Introduction to Planting Flower Bulbs

Series Summary

Landscaping your front or back yard doesn't have to be a professional job. Home gardens provide a tranquil area for reflection and relaxation. Tending and enjoying a garden can lower blood pressure, ease anxiety, and provide diversion in which to ponder various thoughts that have been lingering in your subconscious. Even if you don't have much yard space, planting a small corner garden is a simple task you could complete in just an afternoon.

If you are interested in starting a flower garden, this video series is perfect for you. Our gardening expert, Yolanda Vanveen, gives you tips and advice for planting flower bulbs in your garden. There is a huge variety of flower bulbs, and sometimes, it can be difficult to select which kind you should plant. Learn how to choose native flower bulbs for your area, and learn how to spot a bad flower bulb. With Yolanda's help, you can start planting flower bulbs today. So, embrace your green thumb, and start a flower garden!

Video Transcript

"YOLANDA VANVEEN: Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're going to talk about the definition of a flower bulb. A flower bulb is any plant that goes dormant for a part of the year. It could be dormant in the winter when it's cold or it could be dormant in the summer when it's really, really hot and dry and they just dry out because there's no water. So, any plant that has a dormant period is considered a bulb and there's a lot of different types of bulbs that come from different parts of the world that are considered bulbs just because they are dormant for even one or two weeks or a month or three months of the year. And some bulbs--plants are bulbs in certain areas and not in others. For example, Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile is not a bulb in California. It grows green year round and has foliage and blooms usually in early spring, mid-spring and then sporadically sometimes in the winter whereas in the Pacific Northwest, most years, it's considered a bulb because it'll actually die back. The greenery will completely die and you won't see anything in the winter and then in the spring, it'll just come back again. It's very hearty. It's from the mountains of South Africa so there's no reason it can't survive in a little bit of cold temperatures. So, plants can be bulbs in some areas and not in others. So, next we're going to talk about the different types of bulbs and the difference between true bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and runners."