Posts by Alasines

Asiatic and tiger lilies come back stronger every year and slowly multiply. Planted deep and kept clear of the leaf beetle, a single clump becomes a permanent fixture of the summer border.

Four feet of stem topped with a six-inch purple globe, planted once and ignored for a decade. Gladiator is the easiest big statement a garden can make.

A single hyacinth will scent an entire room, and the same bulb grows happily in the garden. Planted in fall and cooled properly, it can be brought into bloom on almost any date you choose.

Most amaryllis are grown once, admired, and thrown away. With the right summer and a proper rest, the same bulb will bloom again next year — and the year after.

Most desert roses are lost by kindness — too much water and too little light. Treat Adenium obesum like a cactus that flowers, and the caudex fattens and the blooms keep coming.

Stephania erecta is sold as a bare caudex that looks dead for weeks and then suddenly throws a vine. Here is how to water it, where to put it, and why losing the vine is not a disaster.

Iris rhizomes want to bake in the sun, not be buried — almost every iris that fails to bloom was planted like a tulip. Get that one detail right and they will flower for decades.

Daffodils are the most forgiving bulbs in the garden — plant them once in fall and they return every spring for years. Deer, squirrels and voles leave them alone, which is more than tulips can say.

Tulips are planted once, in fall, and then left alone. Here is the timing, depth, spacing and aftercare that decide whether you get a full spring display or a few lonely stems.