Bulbs: Rocks as Bulb companions, 1 by ineedacupoftea

ineedacupoftea wrote:
It seems that many of us use rocks with our bulbs. (And perhaps any other form of plant.)

The benefits include:
-Holding raised soil areas for better drainage.
-A rock 'mulch' through which bulbs grow to protect them from critters or the gardener's forgetful trowel.
-Even as 'tags' for identification, labeled with plant names, or as points of reference when the bulb foliage is not showing.
-Solar heat collection to keep tender bulbs warm, or warm the soil to bring bulbs out of dormancy earlier.
-Stepping stones to keep the gardener from compacting areas where dormant bulbs lie out of sight and mind.
-As borders, spacers or edgers to keep rambuncious perennials from overtaking a bulb's ground.
-And finally, to mark the graves of dead pets to keep the gardener from being startled by accedentally excavating a feline, sciurine, lapine, ranine, galline, equine, avine, bovine, canine or even tolypeutine skull when planting Daffodils.

Please add any other uses for rocks.

This post is also to give an opportunity to post pictures of bulbs and rocks in symbiotic harmony, or rock projects destined for bulbs that may require plant selection suggestions from our friends. Let's face it, a small bulb's leaves and flowers are sometimes best seen against a backdrop of stone. And pictures in time to soothe our first onsets of winter blues.

Here's to the bulb's best friend!
Kenton (James) Seth