Fill Gaps In Your Flower Beds By Planting These Summer Bulbs In April

Sometimes, flowers just don't take in a garden, or they might not spread out as much as you thought. This may leave obvious gaps in your flower beds. If you have places that you don't think will get filled up by your other plants as they grow, April is a good time to take advantage of the empty space by planting a few flowers that will bloom in the summer. This will also give you beautiful flowers for most of the growing season, as the ones you plant now will start blooming around the time your spring blooms die back. 

Generally, summer bulbs can be planted after the last frost. For USDA hardiness zones 4 through 8, this usually lands in or right around April. However, colder zones may need to push out planting until sometime in May, depending on the weather. In warmer climates, you can start most of these flowers earlier, but April is still a good time to get them planted, while the weather is on the cooler side and the soil is warm. In general, any summer bulbs that do best when planted after the first frost will work in April, including these popular summer bulbs you can add to your garden.

Some examples of summer bulb species you can plant in April include tuberous begonias (Begonia x tuberhybrida), Mexican shell flowers (Tigridia pavonia), and peacock orchids (Gladiolus murielae). These plants can be grown as annuals, but are also perennial bulbs to plant in the spring for beautiful summer blooms in some zones. These three flowers are hardy in zones 9 through 11, 8 through 10, and 7 through 11, respectively. Additionally, certain species of ornamental onions (Allium spp.), crocosmia (Crocosmia spp.), and lilies (Lilium spp.) do well when planted in April. For those that will only work as annuals in your area, you can dig up and save the cold-sensitive plants for the next season so you can continue to enjoy them year after year.

In addition to flowers, you can also look at bulb plants like elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta), which produce large leaves that are often green, purple, black, or even brown and are hardy in zones 7 through 10. Caladiums (Caladium spp.) — perennials in zones 8 through 11 — also have beautiful foliage, which can come in shades of green, white, pink, and more. Though they do not often produce flowers, their colorful leaves are a beautiful accent in any garden. Shamrock plants (Oxalis spp.), which are hardy in zones 5 through 10, are another option. They grow in many different colors and are most known for their heart-shaped flowers.