From the first snowdrop in spring to the last fall-flowering crocus, bulbs, corms and tubers provide color throughout the year, and most need little attention. The wide range of bulbs, corms and tubers available from catalogs, garden centers and online is a great aid to a colorful garden.

In this article, the group as a whole will be referred to as bulbs or bulbous plants, unless it is necessary to identify the plants specifically as corms or tubers.

Although the large majority of herbaceous perennials, annuals, and bedding plants flower only during the summer months, the outdoor flowering season for bulbs extends from late winter right through the following fall. Another advantage of growing bulbs is the ease with which these plants adapt themselves to varied habitats. Most bulbs grow well in average soil and full sun, and a few will do well in partial shade.

In every garden, however small, there is room for bulbs. The spring-flowering bulbs, in particular, flourish in a large number of settings. Where space allows, they can be planted at random for an informal effect, in lawns and wild-flower gardens. Clumps of bulbs will brighten beds and borders before other perennials reawaken. They bloom beneath trees and shrubs and in perennial borders and fill out nooks of rock gardens and paved areas. In winter they can fill the house with fragrance and color.

The finest displays result if plans for planting and proposed locations of the bulbs are first roughed out on paper. Indicate the kind and quantity that you will need. Before planting, it can be useful to study displays in existing gardens, public and private.

Don't hesitate to experiment. Although mistakes may occur at first, through experience you will gradually learn which are the best types of groupings, which soils in your lawn or garden are best suited to bulb culture, which colors of flowers harmonize and which clash, where a splash of contrasting color is needed and so on.

Most bulb suppliers offer species, horticultural varieties, and hybrids. Species are those that grow in the wild. Hybrids and horticultural varieties are obtained by cross-breeding, through pollination, two species or varieties, usually of the same genus, and by selecting spontaneous variants from large plantings. Such improvements are then reproduced in ways other than by seeds so that offspring will be identical.

Although some bulbous plants may seem costly, many kinds will reproduce themselves steadily each year without any special attention. A few will, however, eventually need to be lifted and divided in order to continue flowering well.

Bulbs, corms and tubers fall into four main categories according to bloom time: late-winter and early-spring flowers, spring flowers, summer flowers, and autumn flowers.