My friends, I’ve found the key to happiness. Well, that might be too broad of a statement. Let me get a bit more specific: I’ve found the key to happiness in March and April for gardeners in climates where winters are long and cold. The secret? BULBS!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Planting bulbs is a lot of work for such a short bloom time. Can’t I just find happiness in a bottle of Cabernet?

The answer is yes, a bottle of wine can bring you some happiness (extra points if you’re sharing it with good friends), AND you’ll find much more happiness if you think ahead and plant a good selection of bulbs that bloom throughout spring. That way, you can admire the spring color from beautiful flowers while you are drinking your wine. See how this works?

Last fall I planted some 400 bulbs of different varieties: iris reticulata, crocus, daffodils, and tulips. It was work (though made easier with my bulb auger drill attachment), and I was hoping it would be worth it. And now, the results are in: planting bulbs is definitely worth the work.

Now, if you want to do this the right way, you’re going to need a few different kinds of bulbs. “The right way” means you’ll have blooms from early March until the weather is warm enough for some summer annuals. And who doesn’t want that?

Starting in late January/early February, the little green blades of crocus bulbs start appearing throughout the garden. What a welcome sight! It takes them a bit longer before they’re ready to bloom, but when they do in early March, they are just spectacular.

Now crocus are tiny, so they look best when planted in big patches, not one or two lonely bulbs off by themselves. They’ve rebloomed for me the last couple of years, so you can just add another few (hundred) every fall and over time you will have quite the show.

A bit later in March comes the stop-in-your-tracks color of iris reticulata. Small blooms, HUGE impact. This was my first year planting these bulbs, but it certainly won’t be my last. Photographs don’t correctly capture the beautiful blue/purple of these beauties.

I’ve heard iris reticulata may or may not rebloom in our area (Kansas City/midwest), so I will be planting more just to make sure I have them next year. I couldn’t get over the deep, beautiful color in the middle of the typical early-spring BROWN throughout the rest of the garden. I showed pictures to pretty much everyone I saw — so sorry if you were one of the people I flower-picture-assaulted!

It’s worth mentioning that last year I also planted 15 or so Snowdrop bulbs (galanthus) — but I only had one or two lonely plants actually come up. I planted them thinking they would be blooming super-early, before the crocus, but they came up in late March. To be honest, whether it was because they lacked color, I only had a couple make it, or because they didn’t come up as early as I expected, I was a pretty disappointed in the results. I know other gardeners love them, but they just didn’t do it for me.

Then comes April — and that is when the spring show really gets started. Bring on the tulips and daffodils! Now, I typically don’t do much yellow in the garden, but there’s something about the sunniness of daffodils in spring that just warms the soul. I planted most of my daffodil bulbs in the woods along the driveway — I plan on adding more and more each year so that when you turn in the drive you get an immediate burst of spring.

But as beautiful and welcoming as those daffodils are, if you know me, you know tulips are my favorite flower, and my tulips this year were AH-MAZING! I planted a couple hundred in early, mid, and late blooming varieties so I had a continuous show.

It was an absolutely fantastic spring in my garden — and it was all thanks to the bulbs. So remember: when fall comes around this year, and you’re wondering if it’s worth the work to plant those babies, YES, it is worth it. (Also, it helps if you use a bulb auger!) And if you forget to plant bulbs, you can always come enjoy the ones blooming in my garden next spring. Just remember to bring the wine.