Do you plant flower bulbs, seeds or plants in your floral garden areas?
I've used all 3 over the years. We don't have a floral garden yet at our
new home. We've been using pots and concentrating on the backyard
veggies for a few years. Soon, we plan to branch out a bit. Bulbs will
make up the main part of my flower garden, once I get it planted. Using
flower bulbs as our primary floral plantings will help us in numerous
ways. Here's a few.
Low maintenance
Bulbs are
easy to plant and maintain. We could have rose bushes or other
perennials as our main floral attraction. However, bulbs are much
simpler to take care of. There's no pruning or big time maintenance
involved. Just cut them back after their bloom season. You will have to
dig the bulbs up occasionally to move or divide them.
Self-propagation
Most floral bulbs have "babies" all on their own. There's no need to
buy them more than once over many years. Just dig them up and divide
them as needed. You can give the extra bulbs to friends or plant them
elsewhere. The bulbs in your garden can last for decades if you take
good care of them. Not all perennials are this long lasting.
Easily moved
When we want to move flower bulbs, it'll be easy enough to dig them
up. We won't have to worry about "getting them all" like with some other
perennials. As long as all the bulbs are removed and relocated, they
won't regrow in the same spot. With other perennials, sometimes the
smallest root left behind will come up the next year.
Staggering bloom times
Different flowers bloom at different times. Bulbs of different bloom
times can be planted together. We could actually have a garden
completely filled with bulbs if we wanted. It's easy to plan a bloom
pattern with bulbs. They can be placed on the ground in a pattern that
makes it easy to visualize seasonal growth, then dug in.
Bulbs are steadfast soldiers
When we want variety, we can fill in around our bulbs with annuals.
Other perennials can go in future beds. That way, they won't have to be
moved when dividing bulbs. Annuals are removed at year end anyway, so we
can do both tasks at once. We can frame our bulb beds quickly with roll out annual seed mats to save time and trouble.
