3/01-06 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Christine Kelleher, 800-321-9573, Ext. 512, or Gary Doerr, 916-716-1889 Carolyn Ulrich was a garden columnist for the Chicago Sun Times and is the current editor of Chicagoland Gardening magazine. She has also written for national gardening magazines. Feel free to use this release in its entirety or in part, with or without the author’s byline.

The problem with the springtime garden is that it's full of one-trick ponies. Not that anyone notices. We in the Midwest have just come through five months with no ponies at all, so who cares if the show is a bit one-dimensional?

We're so happy when spring arrives. The first Snowdrops... then Crocus, Daffodils, Tulips. They come and quickly go, leaving an empty stage and a long intermission before the next act.

It doesn't have to be that way. With a little attention to companion planting, the spring garden can achieve a more complete, polished look. This basically means perennials, since for most of the bulb season it's too cold for annuals. Pansies are the exception, and new Pansy varieties that you plant in the fall will stay evergreen through the winter and bloom as early as March.

There are two types of plants that you can incorporate into the bulb garden to give it more pizzazz: evergreen groundcovers and perennials that emerge very early in spring.

Among the groundcovers, we round up first the usual suspects – Ivy, Vinca minor, Pachysandra, and Winter Creeper (Euonymus fortunei). Certainly bulbs are more interesting when emerging from a bed of Ivy than bare ground. But there's much, much more.

Draba siberica, as its species name suggests, is super tough and produces a solid carpet of brilliant yellow flowers. Phlox subulata, in pink, rose pink and blue is equally show-stopping. Then there's candytuft (Iberis), Creeping Thyme, Dianthus, Lamb's Ears (Stachys), Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum), and Sedum. All of them flower at some point, but their foliage is visible all year.

Bergenia is a taller, slowly spreading plant that forms a handsome clump of shiny leaves. They may get flattened by snow but won't disappear. The same holds true for Coral Bells (Heuchera). As for the Hellebores, (H. niger and H. orientalis) they aren't really groundcovers, but they do stay evergreen and they bloom with the Crocus.

Among the early risers, consider Brunnera macrophylla, Lungwort (Pulmonaria), Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium), Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Columbine (Aquilegia), Primrose (Primula) and Violets (Viola). Brunnera, Lungwort, Primrose, and Violets will bloom alongside the bulbs, but all of them have foliage that fill in the bare spaces between plants and contribute to a more finished look to the early garden.

Blooms of Bressingham has introduced many exciting new cultivars for the spring garden. Recommended varieties are listed below.

Bergenia cordifolia 'Bressingham Ruby' – considered the best ruby-leaved variety, pink flowers, 14 inches high

Bergenia cordifolia 'Bressingham White' – white flowers, 12 inches high

Coreopsis rosea ‘Sweet Dreams’ – New! Stunning bicolored flowers, white-tipped with a dark raspberry center, blooms in late spring to midsummer, clumps spread rapidly to form a groundcover, 18 inches high

Dianthus ´allwoodii 'Oakington' – blue-gray foliage, pink flowers, 4 in. high, prefers well-drained sandy Loam

Heuchera micrantha var. diversifolia 'Bressingham Bronze' – deeper, more stable color than other purple leaf types, white flowers, 24 inches high (including flower stalk)

Heuchera 'Harmonic Convergence' – silver-marbled bronze foliage, pink flowers, 18 inches high

Heuchera 'Red Spangles' – intensely blood-red flowers, the best variety of this color, 20 inches high

Heuchera 'Rosemary Bloom' – floriferous display of bright coral pink flowers and rich-green foliage, attracts hummingbirds, distinct form with focus on the flowers, 18 inches high

xHeucherella ‘Quicksilver’ – prolific producer of white, fringed, bell-shaped flowers, foliage in spring emerges with a purple cast as it unfolds with its striking silver-metallic color with bronze veins, 18 inches high (flower wands), perfect for dry shade areas.

Phlox subulata 'Oakington’ – blue flowers, considered one of the best sky-blue varieties, 4-6 inches high

Polemonium caeruleum 'Brise d'Anjou' – unique, creamy variegated leaves, blue flowers, 18-24 inches high (including flower stalk)

Primula ‘Katy McSparron’ – New! The first double-flowered Primrose in nearly 300 years, fragrant yellow blooms, floriferous, 12 inches high, blooms all spring

Pulmonaria saccharata 'Lewis Palmer' (formerly 'Highdown') – deep blue flowers, white blotched foliage, 12 inches high

Viola 'Maggie Mott' – a hybrid with scented, light blue-mauve flowers, 5 inches high