Hi GPODers, this is Joseph, your GPOD editor. Fall is here in my Indiana garden, which means bulb-planting time! I’ve been going through old pictures looking at some of my favorite bulbs and scheming which ones I need to add to my new garden. Here are some things I’ve got on my list. What are your favorite bulbs? Send in pics! I’d love to share them on the GPOD.
I love all tulips, but lately I’ve been having a thing for the smaller, species varieties, like this Tulipa clusiana (Zones 3–7)—all the elegance of a tulip in a smaller, more perennial package.
Tulipa ‘Little Princess’ (Zones 3–8) is a wonderful little bulb with cheery orange-and-yellow flowers.
Tulipa ‘Little Beauty’ (Zones 3–8) is a closely related hybrid to ‘Little Princess’ in a wonderful red color, with a dramatic bit of blue at the base of the petals. I love both of them and find that they do come back year after year if I give them good drainage and keep the squirrels from eating them.
And one last tulip: Tulipa tarda (Zones 3–8) is the most vigorous tulip I’ve ever grown, multiplying each year to make lovely clumps.
I’m in the mood for a lot of bulbs—which is why I think I need some of this unusual little daffodil in my garden: Narcissus bulbicodium (Zones 4–8). The individual flowers are small, but planted in a mass they make a wonderful display, and they have such a sweet, different look to the blooms.
The daffodil looks totally typical, but it has one very wonderful trait: It is incredible early to bloom. This is the cultivar ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ (Zones 3–8), and it is always the first of the big daffodils to come into bloom, often getting covered with snow after it starts but not missing a beat.
Grape hyacinths are so great. I love the soft sky-blue color of this cultivar, Muscari ‘Valeire Finnis’ (Zones 4–8). It is just as tough, pest resistant, and fragrant as a normal grape hyacinth, but I just love the subtle color. It looks amazing with daffodils.
And let’s not forget natives. Although it’s not on the usual list of fall bulbs, great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, Zones 3–8) thrives when planted in the fall like your other bulbs.
Although not technically a bulb—but still great planted in the fall with daffodils and an essential source of early spring color for a shade garden—is the wonderful native Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica, Zones 3–9)
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