Are you new to gardening and looking for a way to spruce up your landscape? Consider adding some flower bulbs. Flowering bulbs are among the easiest and most commonly grown garden plants. They make lovely, colorful additions to any garden and in any landscape, especially when they are planted in groups. Flowering bulbs work well in beds, borders, and containers. They can also take care of trouble spots such as hillsides, shady or bare spots, and even wooded areas.

Study catalogs and other gardening resources to find and plan your flower bulb garden. Check reference books, labels, and packaging for hardiness requirements beforehand to ensure that whatever flowering bulbs you choose will thrive in your particular region as well as your specific light and soil conditions. Also, consider their color, bloom time, and overall height, as well as their compatibility to other perennial plants or shrubs. For instance, flowering bulbs make good companions for woody plants, providing the landscape with a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. Flowering bulbs are the perfect way to brighten winter blahs and provide a colorful beginning to the new spring season. And if you interplant your flowering bulbs with late-blooming perennials, it will not only provide a nonstop procession of flowers, but the emerging perennials will also hide the faded foliage of the bulbs once their growing season has ended. This is a great way to maintain color and interest throughout summer and fall, giving you more time to sit back and enjoy the garden rather than having to continually place something in the ground every month.

Layering different types of flowering bulbs within groups will also provide a succession of blooms as well as an interesting effect. To accomplish this, dig out a good-sized hole, depending on the amount of bulbs you will be planting. Then place larger, late-blooming bulbs at the bottom and cover slightly with soil. Next, add some smaller, early-blooming bulbs on top. Cover these with your remaining soil and enjoy the beautiful blooms as they begin to popping out of the ground throughout the growing season. Planting your flowering bulbs in drifts rather than rows will produce a more dramatic effect as well.

As the onset of spring makes its way closer, consider planting some flowering bulbs in your garden. With proper planning, you can create a garden full of blooms throughout the seasons and ensure healthy, vigorous growth year after year.