Martha’s Favorite Bulbs to Naturalize for an Informal-Looking Landscape, According to Her Head Gardener

Naturalizing bulbs creates an informal garden aesthetic that only gets more beautiful with time.

If you want your garden to have a less-curated, natural look, you may want to try naturalizing your flower bulbs this fall. Naturalizing is the process of using specific flower bulbs to create a natural-looking landscape. This technique takes the rigidity and formality out of gardening, so you don’t need to worry about straight rows, designated beds, or plant spacing. Simply plant the bulbs in the ground and let them grow and reproduce as they wish.

When naturalizing bulbs on Martha’s farm, we mix together all of the bulbs we want to grow in a specific area and throw them onto the soil. Wherever they land is where we plant them, whether they are close, far apart, uneven, etc. This makes the bulbs look like they are growing randomly, right where nature wanted them to grow.

Ahead I’m sharing some of my and Martha’s favorite bulbs to use for naturalizing, along with a few essential guidelines to keep in mind when trying this technique in your own garden.

Related: How to Plant and Care for Bulbs

What I Look for When Choosing Bulbs to Naturalize

Here are some factors to keep in mind when selecting bulbs to naturalize.

Aesthetics

The first thing I consider when choosing bulbs to naturalize is aesthetics. Do I like the way this flower looks? What size, color, and shape does it have? You want to plant something that you like and think is beautiful.

Naturalizing Potential

Secondly, I look at naturalizing potential. Some plants naturalize and spread quickly, while others may take years. Some may grow in thick patches, others in clumps here and there. All of these characteristics are fine; it just depends on which qualities you are looking for in a certain space.

Longevity

Durability and longevity are also important. Does the plant overwinter well? Do its numbers increase year after year for many years, or do they fizzle out quickly? Naturalizing is a long-term plan, so you want plants that will last for the long haul. Ideally, the naturalization process becomes more self-sustaining and the plants naturally increase over time.

Martha’s Favorite Bulbs to Naturalize

While there are a multitude of bulbs that can be used for naturalizing, the best are ones that can naturally spread over time. Some of the most common (and some of the favorites that we grow all over the farm) include crocus, muscari, chionodoxa, scilla, galanthus, and ornithogalum.

All of these bulbs are planted in the fall for a spring bloom . They should be planted after the heat of summer is over but before the ground freezes solid. At the farm, this typically means October and November.

Planting these bulbs in the fall is essential because this timing coincides with their natural life cycle. The bulbs are dormant in summer and early autumn. When planted in fall, the top of the bulb sleeps during winter while the roots tend to start growing and expanding. In spring, the top takes over, and the leaves emerge, followed by the flowers.

Chionodoxa

Chionodoxa, commonly known as the glory of the snow, are small bulbs that come in shades of blue, pink, and white (with bright blue being the most common). The flowers appear in clusters, with each flower head having six petals and a white throat, depending on the variety. The foliage stays lush and green for longer than some other bulbs.

Another great attribute of chionodoxa is that animals leave them alone. They are deer-, squirrel-, and rodent-resistant, so you don't have to worry about them being eaten. At the farm, we have drifts of them planted throughout the stewartia garden as well as large bright blue clumps of them in the tree pits underneath the bald cypress.

Related: 14 Most Deer-Resistant Plants to Grow in Your Garden

Galanthus

Galanthus are commonly known as snowdrops. They are the earliest of the bulb bloomers, often appearing while it’s still really cold and everything is asleep. In some years, they will bloom as early as January or February—they can even push their way up and bloom through thin layers of snow.

The flowers are white, sometimes tinged with green stripes or edges. They have very dark green foliage, and the flowers hang off the stalks like pendants—many varieties are even more beautiful when you view them from underneath. These are one of Martha’s absolute favorite bulbs, and we have thousands upon thousands planted throughout the property. The two most concentrated areas are around the winter house (Martha’s home) and the maple woodland.

Crocus

Like galanthus, crocus flowers are one of the first harbingers of spring. They are the most common and well-known of the naturalizing bulbs. Crocus bulbs come in a multitude of colors, the main ones being purple, yellow, white, blue, bicolor, and striped. There are larger, more ornamental Dutch forms as well as varieties that tend to grow and spread more quickly. There are also autumn flowering varieties of crocus that are usually planted in September to early October and work as fall-blooming naturalizers.

Scilla

Scilla are commonly known as the squill. While these are fairly small bulbs, they naturalize readily. There are many different varieties available in a range of different heights, spreading rates, and colors, but all naturalize well. Color options include shades of blue (from deep to pale), whites, blue-and-white stripes, and even a few pinks and lavenders.

I’ve found that the blue and white shades are the best at spreading quickly. One of our favorites is the striped squill ( Puschkinia scilloides ), which makes huge clumps of powdery blue-white flowers early in spring that last quite a long time in the landscape. We have many of these planted all around the Tenant House. Another variety is the small Siberian squill, which tends to be the most readily naturalizing variety, as it pops up all over and in new places every year.

Ornithogalum

Ornithogalum is a lesser-known naturalizer that's becoming more common. These come in a few different heights, ranging from about 4 inches to 2 feet tall. (The shorter varieties are better for naturalizing.) They have star-shaped flowers that are pretty much all white with some green coloring. They look very much like clusters of allium flowers but with looser shapes. Some of the varieties can border on aggressive, but that is a bonus during naturalizing. They also do well when planted in the grass, which is where we have many of ours.

Muscari

Muscari are commonly known as grape hyacinths. These flowers look like clusters of grapes growing on green stalks, hence their name. They come in shades of blue, purple, and white, with many two-toned varieties available. These naturalize readily over the years, forming very strong clumps of plants. The blues in particular are very striking in color, especially when planted en masse (as they should be!).

Another trait of muscari is that they do not go fully dormant in winter—instead, the foliage will start to emerge in early fall and over winter while still green. In spring, they add on more foliage followed by flowers. They make beautiful borders—we have ours planted along both lengths of the long winding pergola on the farm.

Read the original article on Martha Stewart .