At the Heritage Garden hundreds of bulbs have been planted, and they are now under a bed of compost. You'll discover many different tulips and daffodils, along with my favorite bulbs: Crocus tommasinianus (called Tommies for short), Galanthus nivalis (snow drops) and 'Tete-a-Tete' daffodils. My favorites are also the easiest to grow and multiply in your garden, without any effort by you. The crocuses and snow drops freely seed or naturalize! This means that when they mature, the flowers produce seeds, and the seeds germinate and spread all over your garden and into your lawn.

I lived in a home where horticulturist Mr. Brehm had lived. He designed the garden beautifully and one of the things he planted were the Tommies and the snow drops. The bulbs were everywhere. Any time I shared plants with friends, there were bulbs in the soil. The wonderful thing is that they are the first bulbs to come up in the spring, and as a bonus, deer, rabbits, and squirrels rarely bother them. When there was a sunny day, I would go out in the yard to admire the crocuses. The loud buzzing of the bees enjoying the flowers was something I will never forget.

The 'Tete-a-Tete' daffodils are also a favorite of mine, in that their bulbs naturalize and are also deer and rabbit resistant. They are prolific bloomers with two or three flowers per stem. They also are short, 6 to 8” tall, so they do not fall over and need to be staked. So, if you plant a small grouping of 5 bulbs, in a few years you will have a beautiful large clump.

When all of these bulbs have died down, and are just dried up leaves, it is easy to remove the smaller leaves in your garden. With larger bulbs I find it a hassle to wait for the long stems to finally die down.

I now live in a home with a much smaller garden. I keep planting more and more of these bulbs every year. I’d love to get that lovely purple field of Tommies happening in this garden. It took years to get the picture shown.

I wish you success in your garden with these easy-to-grow bulbs.