If you love how early the hellebores brighten the winter garden, you need to plant some Snowdrops (Galanthus) bulbs this fall. Snowdrops are the earliest to bulbs to bloom in Western Washington gardens and are another deer- and rodent-proof bulb.

If you're trying to lean native in the garden, you may have more choices than you realize for native bulbs that bloom early in spring.

If you want to maximize that feeling of springtime, fill those spots with spring-blooming bulbs now,” said Spencer Campbell, Plant Clinic manager of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “Fall is the time to plant them.

In fact, you can have bulbs blooming in your garden throughout the year. Let’s take a look at what a year-round bulb-blooming garden would look like in Southern California. January: Corsican hellebore (Helleborus argutifolius) is native to the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia.