Bulbs for Garden Habitats

by Judy Glattstein

All gardeners have experienced the frustration of having a bulb flower in the first year after planting, but poorly or never again thereafter. Judy Glattstein shows how a more naturalistic style of planting can pay greater dividends over time from healthy and thriving populations of bulbs. By grouping bulbs together with other plants that excel in similar conditions of climate and local ecology, she creates gardens that truly belong where they are sited.

Judy Glattstein is The New York Botanical Garden's maven of geophytes (the rubric that encompasses "bulbous, tuberous, cormous, and rhizomatous plants"). The great virtue of her approach is its emphasis on their appropriate use. This right plant, right place method of bulb horticulture seems basic, but is actually a great insight, usually ignored. In other words, I was just kidding myself planting lachenalia in the (alleged) microclimate of a south-facing wall. Here is a real prescription for happier plants, more beautiful gardens, and less crotchety gardeners.

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