6/12

Tulips

Tulips come in many colors, including white.

In Zones 3 through 8, buy tulip bulbs to plant in the fall. They require a cold period before coming up and blooming in the spring, giving your garden an early array of white flowers.

For best results, choose a sunny, well-drained location and cut off the spent blooms, leaving the foliage to die off naturally. While the foliage grows, it sends energy down to the roots to grow a bigger bulb for next year.

When cutting tulips to enjoy indoors, choose flowers that have barely begun to open. They’ll last longer in a vase.

7/12

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley is a white flowering perennial hardy in Zones 3 through 8. Some gardeners love it and some loath it. Why? As a ground cover, it does well in part-shade and tolerates various conditions once established. But if planted in a perennial garden, it can take over and crowd out other flowers.

Use it as a ground cover. It will soon spread by underground rhizomes to fill in an area, with blooms appearing in late spring. Many gardeners buy and plant bare roots of Lily of the Valley in early spring, or get starts from other gardeners. Lily of the Valley is easy to dig up and share with others.

8/12

Angelonia

A great flower to add height to a container planting, Angelonia grows a little more than a foot tall. These flowers, annuals everywhere except Zones 10 and 11, come in many colors, including white. They are sometimes called summer snapdragons because they grow well in the heat; most snapdragons do better in cooler temperatures.

Start Angelonia from seeds sown indoors four to six weeks before your expected last frost, or in your garden. Many garden centers also sell the plants in the spring.

Angelonia likes full sun and moist, well-drained soil. As with many annuals, cut back spent blooms to encourage new ones throughout the summer