Incorporating Early-Spring Bulbs into Dormant Warm-Season Turfgrasses.

Warm-season turfgrasses will often have an extended dormancy period, especially in upper-transition zone environments. During that period, no mowing is required and the turf experiences a brown or straw color. Numerous species of early-spring bulbs will flower before warm-season grasses such as bermudagrass and zoysiagrass break dormancy and need to be maintained. The objective of this study was to determine if early-season flowering bulbs could persist and flower in a dormant zoysiagrass lawn for several years. The bulbs tested in the study included Crocus tommasinianus ' Ruby Giant', Irisi reticulata ' Cantab', Galanthus elwesii, Crocus chrysanthmes 'Goldilocks', and Chionodoxa luciliae. The bulbs were planted in late October 2010 using a core-aerifier and bulbs were placed into holes made with the aerifier. Bulb survival and flowering were monitored for 4 years to assess persistence of the various species in the system. Although several of the species flowered the first year after planting, the only treatment that persisted over the four years of the trial was the Crocus variety, Ruby Giant. The other Crocus cutivar, Goldilocks, had excellent flowering the first year of the trial, but only produced vegetative growth in subsequent years. Other bulb species continued to produce some vegetative growth, but eventually had very few plants evident in the plots. These results suggest that bulbs can be incorporated into warm-season turfgrasses for an early-season burst of color.