Planting a Rainbow Garden; Spring Edition
It doesn’t matter how old you are, seeing a rainbow generates excitement. Now what if we can plant our own rainbow that comes back each year and lasts longer then a fleeting moment?! Excited yet? Me too, so lets pick out our plants and get gardening.
Rainbow Garden Basics
Planting a rainbow garden has a few parameters to make it effective.
Bloom time is critical. If the violet colour blooms in the fall and the yellow blooms in the spring, we won’t achieve the effects we are after. Everything needs to bloom in the same window of time.
Plant likes and needs. Just because a plant fits the colour and bloom time requirement, it may not enjoy the same soil or light as another colour. Ensuring that the spectrum of plants all have the same light requirements and similar moisture needs.
Height and scale. Place a tall yellow sunflower next to a red geranium and you probably wouldn’t take away ‘rainbow’. The yellow bloom is too far from the red, the scale is off and the height makes it difficult for the eye to create the picture we are after.
Blue is the rarest colour in nature. True blues, arguably don’t exist in plants. I’ll have a blue listed but it will often be a blue-toned purple. Next to a rich purple flower, it will play the part.
Shape Your Rainbow
This is where you get to showcase your own creativity. A traditional arching form is great, and if you opt for this I’ve included a plant choice for fluffy white clouds too! Planting in stripes, drifts, containers; all of it is possible. This can be worked into your existing garden or can become a garden on it’s own. You may even consider layering up so you have multi-seasonal rainbows. As I create additional plant lists, I’ll make sure to link them here for ease.
How to Plant a Rainbow Garden: Early Spring
The nice thing about early spring: Trees don’t have leaves yet. This is a special time of the year when many plants can bloom and thrive in full sun, even if your garden is typically shady through most of the growing season. You can practically toss light requirements out because they don’t apply as much. Evergreen trees or fixed structures are the caveat to this. Their shade persists all year.
Most spring bulbs and tubers have similar requirements, full sun when blooming, moderate to drier conditions throughout the rest of the growing season. The full sun creates warmth encouraging them to open, and the drier conditions in the rest of the year ensure the bulbs or tubers do not rot.
Tulips in particular have early, mid and late spring varieties. The early spring tend to be shorter, which plays nicely with this grouping but the key factor is their bloom time. If you swap in a ‘common red tulip’ it will bloom 2 to 4 weeks after the rest of this rainbow.
This grouping may bring the most happiness as we are often desperate for colour after a long grey-brown winter.
Bloom times vary across Southern Ontario. Regions warm up at different times. Gardens experience different microclimates. Basing the bloom time on my own region in Toronto, this rainbow garden blooms in April.
When to plant a Spring Rainbow Garden
In Southern Ontario, an early Spring garden is planted in the fall.
As long as the ground is not frozen, even if we have had some snow, you can still plant bulbs.
Typically I plant my bulbs and garlic towards the end of October, beginning of November. This means less time thwarting squirrels before the ground freezes and less risk of the bulbs attempting to grow that autumn.
Plants for a Rainbow Garden
I have sourced all the bulbs in this article from one supplier for an easier online sourcing experience. Unfortunately, Dutchgrown.com does not ship to Canada. These varieties are available locally and can be sourced from various suppliers both online and in store. When I find a comprehensive online, public catalogue for a Canadian supplier I will update.
Red
Kaufmanniana Tulip “Showwinner”
Height: 8 inches
Orange:
Tulip Sunlover
Height: 24 inches
Yellow:
Mini Daffodil Tete a Tete
Height: 10 inches
Green:
Crocus Jeanne d'Arc (Any crocus will do, it is the foliage we are after)
Height: 5 inches; foliage will grow to an arching or draping, 12 inches
Blue:
Muscari Armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth)
Height: 6 inches
Purple:
Hyacinth Woodstock
Height: 10 inches
White:
Chionodoxa Lucilea Alba
Height: 5 inches
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