Heirloom Fall-Planted Diverse

These wild little charmers will multiply happily in light shade and soil that’s not too dry in zones 5b-7b(8bWC). You’ll get 5 Grecian windflowers, 5 winter aconites, 5 snake’s-head fritillaries, 5 silver bells, and 5 Siberian squill.

For 10, 15, or more of each, order additional samplers. Diverse Fall care.

Our most popular sampler! It’s an easy, money-saving introduction to the joys of antique bulbs. We’ll send you at least $35 worth of diverse, time-tested, fall-planted bulbs for just $30. They’ll all be labeled, great for your hardiness zone, and may include daffodils, lilies, hyacinths, tulips, peonies, crocus, and other treasures. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s a deal!

Please order by USDA hardiness zone. (Don’t know yours? Find it here.)

Limit 1 sampler per address, please. Diverse Fall care.

Tough enough to laugh at high heat, poor soils, and even hurricanes, these beauties have graced gardens throughout the South (and warm West) for generations. We’ll send you 1 red spider lily, 1 oxblood lily, 3 ‘Excelsior’ Spanish bluebells, 3 ‘Gravetye Giant’ snowflakes, and 5 Southern grape hyacinths. For zones 7a-8b(9bWC) only.

For more of each variety, order additional samplers. Diverse Fall care.

Bees and butterflies love these lavender pompons blooming over tufts of neat green foliage. Although few alliums were popular until recently, German garlic is listed in E.S. Rand’s 1866 Bulbs and in 1900 Liberty Hyde Bailey called it one of just six “in general cultivation.” Drought-tolerant, 18-22 inches, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from our Ann Arbor micro-farms. Chart and care.

In America’s first bulb catalog in 1820, William Prince listed just one allium: “purple-headed garlick.” Often called “drumsticks” today, this easy, deer-resistant perennial has 1-inch, egg-shaped flowerheads that start green, turn rose, and end up wine-red. Cool! 30-36”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Chart and care.

Cheap, easy to grow, and “one of the loveliest of flowers,” as Louise Beebe Wilder wrote in 1936, this woodland gem naturalizes happily in bright shade. Typically blue-flowered in the wild, it first appeared in American catalogs in the 1890s and grew in popularity with the rise of shade gardening in the 20th century. Light shade, 4-6”, zones 5a-8a(9bWC), from Holland. Chart and care.

This white form of the wild, mostly blue original (see above) was introduced in 1950, won the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1993, and, to quote Christopher Lloyd, is both “the strongest growing” and “dazzling.” Blooms and naturalizes best in bright shade, 5-8”, zones 5a-8a(9bWC), from Holland. Chart and care.

Aka Indian turnip, this shade-loving favorite was offered in America’s first bulb catalog, by William Prince of New York in 1820. It flourishes in moist woodlands from Maine to Minnesota and south to the Gulf, with entertaining green-and-brown striped flowers in spring and (when well-established) bright red berries in fall. 12-30”, zones 4a-8b(9bWC), dormant corms, nursery-grown for us in Tennessee. Chart, care, and learn more.

In early spring the woodland slopes of Wave Hill high above the Hudson are aglow with vast drifts of this sapphire-blue wildflower. Much more deeply-colored and a bit shorter than common glory-of-the-snow, it blooms at crocus time, naturalizes eagerly, and was awarded an RHS AGM as a plant so good it belongs in every garden. 4-6”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Chart and care.

We’re proud to deliver big bulbs, 3-4 inches across, of this early fall-blooming cyclamen that bulb-guru John Bryan calls “the first choice for most gardens.” Known as sowbread back in Shakespeare’s time, today it’s more often called ivy-leaved cyclamen because of its angular, silver-patterned leaves which, oddly enough, appear after the flowers. Give it light shade and humus-rich soil that’s dryish in summer. Aka C. neapolitanum, 4-6”, zones 6a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Chart and care.