What would early spring in the South be like without the sudden, almost magical, appearance of jonquils, daffodils and paperwhites? Or the slightly later resurrections of irises and gladioli? Early summer brings on the cannas, spider lilies and crinums, to be followed by day lilies, tiger lilies, amaryllises, arums and gingers. Then, as the hot summer is winding down and fall is in the air - hurricane lilies, cyclamens and autumn crocuses literally erupt over night, bringing color and butterflies where sun-scorched grass and tired summer flowers are just beginning to recover from the dog days. Scott Ogden, author of Gardening Success with Difficult Soils, has put together an extremely useful and beautiful guide to more than 200 bulbous, cormous and tuberous plants that actually like the southern climate. Northerners may have their tulips, crocuses and grape hyacinths, but there are lots of wonderful perennial bulbs that persist, multiply and return year after year in southern landscapes. Ogden calls them "the historic, neglected, and little-known" warm-climate bulbs that grow well in the South. Northerners who move to the south and try to grow typical northern bulbs will be disappointed. Ogden's book can save them a lot of frustration. The well written descriptions include cultural guidelines and landscape uses drawn from the author's personal experience, and more than 200 beautiful color photographs. The 30 pages on crinums and spider lilies are especially welcome because these groups are often ignored in books written for northern gardeners. An appendix on resources gives the phone numbers and addresses for mail order sources of bulbs. This is a must-read for southern gardeners who want to enjoy the annual miracle of bulbs.
