Now Is the Time to Buy Spring-Blooming Bulbs

There are two times of year that spark joy in gardeners' hearts: When the seed catalogs begin arriving in winter, and when bulb catalogs arrive in late summer. For the last few weeks, I have gone to bed clutching the rainbow-splashed catalogs from my favorite bulb purveyors, dog-earring pages as I flip through. But at some point, you need to stop dreaming and put a plan together so you can get orders in. That time is now.  

To be clear, we’re talking about more than bulbs—I'm including corms, roots and rhizomes, too (I’ll get into the differences below). What they all have in common is that these are late winter and spring-blooming plants, and they tend to be flower-heavy. You need to get them in the ground before winter, so they go through a cold period, and then once the ground warms to the temperature that specific plant needs, you’ll see them sprout. All of these plants are perennial in most conditions, so even though they’ll die back during the winter, they should reliably sprout up again in the same place come spring. 

Be deliberate with your color choices

It’s hard, going through the catalogs, to not want absolutely everything, but a strategy is warranted. Whether it’s tulips or irises or peonies, each is in bloom for a limited amount of time, and are all very color-intensive. Think of these plants as an effective way to add a very specific color as if by paintbrush. You can create incredibly powerful color stories in your yard if you plan well either by sticking to one color or a few colors for an ombré effect, or even contrasting colors. If you start throwing random bulbs into the ground, it will still be impressive, but less powerful. 

I divide my yard into zones. Across my front yard, I start with red flowers on the left, orange in the middle and hot pink on the right. No matter what I plant, so long as it stays in that color story, the ombré will work all spring. I have friends with thoughtful rainbow patterns across their yard, and across the street we’ve installed a breathtaking array of bulbs that will come up in a bright pumpkin orange and shocking blue, right against each other. 

Each kind of bulb comes up at a specific time, in a well orchestrated series. A chart like this one will help you plan. Here’s what you should be ordering now.

Tulips

Everyone loves tulips. These teacup-shaped blooms are perched almost impossibly above a skinny stem. Tulips are versatile because they come in almost every color of the rainbow, and you can also have a prolonged tulip season by planting early-, mid-, and late-blooming tulips. To bring even more diversity, there are a whole host of tulip types, from parrots, which have ruffled edges, to double-flowering tulips which have extra petals, frilled tulips, which appear to have a shredded edge, and Darwin tulips, which last longer and tend to be larger and sturdier. In most cases, you’ll be buying tulips in bunches of ten rather than singularly. Tulips come as a bulb, which has a teardrop shape, and you plant pointy side up. The general rule is that you plant bulbs at a depth equal to three times the size of the bulb. 

Ranunculus

Don’t sleep on ranunculus. While they lie a little lower to the ground than tulips, they feature a spray of colors, not a singular bloom. “Ranuncs,” as people call them affectionately, look like medium-sized open roses. What I like about ranunculus is that you can interplant them with your tulips to continue a color story, and they come in fantastically bright colors. I particularly like the color mixes that Eden Brothers produces. Ranuncs come as corms, which are small, spidery-looking roots no larger than a quarter. You plant them with the spider legs down, and while ranuncs will come back year to year, I find them slightly less resilient than my tulips, so I lose some every year. 

Irises

Irises can be divided into two large groups: Dutch and Siberian iris, which are a smaller iris coming from what looks like a grassy shrub. Then there's bearded iris, which feature much larger but fewer blooms coming from much wider, sturdier leaves. Bearded irises are a real show stopper, with ruffled edges and a lot of color variation. In either case, you’ll be planting a rhizome. If you’ve ever bought ginger root, you know what a rhizome looks like, and iris roots look very similar. Unlike bulbs, rhizomes are planted just below the surface of the soil and grow roots from the bottom of the rhizome. While most people think of blue and purple iris, you can also get warmer colors like red, orange and yellow.

Alliums

The drama queen of your garden, alliums are the flower equivalent of a firecracker—they look like a giant puff ball balancing on a tall skinny stem. Sometimes as tall as four feet, alliums are like upside-down exclamation points in your yard. They come in a range of purple, blue and white, and in a variety of sizes from small drumsticks to massive foot-wide globe alliums. Worth noting are particularly special specimens like, Schubertii Allium and Hair Allium. Alliums arrive as bulbs, and their size will depend on how large the bloom is meant to be. 

Daffodils

If you’ve got it stuck in your mind that daffodils are tired, sunshine-yellow common flowers, you haven’t seen newer varieties. Daffodils now span the entire color band, from white through rose, orange, yellow and green. There are distinctive faces on them, and they come in a variety of sizes. Honestly, I found them a little pedestrian until a cropping of them popped up nearby in pastel pinks and oranges and I was smitten. Daffodils are bulbs, and can be planted close together. 

Peonies

A peony is a solid, safe investment in your garden. They’ll arrive as slightly moist bare roots, which may seem intimidating. But peonies have the ability to grow by 30% each year. And each year, you’ll see more blooms. There is nothing on earth like a peony—they are the most delicately ruffled flowers, and their perfume is unlike anything else. While white and pink peonies are classic, there are now red and burgundy peonies as well. 

Poppies

The truth is lots of people have success tossing poppy seeds (purchased for the purpose of planting, not eating) in their yard. Not me! I’ve tossed millions of them into my yard over the last 10 years, and got nothing. If you suffer a similar fate, then I recommend purchasing poppy roots. This will allow you to ensure the poppy ends up where you want it. While there are all kinds of poppies, including annuals like California poppies, I’m talking about Papaver Orientale, the majestic giant Oriental Poppy that is known for opiate production (don’t do that, by the way). These flowers can reach heights of six feet and look like a floppy cupcake wrapper on these spindly, curvy stems. Poppies come in a variety of colors and patterns, and I think are best when you plant them in groupings to create a field of poppies.