I am going to be planting over 150 tulip bulbs in a wide strip in front of a privacy fence that gets full sun most the day. I want to hide the foliage as the blooms are fading, but I have both early blooming and late blooming tulips. Does anyone know what perennials can be planted to hide the dying foliage and provide flowering or interesting foliage through summer and into fall? Are there any perennial seeds I can plant in the fall over the bulbs that will come back next spring, or is that too late for perennial flower seeds?
I have a tickseed plant that will be at the left side of the strip (when facing the fence). I pinch off the spent blooms, and it blooms late spring-late summer, and it's the only thing I have so far in that area, but I will be adding daffodil, crocus and hyacinth bulbs after the tulips have been planted, so they won't actually be mixed in with the tulips... or would that make for a better display? I really need help. lol
Hiding Dying Tulip Foliage
If you want to hide the fading foliage of your bulb plants, coneflowers would be a good choice. They get tall enough to hide tulips and they don't start growing until after bulb flowers have begun to fade. They will also bloom for pretty much the rest of the summer and they attract butterflies. It would take a couple of years for them to get big enough to hide your bulb plants but they are well worth the wait.
Thank you! I like those. They would look good with my tickseed too, and there's quite a few colors to choose from.
However, I am still open to more ideas because I would prefer a variety of plants/foliage.
Also, I want everyone to feel free to post pictures of their hidden tulip foliage.
You will need to be very careful what plants to choose for the job of hiding the tulip foliage as it dies down as tulips, unlike say Daf's, they are not as strong when poking through the soil and perennials will get such large root systems over the first few years I am not too sure your tulips will withstand the competition to be honest, when I do plant tulips into my flowering beds/borders, I have always planted them in baskets, you can either buy bulb baskets or cheaper plastic baskets from your hardware store for things you would store inside the house in small baskets like clothespegs etc, but what you do is you add some soil then about a dozen bulbs and then place this into the soil and cover it over with more soil, when the tulips are finished flowering, you lift the baskets out with the bulbs and store them dry for replanting next year, you let the foliage die down while they are in storage and then remove it when it is dry and ready to be removed this natural dying foliage then feeds the bulbs for flowering next year, but maybe the type of tulips you plan to grow will do fine getting through the roots of other plants, tulips also dont like being burried too deep. good luck. WeeNel.
If you don't care for the bother of lifting your tulip bulbs, you could solve the problem of root competition by driving a divider down into the ground all along the edge of your tulips. That way you could still plant perennials in front. Some other good choices are blanketflower, Shasta daisies (give them lots of room, they spread), day lilies, May Night salvia, blackeyed Susan, Stokes aster, and Indian Summer (a hybrid rudbeckia). I know there are lots more flowers you could use and, hopefully, others will come along with their suggestions. This is all I can come up with at this early hour of the morning, lol.
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