and popular white and purple flower perennials include - Alpine Rock Cress - Baby's Breath - Canyon Poppy - Shasta Daisy

and

- Dragon's Head - Foxglove Penstemon - Joe-Pye Weed

respectively.

Bulbs, tubers and corms

Bulbs are fleshy underground protuberances of leaves, stems or roots. Actually, "bulb" is a generic term, and some of these underground protuberances, all of which will grow into full plants, are more correctly called "corms" or "tubers." Tubers are thickened stem sections, covered with modified buds; corms are also underground stem sections, but without bud.

Some of loveliest flowers are bulbs, and gardeners rely on them heavily because they bloom in such profusion with little care or cultivation. They are among first blooms of early spring, with diminutive snowdrop, for example, appearing in early March.

Planting Bulbs

Here is answer to; where can I find information about planting bulbs? Bulbs should be planted from 3 to 6 inches deep, and, as a rule of thumb, larger bulb, deeper it should be planted. (Both tubers and corms are treated similar to bulbs.) Using a spade, a slice is dug in soil to required depth, bulbs placed in hole and sod replaced. If soil is poor, a sprinkling of bone meal is added and mixed with soil at bottom of hole.

Each spring, flowering bulbs should be well-fertilized. (Use manure and chemical fertilizer.) Care must be taken to keep fresh manure away from roots or bulb or tuber itself. The fertilizer should be worked well into soil. The soil itself should be cultivated to a depth of 3 to 4 inches each week.

During blooming season, it is a good idea to cut off most of buds to get bigger and showier flowers. Watering regularly is essential, and when soil gets too dry, punching a few holes in it around plant will help get much-needed moisture down near roots.

Euonymus patens is an evergreen shrub that is hardy. It has glossy green leaves and red berries. Some of evergreen holly shrubs, such as Japanese Holly, or Inkberry, are popular. Japanese Holly resembles boxwood.

Laurel is another familiar evergreen shrub, valuable for foundation planting. American mountain laurel bears clusters of pink flowers in spring.

Pachysandra (Japanese Spurge) is a dense evergreen ground cover for places where grass won't grow. Among deciduous shrubs, lilac is probably one of best liked. If you buy lilac be sure that it is grafted either on its own stock or on privet stock. Plant lilac as early as soil can be worked.

The common lilac, which has light purple flowers and reaches a height of about 10 feet, is best known. There are several hundred varieties, in white, pinkish-lilac, reddish-lilac and bluish-lilac.