Summer flowering bulbs
It is possible to have many bulbous plants that flower in the Summer months.
Even by just using 'true' bulbs, it is possible to have great flower displays throughout the summer. Add the other generally accepted bulbous plants such as corms, tubers and rhizomes to the list and you can have an amazing display for long periods of time.
True summer flowering bulbs will include Lilies, Alliums, Galtonia,
Camassia, Cardiocrinum, Crinums, Leucojum, bulbous Irises and
Ornithogalum, Tigridia and the Arum Lily - Zantedeschia.
Once you add other similar plants that grow from corms, tubers and rhizomes, then you have a truly splendid array of colour. Begonias, Amaryllis, Dahlias, Iris, etc etc.
The image of the Galtonia candicans shows how different the summer flowering bulbs are to their spring flowering counterparts. An added attraction is that they normally flower for longer periods.
Summer flowering bulbs can be used in all manner of containers, and are superb if integrated into a perennial border, or with shrubs.
Some summer flowering bulbs are hardy perennials in that they can be left in the ground year after year - through the winter. However many will have to be lifted after flowering time - in the autumn, and stored in frost free conditions throughout the winter - ready to be planted again in the spring.
If buying from a garden centre, then you will need to be ahead of the crowd in early to mid spring, for the summer flowering bulbs are becoming increasingly popular, and soon sell out. Once gone from the shelves, there is rarely repeat stock, for the garden centres have to pre-order all bulbs - usually six to twelve months prior.
As with their spring counterparts, those that flower in the summer also respond well to having the faded flowers removed to stop the bulb from trying to set seed - conserving it's strength for next year's bulb instead. The main exception to this is the Allium group. The seed heads last well into the winter and are almost as much a feature of the bulbous plant as the flowers themselves.