Category Archives: Bulbs

The First Blooms in My Garden

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I love the spring blooming bulbs and most of them do well in desert climates like the

Daffodils are start blooming after the crocus are open.

Daffodils are start blooming after the crocus are open.

northern Nevada desert climate where I live.  They would all do well in my garden if it were not for wildlife visiting my garden.  Fortunately, wildlife don’t find all my spring flowering bulbs tasty.

I love tulips with all the colors and variations in flowers from double to single and so do the deer, gophers and rabbits.  Those pictures in the catalogs of beds full of tulips are always tempting me, I buy them in the fall but I have learned my lesson.  Unlike me, who appreciates tulips for their visual appeal, the deer, rabbits, and gophers find them to be a very tasty meal.  In the past, I have planted tulips but the only ones that have survived are a few species tulips that one of my gardening acquaintances says are more deer resistant.

Sometimes deer like these in my field decide to come closer to the house and snack in my garden.

Sometimes deer like these in my field decide to come closer to the house and snack in my garden.

I’m disappointed I can’t get more tulips in my garden and I’ve stopped ordering them from catalogs even though their pictures are enticing.  Instead, I get my spring color from daffodils, crocus and grape hyacinths or Muscari.  This combination gives me almost as much color and it gives me a longer period of blooms from February to the end of May.

The first flowers to push their blooms out of the ground are the crocuses and they do so when morning temperatures are still freezing.  Their narrow leaves don’t even reach their full size before the flower buds open.  They come in yellow, various shades of

These yellow crocuses are usually the first to bloom in my garden.

These yellow crocuses are usually the first to bloom in my garden.

purple and white.  The first to open are the yellow ones followed by the more deeply purple ones.  The lavender, lavender striped, and white crocuses are the last to ones to bloom and their blooms have faded by the end of March.

Leaving no gap in color, the daffodils start blooming in early March.  I usually order the collection of varieties that gives me blooms from early March until late May.  Most of the daffodils are yellow with a few white.  Some have more than one shade of yellow and some, like ‘Pheasant’s Eye’, are yellow and white.  They come in a variety of sizes from the tiniest ‘Minnow’ to the large double flowered daffodils.

Crocus are usually the first bulbs to bloom in my desert garden.

Crocus are usually the first bulbs to bloom in my desert garden.

Finally, in early April, the Muscari or Grape Hyacinths start bloom with their bluish purple blossoms and they last into June when the gardens in Nevada will be at the height of their blooming before the hot desiccating months of July and August.  The catalogs usually have a number varieties of Muscari that come in shades of white to the deepest bluish purple but I always get the latter because they stand out better against a background of other flowers and bare soil that surround them in my garden.

I always leave the leaves to fade into the ground so that the bulbs can build up enough energy for next year’s blooms.  These spring flowering bulbs are one of the most carefree plants I have in my garden and by leaving the leaves to die back naturally; I’ll

These tiny daffodils are no bigger than an inch in diameter. They are call "Minnow"

These tiny daffodils are no bigger than an inch in diameter. They are call “Minnow”

have blooms for years to come.

 

Spring Blooming Bulbs in a Desert Garden

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Spring is just around the corner as I write this post. All my labor spent planting bulbs in the

Crocus are usually the first bulbs to bloom in my desert garden.

Crocus are usually the first bulbs to bloom in my desert garden.

Daffodils are start blooming after the crocus are open.

Daffodils are start blooming after the crocus are open.

fall is now baring fruit. The crocus started blooming about two weeks ago and my daffodils are just starting to bloom. Except for putting bulbs in the ground last fall, very little care went into getting these beautiful flowers to bloom in my desert garden.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from gardeners who move to the desert from some more humid climate is “nothing grows here” but that isn’t true.  The problem is most plants sold in the conventional gardening market are not adapted to desert environments such as Turkey, Greece, Iberian Peninsula, and Northern Africa. One exception is many of the cultivars of bulb species originated from plants native to arid regions and do quite well in desert gardens. This is especially true of spring bulbs that evolved under a climate of relatively wet winter and spring weather and dry summer and fall weather.  Wet winter and spring also describes the climate in northern Nevada where my garden is located so it is no wonder that spring bulbs do well here.

More crocus. I really like these striped crocus.

More crocus. I really like these striped crocus.

Among the spring flowering bulbs that do well in my region are tulips, daffodils, crocus, Dutch iris, and Muscari. I don’t get very many tulips because I have a lot of mule deer wandering through my property and they eat tulips.  I finally gave up trying to plant tulips since I rarely get to see them after I planted their bulbs. Mostly I saw munched up tulip leaves.

Daffodils, Dutch iris, crocus, and Muscari are great in my garden since deer find them unpalatable and gophers seem to avoid them as well. In fact, I’ve had daffodils come up unscathed through a gopher hill and even come up in subsequent years in that same spot with no apparent damage. The gophers apparently ate all the roots of plants around the bulbs but avoided the bulbs.

Yes, the challenges of my desert garden are many but the spring flowering bulbs make all those efforts worthwhile and give hope that I may be able to have a beautiful garden in spite of the alkali, dry climate, and extreme temperature variations.