Spring Bulb Collection

Spring brings with it the promise of new life, green shoots peeking up through the snow, and many different colors of blooms. Planting spring bulbs in the fall brings surprising and dazzling rewards just when you cannot face another day of winter.

Early Bloomers

• Crocus is very cold tolerant and one of the first blooms to arrive. crocus image by Toanet from Fotolia.com

  Early spring bloomers include Grecian windflowers, also known as the green anemone, and are found in white, blue and white and pink. Glory-of-the-Snow produces blue flowers with a white center perched on a red stalk. Crocus may be one of the first flowers seen and may be found peeking through a snow-covered flowerbed.

Late Bloomers

• Flowering onions perch on tall stems in the late spring. close-up ornamental onion image by Olga Shelego from Fotolia.com

  Late-spring bloomers include the giant flowering onion with purple blooms that look like a ball on the top of a long stem. The Dutch hybrid iris appears on 2-feet-tall stems in white, orange, bronze, yellow, blue, purple or mixed variations of these colors. Tulips generally appear in mid to late spring and die back in May.

Fragrant Blooms

• Grape hyacinth sport small versions of the common, larger hyacinth. sunny hyacinth image by Julia Britvich from Fotolia.com

  One of the more fragrant spring bulbs is the 12-inch common hyacinth or hyacinthus orientalis with beautiful waxy blooms in yellow, white, salmon, pink, rose and blue. The 6-inch-tall grape hyacinth is a smaller version of the common hyacinth. Foliage for the grape hyacinth appears in autumn and stays green through the winter, with blooms appearing in early spring.