I love my little spring natives because they entice me out of the house, but I also love the more standard spring bulbs that you can see easily from the house. I just cannot bring myself to say “average”; spring flowers are our reward for enduring the dark and cold of winter.
Scilla
The original bulb was probably planted by squirrels, but it is one I had been wondering about putting in, so I left it where it came up. That one bulb has turned into a small patch just far enough away from the bluebells to foreshadow their blueness. They are both a remarkable blue.
They are in a spot that is remarkably shady most of the year—under the Annabelle hydrangeas and hemlock that are under the silver maple. It’s early enough in the season for them to get dappled sunlight.
Daffodils
I am sure there are a few hundred daffodils out there at this point. The first corner of the yard to have the floodplain wander onto it has a large swale of daffodils. This is just the clump at the corner.
They like cool, or at least not warm, spring days. They age very rapidly in any heat, and our local meteorologists are threatening us with upper 70s this weekend.
I have tried to restrain myself daffodil-wise—I think there are only six varieties in the yard, well separated. I dig them every few years to divide the bulbs or just to move them to clarify the edges of their patches. No fertilizers, no fussing with fancy holes—I just use a poaching spade to make a vertical slot to wedge the bulbs into, and I put at least three bulbs side by side in each. I try to get them down at least as far as they were in their previous spots, but I don’t worry too much—they seem to be flexible. I edit the beds of daffodils when the flowers are fading but not gone, so that I don’t mix them up. I can get away with this planting technique because it’s been decades since anyone has removed topsoil in this yard and replaced it with builder’s fill.
Dutch Hyacinths
A few days after the daffodils started opening, the hyacinths opened. A couple of decades ago, a friend and former neighbor gave me potted forced hyacinth bulbs that she had used to decorate tables at a fundraising dinner, so I planted them. These are quite happy mixed with the chionodoxa under the witch hazel, which is under the enormous silver maple. Their whole active phase occurs before the tree ever leafs out, so they get quite a bit of sun—at least when it’s not raining. Multiplying is not something hyacinths really do, but they seem to be quite happy despite that. They are still nice and full after at least a quarter of a century in the same spot.
These plants get the same treatment as my daffodils, which is to say I just stuck them in the ground and they grew. Well-established topsoil is a wonderful thing.
Grape Hyacinths
These start blooming on the south and east sides of the house, and continue north and westward, sometimes hopping the driveway and landing in my neighbor’s front yard. This particular clump will have to be lifted in a couple of weeks so I can put in the connector from the downspout to the rain garden. They will get stuck right back in the ground.
The bumblebees love grape hyacinths. They are a lot of fun to watch and listen to.
Tulips
The Kaufmann tulips, Tulipa kaufmanniana, which are very early and very red, are apparently quite delicious if you are a rabbit. This tulip patch is in a shocking state. A very few tulips are only half eaten, but most of them look like this. I had to photograph just a small part as I could not bear to look at the extent of their appetite for these.
But the rabbits are not bothering the other species tulips, at least so far.
These lovely hot pink tulips sulked for years on the east side of the house until I moved them to a spot that gets sun most of the day. They are much happier. They open wide when the sun hits them.
The Tulipa tarda are not yet budding up, but the foliage looks untouched by lagomorphs. My hybrid tulips are still in the green bud stage on the south side of the house, and not-yet-in-bud in the main bed, which is not warmed by a nearby wall. There will be more tulips to show you in a week or two—they are influenced heavily by the weather.