Spring bulb flowers add charm to garden containers and beds

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Q. I’d like to light up the spring garden with little bags of little flower bulbs, preferably ones a little more unusual than crocuses and grape hyacinths. What would you recommend?

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A. The small spring bulb flowers add charm and bring delightful surprises to garden containers and beds. They are easy to dig into the ground along the edges of the plots and in small corners. I often insert them in fall and winter pots between pansies and violas, heather, dwarf evergreens, and heucheras (coral bells).

Among my personal favorites is Pink Giant, a snow glory (Chionodoxa) that grows up to 15 cm in height. Each bulb produces a full bouquet of small pink flowers that make beautiful cut flower displays for the home. My plants bloom in March.

Dwarf lilies are exquisite little flowers, ideal for striking bed corners and edges and for containers. Traditional varieties are blue and gold, but Katherine’s Gold is creamy yellow. Katherine Hodgkin is a dainty blue and white beauty. Dwarf lilies grow to about 15 cm tall and bloom in February.

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Species, or botanicals, tulips will bloom for many years in a garden, given a warm, dry location during the summer. Most garden centers have at least some of these little gems. Probably the best known is the Tulipa tard, only 10 cm tall, with thin, glossy leaves and butter-yellow flowers, the petals with creamy white tips. Each bulb produces about six flowers. Little Beauty’s flowers have rose-red petals and a dark charcoal blue heart.

You will also find treasures among the dwarf daffodils (Narcissi). Tete a Tete is a classic: miniature trumpet daffodils with 15 cm stems. Tete Boucle is a double form. Golden Bells have bell-shaped flowers on 10 cm stems.

Walk through the light bulb displays at your local garden centers and browse the smaller flower types for the ones you like. The packages will note the bulbs’ blooming time (early, mid, or late spring) to help you plan an uninterrupted display.