Spring Blooming Bulbs from Colorblends
Fall gardening chores continue at my Bedford, New York farm.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew have been hard at work preparing the greenhouses for storing all my precious tropical plants - replacing the plastic covers, checking the propane heaters and installing shelves for all the potted specimens. Around this time, we also begin planting thousands and thousands of spring blooming bulbs - daffodils, snowdrops, lilies, Camassia, alliums, muscari, and more. Many of this season’s bulbs are from Colorblends Flower Bulbs - a third generation wholesale flower merchant in nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut. For the next few weeks, we’ll be planting bulbs in the Stewartia Garden, in the tree pits, outside my Winter House kitchen, in the daffodil border, under my long and winding pergola, and in the sunken garden behind my Summer House - they will all look so marvelous come spring.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Last week, Fernando picked up several crates filled with bulbs. It is our first delivery for this year’s fall planting project. We plant thousands and thousands of bulbs every fall around the farm.
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- Before each bag of bulbs is removed from the truck, Ryan checks it off on a master inventory list to ensure we picked up everything we ordered.
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- The Colorblends facility is housed in an old factory originally built in 1879. Colorblends has been selling bulbs for more than 50-years. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends) https://www.colorblends.com/
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- The warehouse is filled with all kinds of bulbs. While Colorblends does handle some bulb order pickups, the company mainly ships bulbs to customers – online catalog orders and by phone. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- All the bulbs are carefully checked for quality and all color combinations are tested multiple times before being offered in their catalog. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Once orders are ready, they are shipped off directly to professionals and ambitious residential gardeners – all in time for planting season. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- In spring, Colorblends opens their spring garden and Colorblends House to visitors. The half-acre idea garden features 40-thousand spring flower bulbs of various types that bloom in sequence to create an ever-changing display. The bloom is continuous, with three peak phases anchored by crocus, then daffodils and, finally, tulips.
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- Bulbs should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place until they are planted. We are storing these in my gym building garage.
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- Here are Fernando and Ryan moving all these precious flowering bulbs. I usually order them in batches of 20, 50, 100, 500, and a thousand – it’s always so exciting to see them arrive.
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- Some of the ones we’re planting this year include these Cassata daffodil bulbs. Cassata is a showy daffodil that’s perfect for the border and looks great in broad sweeps.
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- Here is a Cassata daffodil in bloom. Daffodils are among the most popular spring blooming flowers because of their resistance to deer and rodents – they just don’t care for them. The flower’s split cup opens in bright yellow and buttery ivory. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Another wonderful daffodil is ‘Sun Disc’ – a miniature and late bloomer, with soft yellow, circular flowers that feature a flat golden cup.
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- Here is a delicate ‘Sun Disc’ daffodil flower. It is a jonquil and looks great planted in bunches near rocks or along a walk. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Here are one of my spring favorites – snowdrops. Snowdrops produce one very small, pendulous bell-shaped white flower which hangs off its stalk like a “drop” before opening. There are bunches of snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, in various beds around the farm.
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- Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. Common names include camas, quamash, Indian hyacinth, camash, and wild hyacinth. They grow to a height of 12 to 50 inches and vary in color from pale lilac or white to deep purple or blue-violet.
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- Unifolium has loose heads of lavender-pink flowers touched with white.
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- Bunches of Unifolium will look so pretty come spring. It produces up to 20 long-lasting florets per stem. The bell-shaped flower heads of this native ornamental onion have a spray-like appearance. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Many of you probably have muscari. Muscari is a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia that produce spikes of dense, most commonly blue, urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in the spring. The common name for the genus is grape hyacinth.
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- These are trout lily bulbs. Trout lily flowers provide a nice spark of yellow in the garden. The delicate blooms, which resemble turks cap lilies, shine in dappled light.
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- Here are some trout lilies in bloom – I love their nodding heads. ‘Pagoda’ is a very reliable cultivar. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Purplish Pink Tommies bring charm to the garden in late winter or early spring.
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- Tommies are a delightful early crocus and one of the easiest to grow. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- Closely related to Chionodoxa and Scilla, Striped Squill is a deer- and rodent-resistant naturalizer named after Russian botanist Count Apollos Apollosvich Mussin-Puschkin. Puschkinia is best grown in moist, fertile, well-draining soil in full sun to partial sunlight.
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- This is Blue Squill – excellent for naturalizing beneath trees that lose their leaves.
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- Chionodoxa, known as glory-of-the-snow, is a small genus of bulbous perennial flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, often included in Scilla.
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- These are Spanish Bluebells. A shade-tolerant plant that bears spikes of lightly fragrant, porcelain blue, bell-shaped flowers. They are also ideal for naturalizing below shade trees.
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- The blue, white or pink flowers appear early in the year making them valuable garden ornamentals. (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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- And this intriguing allium is a big eye-catcher. It bears huge 10- to 12-inch spidery heads of rosy flowers. A real conversation piece in the garden and in arrangements.
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- Look how beautiful – Allium schubertii has various common names including ornamental onion, flowering onion, tumbleweed onion and Persian onion. These bloom in late spring making it a spectacular finale to the spring flower garden. I’ll share tips for planting all these bulbs in an upcoming blog. What kinds of bulbs are you planting this year? (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
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