LADYBUG...BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER WHEN IT COMES TO SPRING BULBS

Ladybug says...

Few garden plants hive as much pleasure with as little effort as the spring flowering bulbs. One of the most vigorous, dependable and colorful of spring, they can be depended upon to be rewarding. About their only demand is a garden position with good drainage.

Generally speaking, the American public likes big things--big cars, big houses, big boats and big flowers. Among the spring flowering bulbs, most people think of big daffodils, big tulips and big hyacinths. They also like the bold colors that can be spotted blocks away.

Some gardeners will tell you that bigger is not always better, and show you groups of the smaller blooming spring bulbs. These are the "minor bulbs" and the more experience that we have with them the better that they are liked.

While each of them is small and the flowers are fairly small, as a group they can be an eye-catcher in the garden in late winter and early spring. Some of these bulbs include winter aconite, snowdrops, striped squill (Puschkinia) glory of the snow (Chinonodoxa) crown imperial (fritillaria), rock garden narcissi, specie tulips, crocus, allium, grape hyacinths (Muscari), rock garden iris Danfordiae and Reticulata.

All of these produce small plants that flower very early in the season. This factor, their coming so early, makes them particularly desirable as the first signs of spring even though they are not showy like their cousins, the big bulbs.

Generally, these minor bulbs are not expensive, and usually they are sold in no leases than 10 or 12, and it takes that many of any one kind to make a showing. For the best display, 50 or so bulbs of one kind make a good show in mass planting.

There is a lawn in Sikeston that is planted as full as it can get with crocus. Because different colors have different blooming dates, these crocus are so intermingled that the bright colors of yellow, orange, purple striped, multicolored, cream and white is just like an artist's palette spread all over the yard.

What about the spent blooms and foliage, you are asking? It is true that any foliage of spring flowering bulbs has a period of looking rugged, but that is only a short time until the lawn can receive the lawn mower without injuring next year's flowers.

One of the strongest traits of minor bulbs is that they begin flowering in winter, a time when the garden is dull, dull. They pop right up the first few warm days and when you aren't looking, they appear some yellow and lavender crocus and green and white snowdrops. In my earlier days on an orchard farm, snowdrops grew many places in the apple and peach orchards, possible spread by the disc and the mend were cultivating with a tractor. These little flowering bulbs were considered a nuisance, and now they are sold.

Another advantage of the minor bulbs is that they will not threaten the pocketbook, while large flowering daffodils and tulips often begin at a dollar each. They also multiply freely and naturalize.

Flowers of striped squill or Puschkinia are not drooping, but held outward from a compact spike. White flowers with a light blue stripe come from the center, and when left undisturbed they will develop into a pleasant blue carpet in March.

Glory of the snow, or Chionodoxa, is also very early flowering, and often joins the mini iris, Danfordiae and Reticulata. Also dwarf narcissi, such a little Tete-a-Tete, a buttercup yellow, that is great for naturalizing, and dear little Baby Moon, whose dainty golden blooms have an intensely sweet scent, are both valuable for early blooms.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) are classic bulbs for massing despite the fact that they average only about six inches in height. Their true blue color adds the much needed contrast in the early bloomers with all of the yellows, purples and whites. In my estimation one cannot have two much blue in a spring garden.

There will be other spring flowering bulbs discussed at the Jackson Men's Garden Club Symposium on Saturday, March 12 at Cape Girardeau Vocational School, 301 North Clark Street. The Symposium will be from 8:00 a.m. (with registration until 9) until 4:30 p.m.

Lectures will be on vegetable gardening, daylilies, unusual plants, lawn care, flower arranging and Missouri landscaping plants. Participating will be Joe L. Sherinski, G.H. (Speed) Creglow, Charlene Back and Ann Crites (Federated Garden Club accredited Flower Show Judges), Patricia Steinborn, nationally known daylily hybridizer, Dr. Charles H. Korns, professor of Horticulture, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY University, Dr. Paul Schnare and the Ladybug.

Registration is $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Registration fee will apply for one or all the programs. Eldred Hargens, treasurer of the Garden Club, is handling registrations, telephone 339-8529.