tulips – they like snow and ice, not my kind of weather. In anticipation of this, I bought a big bag of bulbs a couple of weeks ago. There are so many varieties to choose from but I chose parrot tulips which have fringed petals, these ones in soft pinks, oranges and yellows.
I also ordered some bulbs online to plant in fall and the first lot arrived today. I received a bunch of Bearded Irises to add to my little collection. I got a two for one deal so they were very reasonably priced. I’ve planted ten rhizomes in two tubs for now, just to get them going, but will transplant them into the ground as soon as I have some space. This year I have gone for subtler colors than I did last year, like pinks and pale blues.
I received some Turk’s Cap Liliy bulbs, (Pumilums), which have lots of little shiny red re-curved flowers along their stems. I was quite surprised to find that they are fall bulbs as they only bloom in summer. I suspect that you could plant them in spring for a summer show as long as they hadn’t been stored for too long. Like all lilies, they don’t like being out of the ground as they don’t go properly dormant like daffodils, Dutch irises or ranunculas. I can hear you ask yourselves if I don’t have enough lilies, given that I have just been sorting out bulblets and giving them away madly? Well, of course not. You can never have too many lilies.
You can run out of space, however. I have been re-potting lily bulbs and have nowhere else to plant them. I think a huge swathe of different varieties under high trees would be fantastic. If I had a huge garden with big trees, that is, but I don’t. I remember going to the dairy beyond Troutbeck in Nyanga Downs (Zimbabwe), and seeing such a gorgeous spread of oriental lilies naturalized under the trees that I almost fainted with envy!
Having said that, I’ve grown attached to my little garden with its maple trees and its water tower. It has its own charm and I think I’ve made a pretty little cottage garden within its ivy covered walls. There are lots of bulbs sleeping in the beds, waiting to show themselves again next spring – daffodils, irises, alliums, ranunculas, anenomes and gladioli, to name a few of the bulbs to plant in fall. Bulbs are high on my list of favorites. They are so spectacular, but so dependable, the joy of beginners and experts alike.
There’s so much skin cancer about, you must protect your skin.
By the way, here is a link to a list of gopher resistant plants: http://www.groundcoversandgardening.com/gopher resistant plants. If you want to buy plants that deer probably won’t eat, look here.
Read The Shoestring Gardener for tips on how to stretch your gardening dollar. I’ve also written a blog on how to stock up your bulb collection here. Share away if you enjoyed this article and leave a comment about the bulbs I could be missing! Happy gardening and please don’t forget your sunscreen.
