When Bulbs at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

One of the most popular ways of growing bulbs—snowdrops, daffodils and crocuses, in particular—is to naturalize them in drifts so they spread at will. This is usually done in grass, but those bulbs preferring shady woodland conditions can be naturalized in soil under trees and shrubs. It is also possible to establish bulbs beneath a planting of ground cover like scrambling ivies.

5 Bulbs and roots are widely grown. Onions (A] were an important crop in ancient Egypt. The shallot [B] forms new bulbs by the side of the old. The 7 Sweet peppers [A] belong to the genus Capsicum, native of the American tropics. The seed pods of okra or gumbo [B] are picked ten weeks after planting.

Small bulbs such as grape hyacinths (Muscart) and scillas are often grown in rock gardens or used to make carpets of spring color beneath taller plants. Because spring-flowering bulbs die down in summer they can be used effectively with deciduous shrubs, which are bare of leaves When bulbs the bulbs are growing and flowering, or with herbaceous plants, most of which will hardly have started to grow so early in the year. Winter aconite (Eranthis), snowdrops, crocuses, scillas, chinodoxas, muscaris, and daffodils are all particularly recommended for this kind of two-tier planting, as they do not have to be lifted every year but can be left undisturbed for several years until they become overcrowded.