What are you doing this weekend? — Me, planting bulbs.

Tis the season, and this year I am planting some new and exciting bulbs.  My garden has many (MANY!) bulbs — the vast majority are remnants of commercial plantings gone-by. We would put them in and then take them right back out three weeks later. This is super common in the industry and guarantees that office parks around the country all have generic daffodils all blooming at the same time.

I always found the waste and the ripping out to be a demoralizing and a hard pill to swallow and so I started saving as many as I could. It made me feel better to find each bulb a new home in my garden. These forced bulbs will bloom again – if you are patient and give them a couple years to recover.  So years later, I have lots of plain old yellow bog standard daffodils in my garden from so many years of saving these “throw-aways”. It’s absolutely lovely on a macro level, but not that exciting on a micro level.

The thing about bulbs is that I think many people think of bulbs in the vaguest of ways — red tulips, yellow daffodils, little blue muscari, etc.  (probably because of all those commercial plantings…) But the reality is that there is quite a bit more variety than you might realize.  Different shapes, sizes, and colors make bulb shopping like going to a good candy store. There are a huge variety of bulbs constantly being introduced every year and if you haven’t picked up a bulb catalog lately – you’d probably be surprised.

Which is why I am so excited to share this giveaway, in partnership with John Scheepers, with you. I am planting a whole bunch of new and different bulbs this fall and you can too. Let spice things up!

As my friend Michelle Says –

“To me, flower bulbs are like dessert. Icing on the cake. The ultimate reward for knuckling down in fall and getting it all done. It’s like starting the season with fireworks.”

Giveaway details:

John Sheepers is giving away 4 sets of bulbs to 4 Pith + Vigor readers.  Each set has 4 different bulbs (50 bulbs/set) that when planted together will give you a truly special display next spring.

The giveaway will end at 12 midnight EST on Tuesday October 24th, 2017 and winners will be announced on Wednesday October 25th. Bulbs will be shipped to winners immediately after that.

Each set contains:

• 10 Tulip Akebono
• 10 Narcissus Lingerie
• 25 Muscari aucheri Ocean Magic
• 5  Asiatic Lily Apricot Fudge

How to Enter

To enter, sign up for the Pith + Vigor newsletter.  After you sign up, you will receive an email confirmation that will give you a chance to share this giveaway and get 4 more chances to win.

ENTER HERE

Asiatic Lily Apricot Fudge

Defying normal Asiatic Lily shape and form with shorter petals, protruding stamens and a light fragrance, Apricot Fudge has upright semi-double flowers in an alluring shade of pale caramel-apricot with a sunshine glow. Blooms in June/July. Height: 3′ to 4′. HZ: 4-8.

Double Narcissus Lingerie

Lingerie is an strong-stemmed 1977 Murray Evans hybrid. It has large, outward-facing, perfectly formed, 4″ double flowers with snow-white petticoat layers interspersed with lemon-yellow petaloid whirls. It grows well out of its foliage, looks straight out at you and stands up to strong rainfall. Blooms in April/May. Height: 14″to 16″. HZ: 3-8.

Muscari aucheri Ocean Magic

Sparkling with the ocean’s infinite spectrum of shimmering blues and whites, Ocean Magic yields slightly conical racemes that gradually blend from deep cobalt-blue at its base, to paler blue, to even paler blue, eventually cresting into wave-frothed white caps above ample foliage clumps. It has a pale sweet fragrance. Blooms in April/May. Height: 8″. HZ: 4-8.

Giant Darwin Hybrid Tulip Akebono

This huge camellia-like tulip is primrose-yellow with crisp red petal edges, occasional pale raspberry striations, feathered green sepals and a steel-blue interior starburst. Meaning dawnor daybreakin Japanese, Akebono has a faint, sweet fragrance. Blooms in Mid-April. Height: 20″ to 22″. HZ: 3-7.