Enjoying Spring Bulbs Without Breaking the Bank or Your Back

In July and August, the catalogs start coming to my house from Breck's, Scheeper's, Park Seed, and White Flower Farm.They are filled with gorgeous photos of daffodils, crocuses, and tulips in bloom.

For a lot of color in early spring, bulbs are definitely the best way to go. But planting lots of them can require many hours of hard labor kneeling on the ground. And buying hundreds of bulbs for a big display, year after year, is expensive.

But I've found ways to save money and time and still enjoy the big spring display.

First of all, it's more time and cost effective to plant bulbs that will naturalize (spread) and rebloom year after year. For this reason, although I like tulips, I don't have very many of them in my Northern Illinois garden. Instead, I've planted mainly daffodils, tulips, and Scilla siberica. The Scilla siberica, planted in 2001 while listening to news of the US invading Afghanistan, have spread prolifically in a sunny spot (Alas, they have not outlasted the war.). I planted most of my daffodils more than 10 years ago, and they're still coming back every year. Tulips, on the other hand, must be replanted every other year or so for consistent spring blooms.

Second, I look for specials. Signing up for e-newsletters and mail-order catalogs, and occasionally buying something, gets the bulb companies to send me lots of coupons in early August. Of course, the purpose of this is to get me to buy bulbs. When I get a good coupon--say, $25 off any purchase over $50 at Breck's--I spend as close to the minimum required to use the coupon as possible.

Another way to save is to order collections of unnamed varieties. Daffodil bulbs could be quite expensive if I ordered the labeled varieties sold at premium prices. Because catalog companies have more leeway in choosing bulbs for collections or samplers of unlabeled varieties, they cost less per bulb than those identified by name. If you order samplers, you won't know what you're getting until next spring, but the flowers will be beautiful and interesting--I promise. It's also good to order early; many specials and discounts expire well before Labor Day.

White Flower Farm's The Works collection sells for $59 for 100 bulbs (less if you order early). At that price, fancy-catalog daffodils are less-expensive than those sold at the grocery store in October. When I wanted to add double daffodils, I bought Park Seed's Double-Flowered Daffodil Mix.

Now for a few words about planting. Because I order bulbs and plan for them to naturalize and spread, I plant them quite a bit farther apart than the companies recommend. Many firms suggest planting bulbs in clusters about 2" to 4" apart. While it's a good idea to plant in clusters for a nice display, I space my bulbs 6" to 12" apart. Though they will look a little sparse the first year, this gives them room to grow and spread.

We don't have a fancy (and expensive) bulb planter, but we do have a gadget from the hardware store that looks like a big corkscrew and costs about $5-$7. It attaches to my husband's cordless drill and saves loads of time and work by drilling bulb holes for us. To make things even easier, I try to plant bulbs when the soil is fairly light and dry.

Finally, if you want your bulbs to rebloom for year year after year, leave the leaves alone after the flowers have died. Don't cut the leaves off, rubber-band them, or do anything to make the yellowing foliage look "neater." The plant needs the time after blooming, when only leaves are left, to make and store food to fuel next spring's blooms. Tying or cutting the leaves hinders its ability to do so.