LOOKING AHEAD TO FALL BULB PLANTING - Judy Ziemba, GCI Horticulture Chairman

Many of us are already receiving fall nursery catalogs with an array of tempting bulbs to plant this coming fall for spring beauty. Early bird orders frequently are rewarded with a special discount.

Plan to plant a "drift" or two of spring-blooming bulbs this year. Critters do not usually eat daffodils so they are a long-lived planting. Other bulbs deer, rabbits and voles seem to avoid include squill, grape hyacinths, crown imperials, glory of the snow, winter aconite, and snowdrops and each year the drift becomes more intense and beautiful.

If your landscape doesn't include drifts, think "pockets." Look for small spots where a cluster of bulbs can be squeezed in and will bring a smile of surprise next spring. Some places which might work are in the mulch under a tree, at the end or base of a hedge, next to a stepping stone near the service area or in the obvious areas near a mailbox, front step, next to a birdbath, even in the grass because early bulbs have performed before the lawn mowers are out. Tuck some small bulbs between your hosta plantings and they can bloom and mature before the hosta foliage is unfurled. In fact you can mark late erupting perennials with circles of bulbs to remind you not to dig in the area.

Check your local garden center in August or mail order catalogs or online to plan for early spring color. Some squill varieties you might consider are Scilla siberica (Siberian squill), Scilla campanulata (Wood hyacinth) which really is May-blooming but a small bulb or Scilla nutans sometimes S. non-scripta known as English bluebells. Striped squill or Lebanese squill is really Puschkinia libanotica but the blooms are spikes of pale blue blossoms with a deeper blue stripe on each petal and are inexpensive to naturalize in drifts.

Grape hyacinths are great to naturalize, especially the common variety Muscari armeniacum, but to really add some excitement look for the white variety M. botryoides 'Album' or M. Latifolium which has a regular color at the top of the bloom but a deeper blue beneath or the earlier and bright blue M. azureum which is very hardy. Muscari 'Blue Spike' is a double form but I did not find it so vigorous as the single varieties.

Crown imperials or Fritillaria hybrids usually flower in April but wildlife avoid them because ot the odor they emit. F. imperialis comes in 'Lutea' (yellow) or 'Aurora' (orange or their cousins F. pudica, a smaller yellow and F. persica, a deep violet. There are other species and all seem hardy in Illinois so see what is available. Other small bulbs you might find to try are glory of the snow (Chionodoxa), winter aconite (Eranthis cilicica), and snowdrops (Galanthus species.) Rodents and deer seem to let them flourish, so each year your drift or pocket will increase.