Spring Bulbs + Peonies: A Perfect Pair for the Garden
Spring Bulbs + Peonies: A Perfect Pair for the Garden
If you love peonies, consider adding spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils, alliums, and other bulbs nearby. They make wonderful companion plants and can help create a garden that feels full of color from the earliest days of spring through peony season and even into summer.
Bulbs Bring Color Before Peonies Bloom
One of the best things about planting spring bulbs alongside peonies is timing. Tulips, daffodils, and other early-blooming bulbs emerge and flower weeks before peonies reach their full height.
In early spring, when your peony garden is just beginning to wake up, bulbs can provide an explosion of color. By the time your peonies are getting ready to bloom, many of those early bulbs are finishing up.
This means you can enjoy more flowers throughout the season without having to find additional garden space.
Peonies Help Hide Fading Bulb Foliage
There is another reason these plants work so well together: their foliage fills in at different times.
After spring bulbs bloom, their leaves need to remain in place while the plant stores energy for next year's flowers. This can be one of the less attractive stages of growing bulbs!
Fortunately, peonies are just getting started at this point. Their large, lush foliage quickly grows around the fading bulb leaves, helping camouflage them as they naturally yellow and die back.
Rather than having a garden bed that looks bare after the bulbs finish blooming, your peonies take over the show.
Some Bulbs Keep Blooming After the Peonies
The companion-planting possibilities don't have to end when your peonies finish blooming. Alliums and some other later-blooming bulbs can flower after peony season, extending the display and bringing fresh color to the garden as the peony flowers fade.
Tall alliums are particularly striking planted among peonies. Their round flower heads rise above the foliage and add a completely different shape and texture to the garden. They can provide a beautiful transition between the showy peony season and the perennials that take center stage later in summer.
Plant Bulbs in the Fall
Spring-flowering bulbs are planted in the fall because they need a period of cold temperatures to develop properly and prepare for spring blooming. Planting them before the ground freezes gives the bulbs time to establish roots before winter.
Fall is the perfect time to think about where you want those pops of color. Look for open spaces around established perennials, along garden paths, or between plants that will emerge later in the season.
Think Beyond Tulips and Daffodils
Tulips and daffodils are some of the most familiar spring bulbs, but there are many other options to consider. Try combining bulbs with different bloom times, colors, heights, and flower shapes for a longer-lasting display.
Daffodils are especially nice in perennial gardens because they are generally left alone by deer and many other garden pests. Tulips can add incredible color and variety, while alliums and other later bulbs can help carry the garden beyond peony season.
Plant for a Garden That Changes Throughout the Season
The goal isn't necessarily to have every plant blooming at the same time. Instead, think about creating a garden where something is always happening.
Early spring bulbs wake the garden up. Peonies follow with their spectacular blooms. Later bulbs, such as alliums, help bridge the gap into summer, when your other perennials continue the display.
That's what makes bulbs such wonderful companions for peonies: they help you get more seasons of beauty from the same garden space.
So when you're planting your peonies or tidying up established plants for fall, don't forget to look around them. A few handfuls of spring bulbs planted in the fall can give you flowers before, during, and even after peony season.
For those of you that are close to our farm, we have a self-serve bulb stand set up just outside our shop. Feel free to come anytime to pick up a high selection of bulbs including:
Tulips
Daffodils
Muscari
Hyacinth
Allium
Mini Iris
Spanish Bluebells
Imperials
Anemone
and more!
Bulbs are sold in packs of 10-25, depending on variety.
