Our Office Bulb Garden

Last fall, plant buyers Karen C. and Erin S. filled an empty plot of land near our office with bulbs to create a spectacular spring garden. Tucked into the soil as temperatures drop, our spring-flowering bulbs reward patient gardeners with colorful blooms once winter ends. We joined Karen and Erin to snap a few photos on planting day last October, then headed back to the garden this spring to capture the bulbs in full bloom. It's almost time to begin planting bulbs for next year's gardens. Pre-order your favorites now from our curated collection of more than 90 varieties.

Karen tells us, "Every year, we face the challenge of getting photos for our bulbs online; it's so important to see how they'll bloom in spring. So, we decided to plant all of our leftover bulbs last fall and take our own photos this year. Erin and I planted over 25 varieties -- about 500 individual bulbs in total! Lucky for us, bulbs are very easy to plant; we completed the whole garden in about half a day. We did our planting at the end of October, but you can plant all the way into November until the ground becomes frosty. This spring, we were thrilled when almost 90% of the bulbs bloomed; we got so many great photos, and a beautiful garden to enjoy at the office.

"With so many different varieties, the garden bloomed from February all the way through the end of May. It was great to see new colors emerging throughout the spring! One of our favorite blooms was Tulip 'Brown Sugar,' a tulip with a gorgeous, rich orange color. Anyone who visited the garden snapped a photo and wanted to know more about it. I also loved Anemone 'St. Brigid Mix,' which bloomed with profuse, beautiful flowers that took up almost 5 square feet of space. Our biggest surprise was Tulip 'Casa Grande.' We knew this variety was exceptionally large, but its growth habit was unexpected; with short stems, it gave the appearance of giant, orange bowls scattered across the ground.

"Since last fall's planting was off-the-cuff, we're planning another garden this year that will include at least one of every bulb. We can't wait to see our bulb test garden bloom next spring!"