If you have enough room for it AND it will grow in your area, Forsythia is a wonderful shrub for beginning gardeners. Most Forsythia cultivars are more like bushy trees than shrubs but there is one DWARF cultivar of it. (Google Forsythia cultivars to find the name if you decide you want one.) Forsythia roots very easily from twigs so never buy more than one unless you get the chance to buy it from the clearance bin. I got lucky--I found a Forsythia stump somebody dug up and threw away. I brought it home and planted it and it's doing quite well for me. I put it in a corner of the yard where it could be as wild and wooly as it wanted to be. :)
I sort of stole mine. We had some really disagreeable neighbors who planted a forsythia on the very border of our property, when they moved I took my half and put it in my hedge garden on the side of the driveway, They never took care of the Forsythia and it was dying, my half lived and it's wonderful, I prune it all the time and it blooms beautifully.
Wow, thanks for the great information! I really hadn't thought about the pH of the soil and the likes... I really am a gardening noob so it's good to arm myself with some good info before I go to the store and just start buying things that will end up dying or getting eaten by rabbits >.
BTW: When you feel you are ready to put in a bulb order--please give me and everyone here in the Gardening Community a shout for catalog recommendations. I've had really good luck buying bulbs during clearance and vender sales from: Touch of Nature INC. Netherlandbulb.com These two companies keep their bulbs in climate-controled storage until they get your order. (Netherlandbulb is a wholesale company which has a clearance sale a couple times a year that it lets home gardeners order from--the rest of the time you have to be a professional landscaper to order. The prices are unbelievably good at those sales though.) :)
Perhaps you can use some annuals, tagetes or astra or something like this? Or you can put some Phlox behind the tulips. You need or an annual, or something what will remain hidden, until the tulips disappear, or something in the background. I would go for plants that are natural in your region, too, as rhodielady says.
Montreal is in zone 5 and is subject to freeze/thaw cycles in winter. Before you invest a lot of money, spend some time visiting the public gardens in your area. You'll get a better idea about what does well in your climate, as well as get a chance to see and smell the flowers in person.
The Montreal Botanical Garden website, link below, has a Calendar of Blooms (Main Page --> Outstanding Plants and Collections --> Calendar of Blooms).
Something else to take into account when you are planting in the same bed as bulbs are the water requirements. Some bulbs and rhizomes are unhappy with wet feet and should only be interplanted with other plants with lower watering requirements.
I just wanted to point out that if the bulbs you have want damp feet and your soil is more on the sandy side, affording great drainage; or if your bulbs are those that want great drainage and your soil is highly water-retentive, don't despair: all is not lost
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Forsythia roots very easily from twigs so never buy more than one unless you get the chance to buy it from the clearance bin. I got lucky--I found a Forsythia stump somebody dug up and threw away. I brought it home and planted it and it's doing quite well for me.
I put it in a corner of the yard where it could be as wild and wooly as it wanted to be.
:)
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I've had really good luck buying bulbs during clearance and vender sales from:
Touch of Nature INC.
Netherlandbulb.com
These two companies keep their bulbs in climate-controled storage until they get your order.
(Netherlandbulb is a wholesale company which has a clearance sale a couple times a year that it lets home gardeners order from--the rest of the time you have to be a professional landscaper to order. The prices are unbelievably good at those sales though.)
:)
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You need or an annual, or something what will remain hidden, until the tulips disappear, or something in the background.
I would go for plants that are natural in your region, too, as rhodielady says.
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The Montreal Botanical Garden website, link below, has a Calendar of Blooms (Main Page --> Outstanding Plants and Collections --> Calendar of Blooms).
http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/en/propos/propos.htm
Something else to take into account when you are planting in the same bed as bulbs are the water requirements. Some bulbs and rhizomes are unhappy with wet feet and should only be interplanted with other plants with lower watering requirements.
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