About Bulbs

If you envision a garden blooming with color, check out bulbs. These hearty plants require some maintenance, but the reward is plants that can bloom year after year. The following tips will help you get to know these wonderful plants a little better.

Bulb Gardens Image Gallery

group of flowers from bulbs
Bulbs can bloom from early spring until late summer.
See more pictures of bulb gardens.

  • When winter finally melts away, crocuses, daffodils, and tulips are quick to appear. The earliest spring bloomers come from bulbs and other allied structures such as tubers, rhizomes, and corms, which lie underground ready to grow as soon as the weather breaks.
  • When planted in a compatible site, daffodils, snowdrops, and crocuses can spread into large clusters that paint the landscape with their early color. Long-stemmed tulips and daffodils are wonderful flowers to cut and bring indoors. Hyacinths, dwarf irises, and some daffodils have sweet fragrances, making them pleasurable indoors or out.
  • Summer is made more cheerful with brightly colored summer-flowering bulbs such as caladiums, dahlias, cannas, and gladioli. These bulbs are native to warmer climates and won't survive winter in cold areas. But they can be dug up, stored in the basement, and replanted when warm weather returns. When heat has other plants resting, summer-flowering bulbs can continue to thrive. Their bountiful blooms make splendid bouquets.

In the next section, we'll give you some great tips for working with bulbs year-round.

Choosing Bulbs
When shopping for bulbs, choose healthy bulbs. Use the same criteria you would use if shopping for good-quality onions in the grocery store.
  • Look for plump bulbs without soft spots or dark, diseased blotches.
  • Check the basal plate, where the roots will emerge. It should be firm and undamaged.
  • Daffodil bulbs with two noses will provide twice the bloom, but tulip bulbs should have only one nose. With two, they won't flower.
  • Combine bulb orders with your friends to buy wholesale and save money. One bulb catalog sells 100 tulip bulbs for just a few dollars more than 50 tulip bulbs. You should order early to get the best selection and prompt delivery.


Want more gardening tips? Try:

  • Gardening Tips: Learn great helpful hints for all of your gardening needs.
  • Annuals: Plant these beauties in your garden.
  • Perennials: Choose great plants that will return year after year.
  • Gardening: Discover how to garden.