In article , Mark wrote:

I planted a little bag of yellow crocuses last year. Now they are
blooming outside my window under a Japanese maple and I want more of
them. I always hate this time of year because there is so few green
things and nothing blooming outside and now these little things are
popping up and they look so bold with nothing else around to compete
with them. I want to add more bulbs as I have a lot of shrubs and
small trees and perennials but almost no bulbs at all. But I am
already learning that I am going to be bad about planting bulbs and
then digging into them later when I decide to plant something else. I
just can not remember where the little fellows are. I picked up some
Mediterranean heather (or so the Lowe's in Memphis called it that)
when I went out of state earlier this year because it was
winter-blooming. It has survived some weather around zero for several
nights and is still fairly happy looking but I don't know how it will
do when summer hits. I need to find some more winter color and I
need to learn more about bulbs and find cheaper places to buy them. I
can't afford to buy many if I buy them locally for five or six bucks
for a little bag of them. Oh well.

Bulbs that bloom late winter or early spring can go way back under
deciduous shrubs that will be leafless & let sun in when the bulbs are in
full flower, & where you're not apt ever to plant anything else anyway so
won't dig them up. I dislike garden markers as they interupt the natural
flow, but I had to cave in & use them for bulbs I don't want to
accidentally dig up. I've tried mostly to not add bulbs until clumping
perennials are established in an area, well enough planted that nothing
but bulbs could even fit in, then I add bulbs to those areas where I
probably won't have to do any digging until time to divide some clumping
perennial.

There are MANY crocus varieties & I think it's best to select them by
species & habit rather than in nameless mixes, so you can time them so
that there'll be crocuses flourishing AT LEAST from late winter to the end
of spring (then can add true winter-bloomers & autumn-bloomers for still
longer presence).

There are many other early bloomers besides crocuses. Scilla (squill) can
thrive in shadier dryer areas if they have to; they're nice to insert in
areas where not much is apt to grow, they're just not picky; they have
large clusters of dangling bells in white, blues, purples, or pinks. Some
begin blooming in March, most in April.

Grape Hyacinths begin blooming March & last most of spring, plus their
grassy turf has a lovely autumn & winter presence. There are several
species & cultivars, but most look pretty similar, either blue or white
grape-cluster flowers. Some of them can become rampant, which I don't
mind, though anyone fearful they may spread too much can get "Valerie
Finnis," a sterile cultivar that naturalizes in-place without spreading
beyond the area it's planted.

In bloom sometimes by January but certainly by February are Snowdrops
(Galanthus nivalis is a miniature). Ranunculus ficaria are teency bulbs
with beautiful foliage appearing in February, nice to have because most
else just has turf-like leaves; then it begins blooming March & keeps it
up through much of spring.

Also cyclamens, many of which bloom autumn without leaves then later in
winter with leaves; Cyclamen coum sometimes has three bloom periods the
last extra bloom time being in March, & the leaves linger some while after
that. The leaves themselves are very ornate. It's hard to find any bulb
(tubor in cyclamen's case) which does as great in dry shady spots.

Hepatica bloom late winter & early spring & keep their interesting leaves
all winter; they like conditions similar to helebores.

Not easy to lay hands on is the early-blooming Bloodroot, which grows out
of fat fibrous roots rather than bulbs. It's extremely hardy, but the
blooms are transient in the garden -- big white daisies close to the
ground quite early in spring. But the strangely lobed leaves will persist
until summer heat, & it's interesting even just for the leaves, which when
they first appear are rolled up like cigarette papers around the base of
the flower stems. It likes the shade, mine grows in the shadow of
hellebores.

I was not always a daffodil fan because the full-sized ones are just too
garish for my woodland-gardening style, but I've slowly developed a liking
for the miniatures which are flowering by March (with forcing, earlier).
Most of the easily available miniatures are cultivars of Narcissus
jonquilla, but for some reason rarely marketed as Jonquils. At least three
cultivars are even likely to be available right now forced in pots in your
local nurseries, so if you neglected to plant the bulbs last autumn & want
to put in some well-along daffodils right now, you can, but plan to get
more via the bulbs to plant this coming autumn. All these are only eight
inches tall, a foot at most, & naturalize well.

The subtlest daffodils have "reflexed" petals & look like yellow rockets,
generally only from bulb specialists. Also the "hoop petticoat" daffodils
are my real favorites, they're subtle & ultra charming. There are many
species of the hoop petticoats, but only one is particularly easy to get,
also the hardiest surest to naturalize, Narcissus bulbocodium conspicuus.
They bloom before other daffodils, beginning February & last deep into
Spring.

Most tulips bloom later in spring, but Tulipa kaufmannia blooms as early
as March (even though mainly in April). Tulips of the "greigii" group have
such pretty leaves -- red stripes or red mottling dependng on cultivar, in
February, so they're immediately decorative weeks before blooming.

There are other ways of getting thrilling winter effects in the garden.
Many autumn-fruiting shrubs keep their bright berries through winter &
into spring. Deciduous shrubs, trees, & large vines with exfoliating bark
are interesting year-round, & the exfoliating bark on deciduous climbing
hydrangea is bright orange. There are winter-blooming shrubs -- I have
deciduous Pink Dawn Verbenum, a winter-flowering Honeyscuckle shrub
(Lonicera fragrantissima), Witchhazel, & catkin-flowering contorted hazel,
all in full bloom for winter. Our black pussy willow shrub (Salix
gracilistyla var melanostachys) is covered with woolybears right now at
mid-February. Oregon Grape (mahonia) blooms bright yellow in February,
sometimes in January. A tough evergreen groundcover, bergenia, has many
cultivars with highly varied bloom times, but "Winterglut" (aka Winter
Glow) blooms at the height of winter & continues to the end of winter, big
purple flowers.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/