With nearly 300 species, the iris plant is an extremely popular perennial plant. They are easy to grow, and spread quickly. Irises come in all sorts of colors and several groups can be grown in the same garden. They come in bearded and non-bearded varieties. Dwarf versions grow up to about eight inches tall. Irises are an excellent choice for your garden. Here are some key points to remember when planting iris bulbs:

Plant your iris bulbs in July, August or September. This will give your new plants the best chance of establishing themselves in your garden.

Plant irises in full sunlight. They can also handle partial shade.

Do not plant them in soggy areas of your garden. Irises need to be planted in a good draining area so they do not get root rot. You can raise the soil bed level if needed.

Do not over fertilize your irises. They do not need the most fertile ground in your garden either. If you plant them in clayish soil, you can use sand and compost to prepare for the iris bulbs.

Plant them in a spot where they will have room to grow and spread. They will need to be divided or thinned at regular intervals to prevent them from taking over your garden or adjacent plants.

Irises are an easy flower to work with, and will give your garden a simple to care for splash of color. Iris bulbs are easy to plant, and they will return year after year to brighten your garden.

By: Nicholas Scoville
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Submitted by:
Barry Arcant
Legal Resources Services

It’s time to consider getting the tulips ready for the fall but first, there is a funny (well to me it is funny) story about the guy who planted 200 bulbs last fall and had three of them actually grow in his little garden at the front of his house. However, there were tulips popping up all over the neighborhood in places where you would least expect them. Turns out some squirrels must have decided to help him by digging up the bulbs and planting them in their own special little places.

Tulips bulbs are hardy and I know that they have survived my attempts at working up the garden with my handy-dandy garden claw tool and spade. I’ve replanted some pretty badly gashed bulbs and they grew just fine.

But I digress. What you need to know about tulip bulbs is that the bigger they are they bigger the tulip will be because the energy that goes into the flower comes from the bulb. A scrawny bulb won’t have much energy.

Plant your bulbs where they will get a minimum of six hours of sun a day. Also, make sure the soil is not too dense. Heavy soil just makes it hard for the tulips to push themselves through to the surface. Plant the bulbs so that you have five bulbs per square foot of garden. If your bed is four feet by four feet, then you will need 80 bulbs.

As a rule of thumb, plant the bulbs seven or eight inches deep. In light, sandy soil you can plant them deeper than in heavy soil. If you want to be precise about the depth, you should measure the bulb’s diameter at the widest spot and triple it and bury the bulb so that the top of it is as deep as triple its width. If the bulb is two inches wide at the widest spot, then you bury it so that its top is six inches below the surface. The bigger the bulb, the deeper it goes. For me, it’s just easier to say plant them seven inches deep in heavier soil and eight inches deep in light soil.

Cover the bulbs and water them well. Then just sit back and wait for spring.

By: Esmee McCornall
Esmee McCornall is a 'Gardoholic' publisher and writer. She recently published a guide called "Tips and Tricks to Create the Garden You Always Wanted". You can download a free copy at http://www.gardensandflowers.net/Free_Report.html or visit some cool gardening video's at gardensandflowers.net/Video_Gallery.html

Amaryllis (or Belladonna Lily) are becoming more popular by the day, and are now some of the world's favourite gardening plants.

They have been cultivated by gardeners since the 1700s, and have proved popular ever since. Not all plants sold as Amaryllis *are* Amaryllis, however - there are a number of similar looking plants that are now all grouped together as Amaryllis.

The bulb of an Amaryllis plant is generally around 7cm in diameter, with fully grown leaves around 40cm long.

One or two stems may grow from the bulb, and could reach up to 60cm. At the top of each stem is a collection of flower heads, with 6 petals each. The color of the flowers will depend on the actual plant, but common colors are white, purple and pink.

In general, you should expect each stem to support four flowers.

Amaryllis plants do not fare well in the Winter, so you'll want to be planting them in the spring, ready to bloom in the summer. It will take around 7 weeks to start to bloom.

If the stems on the plants begin to sway or bend, you may find it advisable to support the stem with a stick, to prevent it from breaking.

Once the flowers start to die, it is important to keep the plant well pruned - cut off any flower heads that are dead, so the rest of the plant does not have to waste any energy on them. Once all the flowers are dead, cut the whole stem off of the plant, ready to grow again. You may notice leaves growing at this point, it is important not to cut them off.

When you're ready to put your Amaryllis plant outside, many gardeners will advise you to keep it in the pot - this will help protect it from insects, and Amaryllis plants grow better in pots than in the open garden. This will also come in handy when it's time to bring the plant back indoors.

You must bring the plant back inside before the first frost of the winter, as it is unlikely to survive outside.

By: Graeme Hatt
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Tulip care during the growing season is a concern of many tulip gardeners. After all, you've invested money and time in planting new bulbs in the fall. You've fertilized and watered the garden after planting.

Now, spring is unfolding and you want to make sure that you get to see the flowers you worked so hard to cultivate. You should take to properly care for your tulips, before, during, and after the growing season. Read this article to know how to take care of tulips in your garden.

Tulip flowers are a hardy species, but if you don't know how to deal with the main challenges, your garden will suffer. Here are the top concerns and issues with tulips before flowering.

Fertilize your tulip plants twice a year. The best time to feed tulips is in the early spring (before they bloom again). The best way to feed them is to add a tablespoon of a granular fertilizer on the soil around each bulb. This should be done before flowering because feeding your tulips after flowering could cause a disease.

Tulips need lots of water. If your garden gets plenty of rainfall nature will take care of the watering. If you live in a very warm area all-year-round, make sure to water your tulip garden at least once a week.

Watch out for animal pests. Rabbits eat more than lettuce, they love to gnaw on tulip plants. Since tulip shoots break through the soil before grass and other vegetation grow, rabbits can be trouble. You can prevent rabbits from eating your tulip plants by using a physical fence, chicken wire, cayenne pepper, or non-toxic commercial products like Liquid Fence.

Like rabbits, squirrels can harm the tulip plant. However, squirrels dig out and eat the tulip bulb. One of the best ways to protect the bulbs is to install netting over the bulbs when planting them. That practice will deter squirrels from reaching the bulbs. Once the bulbs have been planted, you can sprinkle blood meal on top of the soil that seems to repel squirrels.

Voles are another problem. Voles are small rodents that burrow and dig tunnels underground. Voles see tulip bulbs as food and will eat the bulbs, destroying your tulip garden. Unfortunately, there are not very many effective ways to remove voles.

Grubs are insects that are the biggest killer of tulip. If the dirt in your garden has grubs, use some time released insect/or grub killer on the ground around them once or twice a year. Nurseries and home garden centers offer various grub insecticides in granular form that control these pesky insects.

Here's an additional tip: The blooming season for tulips is between two to three weeks long. You can plant other flowers in the same garden as the tulips so that the new flowers will fill in when the tulips die.

When days become longer and warmer, you will have more time to enjoy your garden. By making time for tulip care in the spring as your priority, your tulips will grow tall, strong and beautiful --perfect for bouquets in your house.

By: Dave Pipitone
Dave Pipitone loves seeing the tulips sprout and bloom from his Hope Patch. For more information on growing successful tulip flowers, visit http://www.tulipreview.com.

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