Don't make your bulbs fend for themselves — plant some friendly perennials with them

Fall's the perfect time to plant perennials with spring bulbs, and it's helpful to think of the upcoming spring season as five months long, because in the maritime Northwest we'll start to see wisps of spring in late January and rush forward into May with gardens growing fuller and fuller.

Brent Heath, a Virginia bulb grower, calls the leafy perennial plant frills around bulbs "shoes-and-socks plants" — they complete the picture and keep the spring bulbs from nakedly exposing their bare stems.

Perennials planted with spring bulbs serve two purposes: They accompany and enhance the bulb blooms, and they disguise fading bulb foliage in the late spring. I rely on fern fronds, emerging day lilies and sweet woodruff (Galium odorata), even though woodruff wanders without heed into many garden corners.

For the earliest of the spring bloomers, the best accompaniments are evergreen ground covers.

An established bed of pachysandra, ajuga or perennial candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) easily can host spring bulbs, as does perennial alyssum, even though the chrome-yellow flowers demand a quieter bulb color. If you have a boring ground cover, you can liven it up by planting spring-blooming bulbs in October and November.

To set up the combination using existing ground cover, plunge right into the bed, pull aside the ground cover, excavate a spot and insert spring bloomers in groups of three to 11. Bulbs tuck beautifully into small spaces, wiggling into bloom even from tiny spots. The color and leaf texture of ground covers set them off perfectly.

A most effective combination in one garden had tall yellow daffodils in clumps under low-growing cotoneaster (Cotoneaster dammeri), which grows to 8 inches tall with very green leaves. Or if planting both at once in a new bed, space the cotoneaster about 3 feet apart and plant clumps of bulbs between.

As spring advances, the natural emergence of herbaceous perennials provides fine foliage and flower effect with all types of spring bulbs. One of the best is lady's mantle, (Alchemilla mollis), with rounded mid-green leaves and a good capacity to fill in as an edger. Spring bulbs need not be completely covered with or surrounded by perennials, but a good edging plant can allow the natural leaves of the bulbs to be set off well.

Another great "edger and weaver" is the hardy geranium family; the many varieties have rounded leaves followed by flowers in colors from dark purple to lightest white. Again, these can be planted simultaneously with the bulbs.

By April, the later daffodils and mid-spring tulips will be surrounded by clumps of perennials, from delphinium foliage to yarrow.

If your garden contains an herb bed, you've got a fine location for adding bulbs. In my garden, I use low-growing rosemary next to daffodils. Given plenty of sun, the rosemary (Rosmarinus prostratus) gallops along the surface of the ground but also has open spaces between stems where bulbs can shine. The early-spring light-blue flowers on the rosemary set off any white or yellow flower bulb.

Other herbs such as lavender and sage also seem perfectly designed to work with bulbs, and their summer dry-tolerance agrees with the needs of ripening daffodils and tulips.

When thinking spring, consider the entire scene. Your favorite nursery will be able to supply enticing possibilities. From mid-October to mid-December, all these plant allies can go into the ground together.

Garden expert Mary Robson, retired area horticulture agent for Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension, shares gardening tips every Wednesday. Her e-mail is marysophia@earthlink.net.