LOWERS FROM BULBS are often the first harbingers of spring. Their foliage peeks up through the last melting layer of snow, bringing a bit of color and a promise of your great garden to come. In this chapter I'll explain how to buy bulbs and start them, and make some suggestions for plants that are simple to grow.
When is a bulb not a bulb?
YOU MAY BE CURIOUS about the difference between bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and tubers, all of which are often just called bulbs. The distinction is not extremely important, because growing methods are pretty much the same. In everyday conversation, you'll undoubtedly refer to all of these flowers as bulbs. That's fine. Still, I like to keep things straight from the beginning. It's so much simpler that way
True bulbs
True bulbs are usually rounded with a pointed tip, a round base, and an interior made of layers, similar to an onion. Mature bulbs — those that have been in the ground for more than a season — reproduce by a dividing process within the parent bulb. True bulbs include the allium (Minim), belladonna lily (Amaryllis), daffodil (Narcissus), grape hyacinth (Muscari), hyacinth (Hyacinthus otientalis), iris (Iris), lily (Lilium), scilla (Scilla), snowdrop (Galanthus), and tulip (Tulipa).
Corms
Corms are rounded, and are small to medium size. They're not composed of layers, like true bulbs, but are solid all the way through. After a season, corms may produce baby corms, or cormlets, around the parent corm. These baby corms may be very small — about the size of a pea. Each cormlet contains the ingredients to make a new plant exactly like the parent. The corn lily (Ixia), crocus (Crocus), freesia (Freesia), gladiolus (Gladiolus), montbretia (Crocosmia), and autumn crocus (Colchicum) are a few of the common plants springing from corms.
Rhizomes
A rhizome is a swollen section of an underground, horizontal plant stem. Roots grow from the underside of this stem, and plant buds develop on top of the stem. Plants growing from rhizomes include some of the irises, leopard lilies (Belamcanda chinensis), and cannas (Canna).
Tubers
Tubers are swollen sections of root. Tubers may be shaped like short sausages or be entirely irregular. Buds grow from the top of each tuber. Begonias (Begonia), buttercups (Ranunculus), dahlias (Dahlia), and daylilies (Hemerocallis) are grown from tubers.
A bulb is basically a plant's food-storage organ. It is a modified shoot, with layers of fleshy leaf bases and roots.
Bulb basics
NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT A BULB IS, and what it isn't, let's talk about how to start them in your garden. Here again, it's best to avoid just buying, digging, and crossing your fingers. You're much more likely to enjoy success if you make careful purchases and know ahead of time where your flowers will go.
Choosing bulbs
If you plant at the right time, a good-quality bulb will give you flowers the first year. Get the largest bulbs of each kind that you can, from a reputable dealer. Buy only bulbs that feel solid; never take soft ones.
Avoid bargain bulbs, whether half- price at season's end or advertised in magazines at very low prices. Bargain bulbs are inexpensive for a reason. Thai may be incorrectly labelled, undersize, improperiy stored or transported, or diseased. There is no saving when half of what you buil doesn't flower.
Before planting
Bulbs are a lot less fussy than many other plants about their surroundings, but you can't expect bulb roots to tunnel through clay. You paid good money for the bulbs, so put a little more into their bedding, and provide them with some fertile, light-textured soil to grow in.
Simply put, bulbs like to be in the ground. Plant spring-flowering bulbs in autumn, and summer-flowering bulbs in spring or early summer. Plant as soon as you get the bulbs.
If you're ordering from catalogues, order early If for some reason you cannot plant your purchases straight away, store them in an open bag in a cool, dry place.
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