Part 2 of 2 - click here to read part 1

Welcome to autumn! The past few days of cool air and relief from the constant rain are making it exceedingly difficult to stay inside and focus on working from this desk. I'd much rather be outside getting lost in the woods with my camera or cleaning up the garden. In fact, as many of the summer perennials are starting to look a little worse for wear, now is the perfect time to begin preparing for next year's display.

Last week, the Scoop featured tips and advice on planting bulbs in the fall for early spring color and fragrance. Today, we'll follow up with a summary of those tips and also share specific characteristics of this year's popular bulbs.

Tips for Spring Bulbs:

• Order in mass for an eye-popping display.
• Add organic matter/compost to the soil for nutrients and drainage.
• Wear gloves when handling bulbs.
• Plant bulbs immediately when they arrive or store in a cool, dark, dry place.
• Place shorter-growing bulbs in the front of beds and borders.
• Try to have everything planted well before the ground freezes.
• Mulch the planting area to avoid heaving from winter thawing and freezing.

Alliums - These flowering onions are the attractive sisters of the culinary onion, garlic and leek. Tightly packed umbels with scores of flowers resemble colorful balls suspended in air. They make good additions to herb gardens, and the larger alliums combine well with hostas, geraniums, and other low perennials. Alliums are one of the best landscape values available. They bloom for weeks and thereafter that the decorative seedheads remain attractive into the summer months. Wildlife resistant.    click here to buy Alliums

Crocus - One of the earliest of spring bulbs, crocuses literally begin the gardening season. They sparkle like little jewels. The flowers open fully on sunny days and release a sweet fragrance that attracts the first pollinators (usually bumblebees) to visit. Crocuses naturalize and multiply quickly.    click here to buy Crocus

Hyacinth - This extremely fragrant flower was a favorite of the Romans. The scented, tubular, starry flowers form on a thick spike, making them a valued and long-lived cutflower. They come in a rainbow of colors and are excellent for vibrant bedding displays as well as formal plantings. Wildlife resistant.    click here to buy Hyacinths

Fritillaria - Fritillarias are dramatic plants with leafy stems topped with colorful hanging bells. The stately crown imperial (F. imperialis) is the empress of the spring garden with 3-4' stems and large, pendant, lily-like flowers. Wildlife resistant.    click here to buy Fritillarias

Narcissus - This genus includes daffodils, jonquils, and paperwhites. Narcissus are perhaps the most wildly grown flower in the world. Their buttery yellow (or shimmering white) blossoms signal spring time. Many narcissus have powerful fragrances ranging from sweet to perfumy to clean, adding to their appeal as a cutflower. A hardy naturalizer, narcissus are perfect for hillsides, meadows, woodlands and gardens of all sizes and shapes from coast to coast. For those in southern areas, jonquils withstand heat better than the other divisions. Wildlife resistant.    click here to buy Narcissus

Tulips - The elegant form and kaleidoscope of colors available in tulips started the greatest horticultural craze in history: Tulipomania. Fortunately, today we don't have to sell our horse drawn carriage or mortgage our cottage to enjoy their beauty. Their bright flowers are available in a vast array of colors, sizes, and bloom times. Species tulips are typically smaller but better naturalizers than the hybrid cultivars. All types are excellent for bedding displays, formal plantings and cutflowers.    click here to buy Tulips

Don't forget that fall is the best time to get your spring-flowering bulbs into the ground. I know that summer just ended, but spring will be here before you know it!

And that's the Scoop!

Did you find this interesting?
Click here to read part 1