Arrangements with Spring Flowering Bulbs

Spring flowering bulbs are some of the easiest plants to grow.  Fall is the season when bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are planted and all you have to do is dig a hole, add some fertilizer, drop in the bulb and cover with soil.  The hardest part is waiting for the flowers to bloom the following spring.

After 6 months or more of waiting for the blooms of all those spring flowering bulbs that I planted the previous fall, I’m always hesitant to diminish the display by cutting the flowers to bring indoors for arrangements.  But a bouquet of fresh daffodils or tulips is such a treat, especially on a cold spring day.  I’ve come up with a system that allows for plenty of flowers in the garden and in my home.

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Bulb Planting with a Plan
Every fall I pack every nook and cranny of the garden with tulip, daffodil, hyacinth, muscari and allium bulbs. And even though my back is aching from all the digging I plant more in nursery pots. I know it will be worth the effort come spring.

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Lifting the Bulb Pots in Spring
I bury the nursery pots in one of the framed beds in my vegetable garden. In spring when the flowers emerge I lift the pots and use them in arrangements for the house. If I don’t get bulbs planted the previous fall I purchase potted bulbs from a garden center or even the grocery store.

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Creating a Centerpiece
Next it’s just a matter of slipping the pot of flowers into a decorative container and covering the soil and lip of the plastic pot with sheet moss. Sometimes I add little pots of spring annuals such as viola, nemesia or English daisy.

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Wire Basket with Muscari and Violas
This arrangement started with a wire basket. I lined it with moss first and then covered the moss with a plastic garbage bag. I filled the basket with soil and dropped in the muscari and violas.

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All Natural Room Fragrance
Here a soup tureen is used as a container. The hyacinths were already flowering when I purchased them from a local garden center. I removed them from the pot and gently washed the soil from the bulbs. I filled the tureen about half way with pea gravel and tucked in the bulbs, added some water and I was done. I placed the arrangement in the guest room so overnight visitors can enjoy the fragrance.

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Sole Fleur
This arrangement is simple to put together. Just drop a pot of blooming tulips in a rustic container. Colorful alternatives to the all white theme seen here are pink and orange, 3 shades of yellow, or hot pink and a green tulip (Viridiflora) such as ‘Spring Green’ or ‘Greenland’.

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