Rocks as Bulb companions

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

LOL, Kent! I would also find a leporid skull quite startling -- especially if it had nasty, pointy teeth!!

Somehow, I can't seem to find a picture that shows the 3 large rocks that are spaced around my semicircular patio... not only do they help to define the space and to direct traffic & corresponding sight lines toward different areas of the back yard, but they also are great to sit on!

Well, here's a photo of one of the rocks, with 3 of my young friends from down the street. This one has no bulbs around it (yet), but it does have a rosemary in a sort of raised planter made from more rocks. Also, there are creeping thyme and creeping phlox between the big rocks and the edge of the patio. The chile pepper bed in the background of this picture is also known as "the future formal herb garden." A stepping stone pathway will start behind the girls and zigzag through the bed. I'm planning to plant creeping thymes around the stepping stones, and now of course you've got me thinking that some small bulbs would also be a good addition there.... Saffron crocus, of course, but what else?

Oh! I did put spring crocus bubs in the spaces between the rocks, extending several feet out from the patio. It was easy to plant them before reseeding the areas that they tore up putting in the patio. The crocus blooms fared better than the new grass last spring.... those areas of the lawn need additional help!

The biggest of those naked lady bulbs I've been greebling about are planted up along the largest rock (really a boulder), and the middle rock has some gladiolus tucked in at one end, but that's about it for bulbs there at the moment. I can see I will either have to find or take some more pictures!

I've been enjoying planting & planning around my big patio rocks!

How about rocks and water? Here's our spring fed pond - we've got
lots and lots of rocks and lots of little springs in this area of the propery.
You can grow little lovely here that just won't grow in drier less rocky soil.

What a good idea Kenton! With so many of the early spring bulbs, there's not much growing yet when they're putting on a show, so rocks make natural companions for them. And it's a great way of duplicating the conditions many spring bulbs are native to-mountainous, sharp draining, alpine areas of Europe.

"the forgetful trowel" LOL That's me! Sounds like a pub we'd all hang in!

Neal

I've been using bulbs in my rock garden ever since I built it. It's a great way to start the season off. The advantage of the rock mulch is that it keeps our spring rains from spoiling the blossoms (no mud splatter with a stone mulch!). I use mostly spring or late-fall flowering bulbs. I have plenty of perennials to keep the rock garden full in summer. However, I do use a number of alliums so I guess I do have some summer bulbs.

Ah! Seating and water. Two major uses. Tammy, I enjoy how rebellious that spring looks as it ignores the fencleline (design-wise). In Europe, many gardeners simply stack rocks like a scree or talus pile for a 'Rockery' to grow their apline and drainage-needers.

Kenton

Here is a bench of sandstone that a friend (with a bad back) chisled out of a quarry, and I somehow got it in the truck and home. It is a great place for tea. I just need more vine on that ugly wall...

Todd, Those are some handsome (muscari?) Yet another use: Mud control. Fancy.
I'd never thought of that.
'Aerial view' of that bench.

Rocks add asthetic value to garden (at least if you're so asthetically inclined). They can influence character and balance as well.

Kenton, love the bench. I really like natural components for outdoor furniture, especially here in the woods.

jmorth, beautiful example of bulb plants and stones. Love the yellow echo in the lily and, what was that daisy flower?

Daisy is a self-seeded Calendula.

A good point- Jmorth. Character can be influenced {as more permanent} when stones {especially large ones} are used. A tiny clump of fleeting Chionodoxa feels a bit more permanent when they are at the base of a half-ton chunk of granite. (For the 'asthetically inclined:' A nice rock can give 'visual wieght' to an area when its bulbs go dormant. Otherwise, it may be a bare patch of earth.)

Kenton

As shown by a patch of crocus and their company:

Here's another example - rocks used to stabilize plant stands with large pots of gloriosas and dahlias. Rock edging clearly delineates area's extent. Large pots can also be placed directly on a rocked base; as long as its not a flat rock, drainage is easy.

Thank You Jmorth for another use- Rocks as physical support.

Here is a picture of support in a more visual sense, where stone is a four-season hardscape that harmonizes with nearby plants. Sandstone as a backdrop to a Musella- which is a focal point to the right of the path, and slowing down the viewer's eye in it's examination of the garden. Descending sizes would ultimately point the viewer back on track. The hope was also to echo the vertical angles of the nearby Crocosmia, and the stone's edges were supposed to be similar curves to those of Canna leaves. But, however, I have yet to find a good color harmony for those rocks!

Kenton

Here is a quick example of River Rock halfway buried to sun-warm the soil. Galanthus around the garden were blooming in the last week of February here in Colorado, these plants were 'photographed' January 28. (I apologize for the sad picture quality.)

I love the shadow of the galanthus on that stone!

Is there a good rock/gravel mulch product or a name of a specific type of rock/gravel mulch that is best? I have tulips in a front bed then for summer the area has Lavender, Ca Poppies, as well as assorted annuals that like similar soil conditions.
-Red

Thanks, Tammy, I actually hadn't noticed. How terrible!

I haven't used any specific products, but I would personally avoid gravel mulches that work themselves into the soil, which eventually become a real pain, especially if ever you have to work with the soil. If they are very tiny, they are not that troublesome. My personal suggestion would be just larger than normal sized gravel, not a deep layer. And sharp rocks can, in fact, cut emerging leaves and buds that grow through them and misshape them.

There are different kinds of manufactured terra-cotta pebbles that someone can tell you about, too...
Perhaps, Red, there is a river nearby from which you can harvest some two-inch-plus soft stones to cover the soil?
Kenton