Start planning for beautiful spring flowers

It’s time to think about spring flowering bulbs for next year’s garden. Since most of these bulbs require periods of summer drought, they’re ideal for our climate. I’ve been scouring catalogs for additional spring bulbs and have come up with quite a list of desirable varieties.

First on my list is the common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), because it’s such an early bloomer. My goal is to eventually be able to see masses of snowdrops blooming through every window, so every fall I add a few more. I’ve also started to divide and transplant them in the spring before they flower.

Winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) are almost as early and look charming mixed in with the Snowdrops. Their sunny yellow flowers are similar to buttercups, but the flower petals emerge from a ruff of green leaves. Their arrival seems to be a signal to the mason bees in the area that it’s time to wake up and start gathering nectar again.

Fortunately, my earliest crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) start blooming soon after the aconites, assuring a continuous food supply for bees and other nectar sippers. The slender, pale lavender flowers of C. tommasinianus look too delicate to stand up to wind and rain. But they manage to avoid damage and open wide the minute the sun comes out. They naturalize well, multiplying by seed and offsets rapidly enough that the marauding squirrels can’t eliminate them.

Squirrels as well as deer avoid ornamental onions (Allium spp.), making these bulbous plants useful as well as attractive garden residents. There are enough varieties to please even the choosiest gardener; they bloom for quite a long time, and most attract butterflies as well. From early spring through summer and into fall, some variety of ornamental onion can bloom in anyone’s garden. Browse at local gardening centers or in mail-order catalogs to choose those that best fit into your garden.

Don’t forget to add a few grape hyathinths (Muscari spp.), English and Spanish bluebells (Hyathintoides non-scripta and H. hispanica), spring squill (Scilla spp.), and glory of the snow (Chionodoxa spp.) for good measure. They generally come in shades of blue, although they’re also available in white or pink. Naturalized under deciduous trees and shrubs, they’re gorgeous.

Search for and plant these and other lovelies ideally suited to our growing condition before the snow flies, then enjoy their beauty come spring.