Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center

Where bulbs are planted as annuals, try a meadowy mix of lily-flowered 'Ballade' tulips, grape hyacinths and 'Jack Snipe' narcissus.

North Texas in spring is one of the prettiest places in the world because so many municipalities and households plant Dutch bulbs. But the beauty doesn't happen without planning, forethought, timely action and muddy knees, and everything but the muddy knees needs to happen now.

Out of the billions of bulbs the Netherlands harvests each year, Dallas-area landscapes account for hundreds of thousands of them (the Dallas Arboretum alone buries 500,000 each fall). Mostly we plant one kind of bulb – tulips – in single rows across the front of our houses or in dense groups to make a bolder impression. It's an effective and welcome way to push Old Man Winter aside. But if you want to try something new next spring, plant a mix of bulb species that includes, but is not limited to, tulips.Prominent European garden designers and the bulb industry's marketing arm, Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center, have teamed up to make a big Dutch impression at two preeminent public landscapes: the Bosque at Battery Park in Manhattan and the Lurie Garden in Chicago's downtown Millennium Park. Expansive beds of tulips in public parks and medians are nothing new in either city; the magic is in the nontraditional mix.

When your goal is a color block, tulips that stand straight at a uniform height are ideal. Instead, the planting style currently promoted by the Dutch garden designers, including Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet, creates a naturalistic look. Flowers, some tall, some short, nod gracefully or turn their broad faces to the sun. Colors can be varying shades of the same hue or a rainbow array, depending on the planter's preference. And species could include tulips (especially lily-flowered and wild forms), hyacinths, crocuses, narcissus and grape hyacinths.

Because of the Chicago and Manhattan gardens' visibility, look for a bona fide trend to develop by next fall, as designers and gardeners adapt and localize the concept. At a series of lectures in Chicago last month, the Dutch designers demonstrated how the bulbs are planted among established perennials, including prairie grasses and other natives. The perennials' emerging shoots hide the yellowing leaves of the early-blooming bulbs, allowing them to store energy for next year's flowers.

North Texas gardeners can pull spent bulbs up and compost them year after year or be satisfied with a look that maximizes bulb species that rebloom for us, in spite of our heat. It requires informed selections and exact growing conditions, but it's the most economical and labor-saving method.

For beginners, Ms. Van der Kloet suggests starting with only three species if you will be planting them among perennials. The Dutch designers demonstrated: Dump bulbs into a bucket, gently stir by hand to mix the species and toss lightly around the perennials' bases, beyond their rootballs. They are planted where they fall, sometimes in the same hole.

Unless you have horticultural training, choosing what to plant is eternally frustrating. Because the long-held custom here is to plant tulips and other Dutch bulbs that will not survive our summers to bloom again, perennial bulb species in multiple varieties are difficult to find. Retailers commonly stock some (species tulips, grape hyacinths and certain Narcissus, for instance), and you can augment via mail-order suppliers.

If you want to experiment with the naturalized look in beds where you've pulled up spent caladiums or begonias, blend more than three species for a full look. Only after you have buried the bulbs should you overplant with pansies, violas or other annual bedding plants.

Consider bulbs that offer foliage different from the strap leaves of tulips and jonquils, such as ranunculus and the ferny cut leaves of Anemone coronaria. The last thing you want in spring, at peak bloom, is a stingy showing with a lot of black dirt visible. The arboretum plants bulbs practically shoulder to shoulder. If that's too expensive an option, overseed with inexpensive seeds such as forget-me-not, poppies and larkspur.

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Any of the clusiana group is excellent, says Austinite Scott Ogden, whose 1994 Garden Bulbs for the South should be on every Texas gardener's book shelf. But you have to give them specific conditions: full sun, excellent drainage, lean soil. If you plant them in a bed with an automatic sprinkler, the bulbs probably will rot.

Tulipa clusiana 'Lady Jane', 'Cynthia', 'Tinka', 'Tubergen's Gem' and chrysantha are among the varieties available. Other species tulips are reliable rebloomers, including T. bakeri 'Lilac Wonder', T. batalinii cultivars, T. saxatilis, T. sylvestris and T. whittallii. If they are kept dry during the summer, they should multiply over time.

Because these tulips are delicate and shorter than Dutch hybrids, Mr. Ogden (plantdrivendesign.com) believes it takes at least 50 to make a good show.

The botanical name is Crocus tommasinianus but they are known as tommies, and its cultivars are the most reliable crocus for North Texas. Most varieties' flowers are shades of purple; they are purported to be squirrel resistant.

Mr. Ogden says purply C. corsicus and C. imperati (native to Mediterranean countries) and the old C. x luteus 'Dutch Yellow' should persist here, if you can locate a source for them. If you come across other uncommon species, note their native country for clues to their suitability for North Texas. Crocuses native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East should perform better than those from the Russian steppe, for instance, as long as they are not overwatered by an automatic sprinkler.Continued from Page 5

This one's easy. Dutch hybrids do well here, and strong-growing varieties, such as 'Blue Magic', will naturalize. Since they are relatively inexpensive, plant dozens to make a strong showing. They are not finicky about soil; they'll bloom on clay or sand. They like water in fall and winter, when the bulbs are growing roots, but they want to bake through the summer.

Stiff and formal Dutch hybrids (Hyacinthus orientalis), while beautiful and fragrant, bloom only once in Dallas. Aggie-trained horticulturist Greg Grant has propagated wild hyacinths, known as Romans, which he collected at abandoned homesteads. His blues, $12.50 each at www.oldhousegardens.com, not only stand up to our heat but thrive in it. Each bulb may produce several flower spikes and they naturalize readily if they are left alone. There also is a pink form that is not quite as costly.

Not a hyacinth at all, there are 30 known species of Muscari. While others may bloom nicely the first year, M. neglectum (a.k.a. M. racemosum) not only returns, but increases rapidly here. Blue-black blooms often carpet yards in front of houses only 50 years old and the tiny bulbs have naturalized thickly along country roadsides in East Texas. Because of their diminutive size, they should be sited at the edge of a garden bed.

As Greg Grant points out when he lectures about spring-blooming bulbs, "They're not breeding for the South, they're breeding for the northern two-thirds of the United States and Europe." He has found that heirloom narcissus that react to a wet-dry weather cycle instead of a hot-cold cycle naturalize better in North Texas.

He defines jonquils as fragrant yellow clusters, narcissus as white clusters (some would argue their perfume is more like a stink) and daffodils as single flower trumpets.

He recommends N. jonquilla (yellow); N. x medioluteus 'Twin Sisters', N. x odorus 'Campernelli' (golden); N. x intermedius a.k.a. Texas star (yellow); N. pseudonarcissus, a daffodil known as Lent lily; and N. tazetta 'Grand Primo', 'Double Roman', 'Pearl' and 'Erlicheer'.

Scott Ogden, whose revised edition of Garden Bulbs for the South is due from Timber Press next spring, has additional suggestions from among dozens of jonquil hybrids: 'Trevithian', 'Sweetness', 'Lanarth', 'Golden Perfection', 'Suzy' (bright yellow with orange cup), 'Golden Dawn', 'Quail', 'Pipit', 'Dickcissel', 'Pueblo' (white) and 'Bell Song' (white with pink cup).

'Sir Watkin', 'Lucifer', 'Carlton', 'Fortune', 'Mount Hood' and 'Ice Follies' are long-cupped recommendations. Jonquils with pink cups are not reliable rebloomers here.

Triandrus hybrids are considered the most graceful of all narcissi. White 'Thalia' is the standard. Others to try, writes Mr. Ogden, include 'Petrel', 'Hawera', 'Silver Chimes', 'Tuesday's Child' and 'Liberty Bells'.

Byzantine gladiolus

Ipheion uniflorum 'Rolf Fiedler' and 'Wisley Blue'

Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' (summer snowflake)

Ornithogalum umbellatum (star of Bethlehem)

O. nutans

O. arabicum

Local garden retailers

Virtually every garden retailer, including the big boxes, sells Dutch bulbs. The independent nurseries listed below report having some of the spring- blooming flowers that should perennialize here.

Brumley Gardens

Calloway's, multiple locations

Nicholson-Hardie,

tollway location

North Haven Gardens

Petal Pusher's Garden Emporium, Cedar Hill

Redenta's, Dallas and Arlington

Ruibal's, two Dallas locations

Mail-order retailers

Some of the so-called minor bulbs can be difficult to locate. If you're willing to devote time to the search, augment what you find locally by browsing a selection of specialty mail-order retailers.

Brent and Becky's Bulbs, 1-804-693-3966, brentandbeckysbulbs.com

Colorblends, 1-888-847-8637, colorblends.com

Easy to Grow Bulbs.com, 1-866-725-5361

McClure & Zimmerman, 1-800-883-6998, www.mzbulb.com

Odyssey Bulbs, 1-800-517-5152, odysseybulbs.com

Old House Gardens-Heirloom Bulbs, 734-995-1486, oldhousegardens.com

Southern Bulb Co., 866-406-2852, southernbulbs.com

Telos Rare Bulbs, telosrarebulbs.com

Terra Ceia Farms, 1-800-858-2852, terraceiafarms.com

Van Engelen, 860-567-8734, vanengelen.com

Von Bourgondien, 1-800-622-9997, dutchbulbs.com

White Flower Farm, 1-800-503-9624, whiteflowerfarm.comNeed help?

The Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center has a link for the gardening public on its Web site, bulb.com. There is an interactive component to help you choose bulbs for your garden style, selections for warm climates and more.

Closer to home, Jimmy Turner at the arboretum chooses bulbs for the garden's annual spring extravaganza. At dallasplanttrials.org, click on the link "Bulb Info," then "Presentation Link" for photos and names of good performers.