Roots, Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes or Tubers: just think of flower bulbs, just as other plants that you choose to add to your garden. What is the purpose or purposes of your garden? A certain color, to attract certain birds, sun loving or shade loving, deer resistant, naturalistic, formal, etc. Consider flower bulbs just as you would consider any other flower or plant. They are not any harder to take care of and can be a great addition to your gardens.
Planning is always the best way. (Use the internet to gather answers to your questions) Here are the next steps & questions to get you planning and making your decisions:
- What is my purpose/direction for this area?
- What plants are appropriate for the amount of sun exposure?
- Which ones do I like? (me: probably all of them)
- What plants would be hardy/survive the year? (to make it easier on you for future years)
- Order your list by bloom season and make sure you have some in each.
- Now sort your list within bloom season by the typical height of the plant.
How many plants can you fit in your space? You can use this spacing chart to help you estimate how many plants can fit in your garden. Divide square footage of garden by spacing factor to get amount of plants needed. Example: the plant says it should be spaced 12 inches apart and you have 25 sqft. spacing factor is 1, you would need 25 plants. You can do this for each plant or just estimate plant spacing average (like 10inches)
| Space in Inches | Spacing factor | 25sq ft | 50 sqft | 75sq ft | 100sqft |
| 4 | 0.11 | 227 | 454 | 682 | 909 |
| 6 | 0.25 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
| 8 | 0.44 | 57 | 114 | 170 | 227 |
| 10 | 0.7 | 36 | 72 | 107 | 143 |
| 12 | 1 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| 15 | 1.56 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 |
| 18 | 2.25 | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 |
| 24 | 4 | 6 | 13 | 19 | 25 |
| 30 | 6.25 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
| 36 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 11 |
For each plant you choose, you will typically want 3, 5, 7 or 9 of each of them. Now you may need to add or subtract the amount of varieties you will include in your space.
Now it’s the fun part. You get to design your own picture. You get to choreograph the movie or living photo. Use the characteristics of your plants so that the change of seasons creates a dance of color! After you experience bloom times and it didn’t turn out how you thought it would~ move some plants around. It’s your palette and you can change, add or take away anytime you want.
It says flower bulb crazy~ but i am really all FLOWER CRAZY! More is better, more variety, more selection of color, more, more, more!! If I don’t have it, I want it!
