5 Bulbs to Add to Your Perennial Garden

Gardening brings so much happiness to your life; from the relaxing act of working the soil in preparation for the season, to the moment when all your hard work pays off with a sea of color. Adding bulbs to your perennial garden is yet another way to make your yard your happy place. Bulbs add variety in height, texture, and color to your garden, plus their flowers can fill in the gap the bloom times of your other perennials bloom.

Here are the best bulbs to add to your perennial garden. Let’s keep our gardens blooming—and our spirits high—all season long!

Daylily

Daylilies are easy, reliable, and not too picky—a winning combination! They do well in a range of soil types and love sunny spots, and we especially love putting them in the middle or at the edge of flowerbeds. Plant the bulbs in spring or fall, and consider pairing them with tulips.

This perennial blooms throughout the summer for several weeks and comes in a range of colors. Each flower lasts only a day, adding a pop of color to your yard throughout its long blooming period. Even when not in bloom, daylilies add texture to your yard with their long, grass-like leaves. You don’t have to worry about pest problems with daylilies, though they can be susceptible to daylily disease, which is a type of rust. Winter-hardy to zones 3 to 10.

Oriental Lily

Adding Oriental lilies to your yard adds a beautiful, bold statement. Though they are a bit more challenging to grow than other bulbs, growing these dramatic flowers is well worth it. They are so much more than just a sight for sore eyes—they also have a spicy fragrance that becomes stronger after dark. 

Oriental lilies’ trumpet-like flowers bloom later in the season. This perennial can grow between three and six feet tall, so they work great at the back of beds or in the middle. Plant in spring or fall, with the pointed part of the bulb upwards, in a spot that gets lots of sun. Winter-hardy to zones 4 to 9.

Globe Allium

One of the most fun bulbs to plant in your garden has to be globe allium.The flowers, available in purple, pink, blue, and yellow, have a pom-pom appearance, made of clusters of tiny florets. The stems can grow up to three feet tall. For many reasons—their color, their height, the quirky globe-shaped flower heads, and their appeal to pollinators—alliums add extraordinary interest to your yard!

Plant bulbs in fall. Globe alliums are best planted in groups of no less than three, and they bloom around late spring or early summer. Winter-hardy to zones 3 to 8.

Iris

You caught us—we snuck a flower that starts from a rhizome rather than a bulb onto this list! Most irises start from rhizomes, which are stem-like roots, except for the Dutch iris, which grows from a bulb. Irises come in a variety of colors, which its name even points to—in Greek, “iris” means rainbow. The bright, delicate flowers bloom in early summer and stand tall on sword-like foliage. Irises can grow up to 2.5 feet.

Irises are good for naturalizing, meaning you can depend on them to come up year after year, and they will naturally spread throughout your yard. Plant rhizomes in fall in a spot with partial to full sun. Winter-hardy to zones 3 to 8.

Liatris

Liatris, also known as the blazing star, is native to North America. The bottlebrush-like flowers, available in purple, pink, or white, attract butterflies and add lovely texture to your perennial garden. Unlike many other flowers, they bloom from the top down. The wispy, grass-like foliage stays green during the growing season and turns bronze in fall. Liatris grows from a corm or rhizome, which is similar to a bulb.

Plant in spring in full sun and the flowers should bloom by late summer. Liatris looks great along borders, or grow it throughout your yard to create a meadow-like landscape! Winter-hardy to zones 3 to 8.

Adding these bulbs to your perennial garden will round out your landscape, leaving you with a lush and colorful oasis in your backyard. The bulbs mentioned above come in various colors, so you’re sure to find a fit for your color scheme. To see our full Spring Planted and Fall Planted catalogues, visit our website.