Winter-flowering Bulbs Mild at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

FOLIAGE COMES into its own in winter, along with shrubby plants that produce berries. These can be supplemented with winter-flowering bulbs mild bulbs in mild climates. Spring interest is mainly created by bulbs and biennials which burst into color from early to late spring, and sometimes into early summer. Yellow is a favorite spring color, either on its own with some fresh foliage or combined with white, cream and, perhaps, a hint of blue. For more of an impact, add a splash of yellow to a vibrant mixed planting of reds, blues and whites.

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 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.

I planned and set out a small bulb bed (really corms and bulbs) this fall and it began to bloom within two weeks of planting—there was no long wait for roots to develop, no months of winter twilight before the flowers appeared! Yet no magic was involved. For the bulbs were six species of colchicum (Colchicum spp.), three species of the fall- ] flowering crocus (Crocus spp.), and a clump of Sternbergia lutea, all autumn-flowering plants.