Tall tulip 'White Triumphator' reached nearly 30 inches this year in the lower garden. You'll find that fall bulb catalogs for ordering arrive now, or come in early summer. Planning the spring garden makes sense now while you can see what's happening. If you wait until August to consider this gardening dimension, you'll have forgotten which flowers thrilled you now. Once the spring bulb season is past, garden beds rapidly fill with leaves and buds of perennial flowers.
Perennials can fill niches in dry shade, moist shade, and damp or dry sunny spots.
Plant to have the enjoyment of finding just the right plant for your particular garden spot. For a newly developed perennial flower garden, or even an older one, be sure to clear out any perennial weeds and weed roots lurking in the area. After a dry April, rain this week has left us all with damp soil conditions now make weeding easier. My annual battle with morning glory commences this month, since the warm weather has enticed those stranglers to wrap themselves around tulips and daffodils. It's quite satisfying, while digging, to find a long rope of morning glory roots and pry it loose.