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Flower Bulbs: What are your favorite?

 
master gardener
Posts: 4736
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1984
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While walking my dog this morning, I couldn't help but smile. Throughout my property there are patches of daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinth and more!

I am fond of the early spring flowers, I never really got into the later season bulbs but I am weighing the labor that goes into lifting bulbs before winter and the beauty that some later season flowers can provide.



I currently have a nice amount of daffodils in the front of my property that are doing great. They are in a front flower garden bed that my fiancé tends. I have two oddball patches in my side yard where I ended up just popping bulbs into because I didn't plan on where better to put them and luckily it worked out!

I have wood chip 'borders' to my property that I have popped in hyacinth and it has taken off wonderfully. I plan on adding more this fall to add to the 'whimsy' factor of my property in the spring

I currently am at 'war' with the local herbivories as they find my mixed tulips to be a delightful treat. I have lost about a third of what I had planted, but I did not plant a whole lot. The plan for next year is just to increase the tulip density and accept the losses as they come.  

Do you have bulb based flowers on your property? What are your favorites? Do you have any tips, experiences, or photos to share?

Reply below!
 
steward
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Location: USDA Zone 8a
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I am a fan of jonquils.

When we lived in the Piney Woods of East texas, these grew wild along the roadways.

I am also a fan of all kinds of iris.
 
master gardener
Posts: 3786
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
1853
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I think of daffodils as a sure sign of spring (and they're starting to come up, but we don't yet have any flowers open) so I guess they're my favorite.* Later, when they're but a memory, the iris will stick around a little longer that'll be nice.

*There are two tiny crocus just in the middle of the yard -- not somewhere that anyone would have planted them. I call them our wild crocus, but they're not native and there aren't a bunch, so that's a misnomer. Anyway, they come up and fade away long before the daffodils open, so if I had enough of them, they might take the prize. But we have a big old stand of daffodils, so they get it.
 
gardener
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Location: the mountains of western nc
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i like the ‘recurva’ daffodils. they’re a little later, a bit more refined than ‘normal’ daffodils. actually many of the ‘species’ daffodils are nice and different. the earliest bulbs i have are Leucojum ‘spring snowflakes’, a slightly later relative of snowdrops. they’re a nice early ‘spring’s coming’ reminder. german bearded irises, especially the dark purple ones. i like leopard lilies/Belamcanda too.
 
gardener
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I really like anything that comes up early, but the crocus and hyacinth are probably my two top. Followed closely by tulips. I don't mind daffodil (or narcissus), but I grew up with huge swaths covered in them so I got bored of them.
 
Posts: 19
Location: East Tennesee, Zone 7
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Wild-type orange daylilies are my favorites, followed closely by chives and nodding onions.
 
gardener
Posts: 2532
Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5
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I think daffodils are currently my favorite.

This photo was intended to show off how long my winter squash had lasted in storage :)
Pumpkin-pie-with-daffodils-and-asparagus-2022-04-17.jpeg
Pumpkin pie with daffodils and asparagus in spring in Ladakh
Pumpkin pie with daffodils and asparagus in spring in Ladakh
 
gardener
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Location: N. California
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I love Dahlia they bloom and bloom. They come in so many sizes and colors.
My mother loved gladiolus. So I love them because they make me think of my mom.
IMG20230527202601.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG20230527202601.jpg]
 
gardener
Posts: 1854
Location: Zone 6b
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Every year I plant more and more gladiolus corms. They actually overwinter just fine in the ground but replanting will give them more room to grow. They are low maintenance and tidy looking. The flowers come in many colors and attract hummingbirds.
 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4736
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1984
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I have received my order of tulips to plant all over my property. I can't wait for the spring blooms.
 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4736
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1984
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I might of made a small oops... who wants to help me plant a thousand more bulbs?


 
Matt McSpadden
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Sounds like a good problem to have :)
 
pollinator
Posts: 1728
Location: southern Illinois, USA
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I have an admiration for those bulbs which can persist and spread under conditions of neglect.  Most climates host several of these, and even though a lot of them don't produce seeds, the bulbs often seem to find their way far from current human habitation.  Often this is evidence of a long-abandoned homestead, the buildings of which have long since gone to compost.  When I lived in California (and doubtless this happens elsewhere that gophers are found) the gophers would move the Chinese sacred lilies (actually a kind of winter-blooming narcissus) around in their underground tunnels, sometimes hundreds of yards away from the original planting.  Doubtless they think they have obtained a rich hunk of food, and then taking a nibble, find it vile and poisonous, and end up abandoning it wherever.  Perhaps other rodents are responsible elsewhere for propagating seedless bulbs.  In the Southeast is the red spider lily or surprise lily, Lycoris radiata; which also doesn't ever seem to produce seeds, and yet it turns up in the oddest places.  (This is actually a late summer/early fall bloomer)
 
Alder Burns
pollinator
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The early bulbs all seem to be well visited by honeybees, as well as bumblebees and others....makes me wonder what their contribution is to bee forage, and whether extensive plantings of them might be good for honeybees.  Being an exotic insect (in North America at least), they might benefit more from these than would the native bees, which are adapted to the native flowers, most of which bloom later, except for pollen-producing tree catkins and skunk cabbage.
 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
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Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1984
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In the spirit of being thrifty and seeing how spring bulbs might benefit my local ecosystem, I stumbled upon clearance bulbs.



The majority of these are on the edges of my property intermingled in the pollinator gardens I have started up.

Can't wait for spring.
 
gardener
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Location: Southern Illinois
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Hands down its hyacinth.  I found this out in the first year I was married.  My wife and I planted a flower garden and she chose hyacinth.

The next year, oh-what-wonderful sweetness filled the air!!  I don’t think I ever smelled anything so sweet!  That is, when the wind wasn’t gusting.  But on the rare, calm days, the air was filled with the most wonderfully sweet flower I had ever smelled.

We actually need to re-establish some new hyacinths as they have died back a bit.  

Eric
 
Jen Fulkerson
gardener
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Yeah, I love clearance. When it comes to flowers, the more the marrier.
 
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