Summer bulbs

Summer bulbs can add a splash of colour to your garden:

• Gladiolas summer blooms, full sun
• Dahlias summer and fall blooms, full sun to light shade
• Tuberous begonias summer and fall, partial shade to shade
• Caladiums multicoloured foliage, sun to part shade.  Deer don’t like caladiums.
• Cannas summer blooms, full sun.
• Summer hyacinths (Galtonia) summer blooms, sun to part shade, fragrant.  Might winter over in a well protected area.
• Elephant ears (Colocasia) large, exotic-looking leaves, part shade.

For a head start on the flowers, you can plant the bulbs indoors.

After frost in the fall, lift the bulbs and store them in peat moss or in a cloth Green Thumb bulb bag (also great as gift bags).

Here’s a tip: this spring, if you find a bare spot where you’d like more tulips or daffodils, etc., mark the spot by planting some summer bulbs there.  You’ll fill the spot for the summer; in the fall, you’ll know where to plant the spring bulbs.