Bulbs Don’t Need Any Babying

The more you garden, the more you appreciate plants that don’t need to be babied.

Bulbs, generally speaking, need no babying.

Because they contain nearly everything necessary to produce foliage and flowers within their crinkly paper husks, bulbs are about as self-sufficient as plants get. Spade a hole, cover them, and let them work.

Hortense Miller of Laguna Beach has nearly 40 years of gardening experience in California alone, and self-sustaining bulbs are the kind of plant she’s learned to appreciate more each year.

“I have a big garden”--it’s 2.5 acres--”and not much help,” she says. “I don’t have time for plants that have to be coddled and spoon-fed.”

Miller’s garden contains thousands of bulbs.

Her advice for neophytes: “If I’d never planted bulbs before, I’d start with narcissus. They do quite well here.

“Don’t bother with the big, showy hybrids. They only last a year. Plant the little, unpresuming ones that have been around for centuries. They’ll be around forever.

“My two recommendations would be ‘Thalia’ and ‘Trevithian.’ I planted some of each 30 years ago, and they’ve spread to cover an area 50-feet-by-50-feet. I cut huge armfuls in the spring for bouquets, and you can’t even see the holes where I’ve taken them. They’re splendid.”

Cristin Fusano, horticulturist and merchandising coordinator at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, is also a Thalia enthusiast. It’s her “favorite white daffodil.” “Especially combined with white freesias and, for contrast, blue anemones.”

Any narcissus tazetta variety would also make a good naturalizing candidate, Fusano says. “Paper Whites” and “Soleil d’Or” are two good ones commonly available.

(Daffodil and narcissus are synonymous. The first is the common name; the second, the botanical. Jonquils are a distinct group of narcissus.)

Charles O’Neil, UC Irvine Arboretum museum scientist, recommends sparaxis from South Africa for gardeners new to bulbs.

Although nearly all South African bulbs enjoy Southern California’s climate, which is similar to their own, O’Neil says, many are accustomed to sandier soils and won’t adjust well to our heavier clay soil unless it has been well amended to improve drainage.

Sparaxis--a bright small flower available in a variety of colors, most blotched with contrasting centers--is an exception. “It thrives in clay,” O’Neil says. “I think you could grow it in cement.”

Like narcissus, sparaxis naturalizes easily.

“I’ve got a clump 8 to 10 feet wide in my yard I put in six years ago,” O’Neil says. “And I’ve seen a yard in Laguna Beach that is entirely covered in sparaxis for about six to seven weeks every spring. That’s a spectacular sight.”

Sparaxis is able to naturalize in lawns because it can take water during its dormant season, unlike many other bulbs, which need to be bone-dry when they’re off duty.

Ixia, another South African bulb, which produces splendid flowers in almost every color but blue, also survives summer watering, according to Mary Rouse, a Corona del Mar gardener who has had ixia in her back yard for years.

“Ixia is one of my favorites,” Rouse says. “The flowers look so graceful, swaying in the wind on their long, thin stems. They last a long time on the plant, and they’re great for cutting.

“The bulbs would probably rot out if you planted them somewhere where they got watered twice a week, but occasional watering doesn’t seem to hurt them. I also have some in very dry corners. Ixia seems to be quite flexible.”

Ixia and sparaxis have one drawback, however: Gophers and squirrels find them irresistible. Once you get an area established, the bulbs aren’t quite so susceptible, Rouse says. “Squirrels, like plants, seem to like loose, freshly amended soil best,” she says.

If there are a lot of critters in your neighborhood, though, you might want to plant baboon flower (babiana) instead, Hortense Miller suggests.

“Nothing eats mine--not even gophers--because the bulbs push themselves down so deep,” she says. “Baboons eat them in Africa; that’s how the plant gets its name.”

But, Miller points out, “we don’t have any baboons in California.”

The foot-high plant, which produces cup-shaped blue or lavender flowers, naturalizes readily, says Rouse, who also has it in her garden. “Babiana may seem slow the first year, but have patience; it just keeps getting better and better.”

Some bulbs such as narcissus and homeria produce a poison that protects them from garden invaders.

All these bulbs can be left in the ground year after year, where they’ll continue to produce offspring and increase the size of their territory.

If you don’t mind replacing bulbs every year, ranunculus and anemones are also easy to grow. Because they are very small, they are planted shallowly and are therefore practically guaranteed to come up, even if you plant them wrong-side up.

Many gardeners also find their cooler colors a more suitable match for perennial gardens than the yellows and oranges that predominate in daffodils and sparaxis.

Joyce Spiller of Costa Mesa picked ranunculus and anemones for her first bulb venture for this reason:

“My garden is mostly pinks, blues and lavenders,” she says. “So I wanted bulbs that weren’t too hot-colored. I planted them with foxglove, larkspur, cosmos and periwinkle. The ranunculus and anemones come up first, and then the perennials. The perennials also cover up the dying foliage of the bulbs.”

Ranunculus and anemones are, however, both susceptible to a fungus most of us have in our soil, according to Phil Berneking, sales representative for Davids & Royston Bulb Co., a major supplier to nurseries in the Southwest and a ranunculus grower.

“Ranunculus look wonderful and make great cut flowers,” Berneking says. “They’re the best-selling bulbs in Southern California. But unless you have very well-draining soil, you’re better off treating them as annuals. Anemones too.”

Spiller, though, has been getting along with the same bulbs since 1988--perhaps because she is blessed with sharply draining sandy soil, highly unusual in the county.

Then there are tulips. In a cool climate, tulips naturalize as well as anything. “They were easy to grow back in Chicago,” Miller says. “I had huge beds of them.”

Tulips are not impossible to grow in Southern California. But they do require some fussing. Because our soil is cool such a short time, we have a very narrow window of opportunity during which to plant tulips, according to Fusano at Roger’s Gardens. Plant them now or no later than Nov. 10, she recommends. And chill the bulbs in the refrigerator for six weeks before planting.

Hyacinths get the same treatment.

When tulips finish blooming and the foliage begins to turn yellow, Fusano says, taper off watering until the foliage has died back completely. Then dig out the bulbs, shake off the dirt, store them in a cool, dry place until next fall, when you start the process over again. Many people can get two to three years’ life out of tulip bulbs, she says, but other gardeners have found it more practical to treat them as annuals.

You, like Miller, might think that’s a lot of trouble for a short-lived flower. Many gardeners, however, share Fusano’s view: “Tulips are like the woman on the L’Oreal commercial--they’re worth it.”

Anyone who has any success with tulips in the first year says the same thing, she says. “Next year I’m going to plant twice as many.”

Tulipa clusiana (lady tulip), a tulip species, is an exception. The lady tulip--it’s white with reddish-pink stripes and shaped much like the lily-flowered tulip varieties--requires no cooling period, can be left in the ground and naturalizes readily.

“It’s like babiana,” says Rouse, who has been growing it with success. “The flowers may seem unimpressive the first year, but they’ll keep improving.”

If you haven’t had any luck with bulbs in the past, chances are it’s because you over-watered them and the bulbs rotted, O’Neil at UCI suggests. As gardeners put more drought-tolerant plants requiring less summer water into their gardens, they’ll have more success with bulbs, he says.

And more need for them, too. Bulbs make up for their short blooming period by producing showy, extravagant flowers, he says. “They give all those gray-foliaged plants some punch.”