The Senior Scene

Shorten the upcoming winter season with the help of spring flowering bulbs that you plant in fall. These beauties often provide the first bit of color, fragrance and winter relief each year.

Look for new and unique ways to incorporate bulbs into your landscape. Create a seasonal water feature with a river of blue scillas and grape hyacinths meandering through the garden. Welcome visitors with a front door or walkway garden that blooms from early spring through early summer and is loaded with crocus, tulips, daffodils and allium.

Don’t overlook those shady spots. Many of these locations provide enough early season sun, before the trees leaf out, for bulbs to grow and flower. Use more shade tolerant spring bloomers like snowdrops, grape hyacinths, scillas, anemones, daffodils, fritillarias and Camassias in shady areas among hostas, ferns and other shade tolerant perennials.

Whether you’re new or experienced, growing bulbs is an easy endeavor. Just follow these simple steps to a beautiful spring garden.

• Selection. Purchase bulbs that are dense and firm, and free of bruises or mold. Shop early for the best selection. Mail order sources will ship your bulbs at the proper planting time. If you buy locally, store the bulbs in a dry, well-ventilated and cool 60-degree location until it’s time to plant.

Don’t let deer, rabbits and chipmunks dissuade you from planting.  Include hyacinths, grape hyacinths, scillas, glory-of-the-snow, fritillarias, alliums and Camassias that the animals tend to overlook.

• Design Ideas. Include a variety of bulbs for added color throughout spring.  Early bloomers like Glory of the Snow, crocus, early tulips and daffodils, and grape hyacinths (Muscari) are followed by mid-season daffodils and tulips along with fritillarias. Late spring blooming tulips and alliums finish off the spring display.

Combine several bulbs that bloom at the same time to double the floral impact or at different times to extend the color throughout the spring. You can create your own combinations or look for prepackaged combinations prepared by experts like those at Longfield Gardens (www.Longfield-Gardens.com). Low growing White Splendor anemone along with Ocean Magic grape hyacinth make a striking combination for under shrubs. The yellow blossoms of Dutch Master daffodils, pink Involve tulips and purplish blue grape hyacinths will give you several layers of color in the garden.

Or add a bit of eye-catching red to the garden throughout the spring with the Really Red collection of tulips. Red Emperor starts things out in early spring, followed by Oxford and ends with double-flowering Red Princess and Sky High Scarlet.

• Location. Plant bulbs in well-drained soil for best results. Avoid areas such as next to the dryer vent or against the south side foundation of your home that tend to warm up early in spring or experience a winter thaw.  These bulbs often sprout too early and subsequent cold temperatures can limit or eliminate their bloom.

Reduce maintenance and boost your garden’s beauty by mixing bulbs with perennials. Once the bulbs are done blooming, the neighboring perennials mask the fading bulb foliage.

• When and How to Plant. Increase growing success in poor soils by incorporating several inches of compost, peat moss or other organic matter into the top 12” of soil. This improves drainage in clay soil and the water-holding ability of sandy and rocky soils. Then be sure to incorporate a low nitrogen, slow release fertilizer.

Wait to plant your bulbs until the soil cools. This is any time after the night temperatures are consistently 40 to 50 degrees, but several weeks before the ground freezes.

Plant spring blooming bulbs three times as deep as the bulb is tall. Water thoroughly to remove air pockets and encourage fall root growth.  Add a layer of mulch to conserve moisture, suppress weeds and reduce the risk of early sprouting.

So break out your trowel and garden gloves and get busy planting. You’ll be glad you did when spring arrives and your yard and garden are filled with a rainbow of beautiful flowers.

Melinda Myers, who wrote this article, is the author of 20 gardening books and has

syndicated television and radio programs on gardening.

Most people grasp how crucial it is for children to not miss out on their childhood, but we often forget that it is equally crucial to not miss out on all of life, be it adolescence, middle age, old age, single life, married life, parenthood, or any other phase. Every stage is an incredible gift that must not be wasted or compromised in any way.

Whether you believe we live one or many lives, it always starts with birth and infancy, then childhood and so forth. If we are lucky, we live a long life, but it is not always possible. In fact, the older we get, the lower is the probability of our survival. This means that old age is a very rare occurrence whether we live one life or many.

If we live one life, we may never see it, or only a few select will. If we live many lives, as I happen to believe that we do, we will see ripe old age in far fewer times than childhood, which is the most abundant life phase. That makes old age very special indeed, but sadly, most of us are too busy fearing getting old that we miss that most beautiful phase of our lives.

Sure, old age has its disadvantages, but every age has its advantages and disadvantages. That is why it behooves us to enjoy every one of them for what they are. The only thing we can do to ensure the maximum fulfillment is to follow our higher purpose of taking good care of ourselves – body, mind and spirit.

The other day I was watching a movie about a little boy of about 10 years of age who escaped from a very oppressive boarding school where his father had left him. The boy was rejected and abandoned by his father because he was different. The boy was impressionable and needed guidance, so he went searching for his estranged grandfather who had been yearning to find him. They finally connected, and in this charming scene, the grandfather was explaining to the boy the great legacy of their family and the magic of being who they are.

I found myself in awe as I watched the beauty and purity of this old man providing inspiration and guidance to that little boy. I had watched similar scenes many times before and I always identified with the little boy and wondered what it would be like to be empowered like that. This time it was different.

I could not help but think that the beauty of this nurturing was largely dependent on the old man, his grandfather. The kindness and wealth of knowledge and resources of the grandfather were the central issue and most valuable and beautiful gift he could give to that child. I was overcome with the feeling and vision that it is the grandfather who had the power to make that experience as beautiful as possible for the child, and it made me see the incredible beauty of that phase in our lives.

I find myself realizing the incredible gift of being able to give guidance and inspiration and magical imagination to young, budding minds. It is most ideally suited for the latter stages of our lives, if we live long enough and are healthy and happy and rich with spirit and knowledge and resources to give meaningfully to the younger generations. In other words, by becoming the best we can be, we will automatically become most valued givers.

This is the first time I ever saw and felt the real beauty of old age to the point of appreciating for the unique and priceless gift that it is. This is the result of having a higher perspective and living in the moment – the serenity of loving every phase of our lives as it comes.

I am not living there, but I feel serenity and joy knowing that good things are coming as far as I can see.

Charles G. Hanna wrote this article. He is the author of “Higher: Awaken to a More Fulfilling Life” and the founder of a third-party technology provider.