Easy Bulb Garden Design Ideas & Planting Tips

When you begin working on any bulb garden, it helps to start with a simple design plan. The following sections offer practical bulb garden ideas and planting tips you can adapt when getting started in your own yard. Read on for tips for bulb gardens in both large and small spaces.

Design Ideas & Tips for Planting in Large Spaces

In large areas of the landscape where you have a lot of planting space, a planting of two or three different colours can be effective. When you have more room, you can expand your bulb garden plans into sweeping drifts and curves, and repeat colours and shapes across the bed for a unified look.

In a large space, you have room to do mass-planting or color-blocking with your bulbs, where you concentrate the bulbs by colour. You could also plant a mix of bulbs for a bright, playful, naturalistic aesthetic. You may even consider using both styles – for example, you could plant a large drift of mixed daffodils and tulips, bordered by a solid swath of lower-growing grape hyacinths.

In large beds and when mixing bulbs, remember to reference our guides for garden color theory and the principles for arranging flowers by height.

Tips For Mass Planting

For the look of Holland’s sweeping flower displays, it is best to plant bulbs en masse. By planting bulbs of one variety, you will achieve a stunning visual impact. Plus, this makes bulbs easy to care for since they will have the same cultural requirements, and the foliage will mature at the same time.

Avoid planting bulbs a single straight row, or in a single circle around a tree or bush, as this can result in a display that looks sparse. Flowers look better when they are planted in clusters and drifts. This approach works beautifully in any spring bulb garden layout and is one of the simplest bulb planting ideas to implement.

Tips for Grouping Bulbs

The more bulbs planted of one variety and colour, the greater the impact of color—and fragrance too.

With larger fall-planted bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, plant at least 8-12 bulbs of one variety in a grouping. When planting naturalizing daffodils, you can space them bulbs out to give them room to multiply and spread over time.

For smaller fall-planted bulbs, such as crocus and snowdrops, planting in groups of at least 20 bulbs or more will provide a visual impact—these smaller bulbs produce smaller flowers, so large groupings help them read in the landscape. The small flowers are some of the first to bloom in spring, so plant them near sidewalks, patios or entryways to the home so you can enjoy the first flowers of the season.

When planting summer-blooming bulbs in spring, three to six bulbs are suggested as a minimum number of summer bulbs of the same variety to plant in a grouping.

Thoughtful grouping is central to any successful bulb garden design, and helps turn your planting into a cohesive bulb garden layout.

Tips for Inter-Mixing Plants

Blending bulbs with companion plants is a classic element of bulb garden design.

The colour of spring-flowering bulbs is enhanced when they are planted with pansies or other compatible early flowers.

The colour of summer-flowering bulbs will be enhanced when planted with summer flowering annuals such as petunias, marigolds and other annuals. Although summer annuals do not hide the dying bulb foliage, they do extend the colour of the flower bed throughout the summer. Plants like lilies can be planted among perennials, which will help hide the lower stem area The dwarf forms of Dwarf daylilies like Stella de Oro do an are a good choice to hide the lower stems of a lily.

Garden Design & Tips for Planting in Small Spaces

In small spaces, planting bulbs of one colour will have greater impact and make the planting space feel larger. Mixed colours planted in a small space tend to make the space look even smaller. In tight areas, a compact flower bulb garden layout using one or two varieties can be one of the most effective design. Simple, repeating drifts of colour is an excellent ideas for bulb gardens on balconies, in entry beds, or in narrow borders where you want maximum effect in limited space.

Tips for Layering Bulbs with Lasagna Planting

Among all the bulb garden design ideas, lasagna planting is one of the most space-efficient and works in almost any flower bulb garden. It is especially useful when you want a long season of interest within a small bulb garden.

Just like making lasagna, layering bulbs isn't difficult—it just takes a bit of planning. When selecting your bulbs, consider bloom times, color, height and texture.

How to layer bulbs in a container:

• Select a large pot that has drainage holes, or place a few inches of pebbles in the bottom for drainage, and lay a base of potting soil about four inches deep into the pot. 
• Set in one layer of bulbs using your largest variety. (For instance, tulips and daffodils are large bulbs, while crocus or muscari are smaller.) 
• Pack the bulbs fairly close together; they can be nearly touching. 
• Add in another two inches of soil, then the next set of bulbs. 
• Repeat with a third layer. 
• Fill the pot to the top with potting soil and water well. 
• You can keep the pot in your garage or an outbuilding until early spring, when you'll want to sit it in the sun and wait for your flowers to spring up!

The lasagna planting method can also be used directly in the garden. Just plant the largest bulbs at the depth recommended on their packaging, and layer smaller bulbs on top.

Lasagna planting allows for a variety of colors, sizes and textures in a single space. Create a rainbow in a container, or plant several different flowers with a similar hue and varying bloom times for a compact, long-lasting garden display in your favorite color.