I planted bulbs so that they would bloom in succession from late January/early February though October/November

This is the succession of blubs in my garden. They would overlap each other somewhat and fill the gaps among perennials.

Snowdrops - Eranthis hyemalis - Miniature Iris - Crocus - Miniature Daffodils - Scilla sibirica - Chionodoxa - Puschkinia - Erythronium americanum - Early - Mid - Late season Daffodils & Tulips - Muscari - Miniature tulips - Anemone blanda - Fritillaria meleagris - Fritillaria pallida - Allium afflatunense/Globematers/cristophii- Leucojum estivum - Beaded Iris - Lillies (Asiatic/trumpet/tigrinum/spiciosum) - Licoris squamigera-fall crocus - Colchicum

The bulb that gives me the most bangs for the bucks is Allium albopilosum or cristophii. It is so very pretty. The seed head holds itself through late fall-early winter. {{gwi:20210}}{{gwi:20625}}{{gwi:20211}}

I took Colston Burrell'a suggestion to heart. He wrote that you can plant thousands of bulbs in your garden among your other plants such as perennials & shrubs. So I planted them in layers in any spot I can find among my perennials
, i.e. planting 2 or 3 different kinds of bulbs except daffodils in the same hole.

How so? By planting the largest bulb such as Allium Globemaster at the bottom, filling the hole with some soil, putting a medium size bulb such as tulip, adding a little soil, planting a small bulb such as Schilla on top, then cover with more soil. Voila!

I tried to choose fragrant and/or anything that blooms the longest. My favorite tulips are species tulips (very dainty, they multiply and come back year after year), Pink Impression (comes back for at least 9 yrs now) Ballerina (blooms the latest - still blooms when Allium begins to bloom).

You can get bulbs the most economically from Van Engelen.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Van%20Engelen

Fritillaria meleagris. Funny looking, isn't it?
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Impression tulip series:
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Note that I hardly plant bulbs in rows like a sentinel. I find them much more interesting when planted among perennials. I don't have to worry about fading leaves since perennials will grow and draw attention away from the bulbs' drying leaves.

That's wonderful! How many years did it take you to accomplish all of this??? That's quite impressive. I had seen that layering technique online but I wasn't sure that it worked. I may have to try this in the fall!

I didn't even know there were miniature daffodils. Those sound adorable! I will have to check out that allium. It's lovely!

I agree. I like having them in my garden mixed w/ perennials so that they just blend in. The foliage on my daffodils still looks really good though!

Thank you for that link. I'm going to check it out now and torture myself looking at bulbs. :P

Michaela

Hi Michaela,

Thank you. I was so taken by groves of Daffodils while travelling in Scotland a long, long time ago that when I moved into this house in 1986, that's what I planted immediately. For many years, I kept adding more, and more bulbs. As the years went by, I was more drawn to miniatures or species spring bulbs for their delicate look.

I used red Apeldoorns between my different garlic varieties. Nice bloom and an early dig and they are now all pretty well cured already plus a 3 to 4X multiplication of blooming size bulbs. They will be replanted again between garlic types next fall when I set out my fall garlic planting. They handle just like garlic except they can be dug much earlier.

Oh those are beautiful!! I love those colors.

I just got my Colorblends catalog yesterday and even though I have already ordered about 900 bulbs from Van E and John S...I am considering ordering at least 200-300 more from CB. The majority are tulips. Someone stop me! And it's not even winter yet...where I will really be hard pressed to not make some 'desperate for spring' purchases while bundled from the couch.....

I loved CB's catalog YEARS ago before I even had any room to plant 100 tulips nevermind 1000; so happy to finally try them this year as I just love some of their blend ideas...and love also that they have so many vs just 1-2 blends.