Boost the beauty and pollinator appeal of your gardens and containers with flowering bulbs. A combination of spring-and fall-planted bulbs can provide seasonlong color and nectar for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators.<\/p>\n
Include a few dahlias known for their excellent pollinator appeal. The award-winning Collarette Pooh grows 24 to 30 inches tall and features cherry red and yellow daisy-like flowers. Light up your gardens with Kelsey Sunshine collarette dahlias. The pale-yellow outer petals make a nice backdrop for the frilly white inner petals. Add even more color with the HS Date single dahlia with burgundy leaves and melon-colored flowers. Grow these and other dahlias in a sunny location with moist, well-drained soil.<\/p>\n
Add vertical interest and color to flowerbeds and containers with gladiolas. Start planting batches of the corms in spring and continue every week through early summer. You and the hummingbirds will enjoy the longer bloom time. Select from a wide range of colors, including white, pink, orange, yellow, red, bicolors and more. Once flowering begins, you may need to provide some support. Just slide a bamboo stake next to the plants and secure the stems with twine to keep top-heavy plants upright.<\/p>\n
Enjoy the bold foliage, showy flowers\u00a0and\u00a0visiting hummingbirds\u00a0and\u00a0other pollinators by including cannas in the full to part sun areas of your landscape. Select dwarf varieties for containers\u00a0and\u00a0grow cannas where you can easily view the visiting birds.<\/p>\n
Consider growing a few begonias in containers\u00a0and\u00a0hanging baskets. Most tolerate some shade\u00a0and\u00a0many bloom from spring through frost.<\/p>\n
Grow a few containers of some of the lesser-known\u00a0bulbs.\u00a0Hymenocallis,\u00a0also known as Peruvian daffodil or spider lily, has large, lightly fragrant white flowers. The blooms attract butterflies, moths,\u00a0and\u00a0other pollinators while deer\u00a0and\u00a0rabbits tend to leave them be. Pineapple lily (Eucomis) has spikes of blooms topped\u00a0with\u00a0a small cluster of leaves. The flowers attract bees, butterflies\u00a0and\u00a0other pollinators.<\/p>\n
Provide some late-season\u00a0nectar for a variety of butterflies by growing blazing star (Liatris spicata). This North American native plant produces spires of fuzzy purple flowers\u00a0and\u00a0combines nicely\u00a0with\u00a0rudbeckias, asters, dahlias\u00a0and\u00a0other late-season\u00a0bloomers.<\/p>\n
Plant pre-chilled lily bulbs in spring or fall with other spring-flowering bulbs that need a winter chill to bloom. Either way, you\u2019ll enjoy their color throughout the summer by planting various early-, mid- and late-season lilies. (See Longfield Gardens\u2019 Bloom Times for Lilies article at longfield-gardens.com for help with your selection.) Ensure success by planting them in full sun and well-drained soil and protecting them from rabbits and deer.<\/p>\n
Support early visiting pollinators with fall-planted spring-blooming bulbs. Look for opportunities to add these to your landscape. Make a list and note in your calendar so you are sure to get them planted in the fall.<\/p>\n
Plan for months of spring\u00a0color\u00a0starting\u00a0with\u00a0early-blooming crocus, snowdrops\u00a0(Galanthus), glory of the snow\u00a0(Chionodoxa)\u00a0and\u00a0grape hyacinths\u00a0(Muscari).\u00a0Include early-, mid-\u00a0and\u00a0late-spring blooming tulips, daffodils\u00a0and\u00a0hyacinths. Add a few uniquely flowered fritillarias, bearded iris in a rainbow of colors\u00a0and\u00a0a few showy alliums.<\/p>\n
Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including \u201cSmall Space Gardening\u201d and \u201cMidwest Gardener\u2019s Handbook, 2nd Edition.\u201d Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is MelindaMyers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boost the beauty and pollinator appeal of your gardens and containers with flowering bulbs. A combination of spring-and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,420],"class_list":["post-321069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}