Topic: best bulb combination

[tomatoada]

Having just emptied my trough of annuals I would like to put in different bulbs which would flower together.  I have not had much success in the past so the last few years I have done only one type of bulb.  Daffs in  one pot and tulips in another.   Can anyone suggest a combination which would be at their best together?   Thanks.

[Biscombe]

Great question, looking forward to the replies  :)

[Slug_killer]

I have an area about 3 yards square with a victoria plum in the middle.

First it comes up covered in Snowdrops, 1000s of them, then yellow crocus', then blue muscari and 5 or 6 varieties of dwarf daffs, then blue hyacinths and blue forget-me-nots, then some low growing alliums mixed with blue and white aquilegias and lots of spanish bluebells, after which the creaping buttercup takes over. By which time all the bulbs have died back and I run the lawn mower over it all, ready to pick the plums.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I have snowdrops by the thousand (they multiply rapidly if you give them room to do so) mixed with cyclamens. The latter cover the ground for most of the year, and provide colour in the autumn.

[Tee Gee]

I don't have any pictures of containerised bulbs as such, but these pictures; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Slide%20Shows/Garden%20Winter%20%20-%20Spring/garden%20winter%20%20-%20spring.html# will give you a sequence of flowering from January to the end of May.

So if you plant to the recommended depths (1½-2 times bulb size) you could get the same effect.

My pots are all planted up now with the large bulbs at the bottom then the smaller bulbs as you get nearer to the top of the pot.

The top layer has about 2" of cover.

I hope that gives you some ideas!

[betula]

I have filled several pots with tete a tete..............can never get enough of them   ;D

[sunloving]

Hello
For years i lived in rented houses so my only garden was a hundred pots so ive grown a lot of bulbs!

I recommend any of the species crocus , with dwarf tulips, love song is a fabulous orange, red riding hood a lovely red. Along side these i also put in peter styulvescent or woodstock or jan bos hyacinths gorgeous and then some alliums. On the top of this i plant winter pansys or violas with either lavendar first/second year old cuttings and or cyclamen seedlings (one or two year old) . This way you get colour in midwinter then bulbs until june then the lavendar takes over. then you can plant with annuals as you wish.

other things great for pot the jonquilla daffs such as quail, baby moon.  Anemones de caens
in deeper pots there are some really hardy tall tulips such as texas flame, roccoco, abu hassan, queen of night, uncle tom, angelique. Some of the frilly tulips need a lot of water and these last two years we've had drought mays so they dont do to well in pots - ive had disasters with the black parrot in particular .

Good luck , there are so many fabulous bulbs about.
Little hopes for spring
x sunloving

[pigeonseed]

I love tulip and forget-me-not together - they usually seem to flower at the same time.

I think the cloud of sky blue looks wonderful with any colour tulip - yellow, pink, red...
And the shape of the forget-me-not fills out a container nicely, around the straight tulips stems.

(I know forget-me-nots aren't bulbs, but I hope it's still answering your question!  :))

[tomatoada]

Thanks for all the replies.   So much to take in.  Will consider all slowly.  Thanks again.

[Flighty]

I've filled this with several varieties of mini daffodils and some white crocus.

[attachment=1]


Next April/May I'll then sow some hardy annuals like Nemophila Five Spot or Stock Virginian Mixed for summer colour.

[valmarg]

In the garden I have cyclamen hederifolium interplanted with snowdrops.  The cyclamen have more or less finished flowering, but are growing lots of leaves.  The leaves will be in the garden until Spring.  The snowdrops grow up through them, and the cyclamen leaves give a lovely backdrop for the snowdrops.

I note you want replacements for containers.  My favourite colour combination is blue, white and yellow.  You could have hyacinth bulbs and pansies in any combination of these colours.

valmarg