A Plan that Worked

One of the problems with bulbs is that, once they have flowered, you can cut down the flowering stems but you have to leave the untidy foliage to feed the bulb for next year's bloom. My plan was to have a perennial emerge and hide this foliage, but the timing had to be right so that it didn't smother the bulbs too soon or leave the dying leaves exposed for too long.

This year I've had great success with tulip 'Spring Green' and globe thistle (Echinops ritro).

Here's 'Spring Green' in full flower, the same image as a couple of posts ago.

The globe thistle is visible in the middle of the clump. 

As the flowers faded, the thistle was just rising above them.

A few days later when I removed the spent stems, the thistle had expanded enough to neatly cover what was left.

In a month or so, it will produce its own flowers, lovely steely-blue balls on long stems. I'll post a picture when it happens.