Last time, you learned to bury bulgy little nuggets for spring flowers. There’s more.

Yes, there are many kinds of tulips, narcissus and crocus. But we left out a host of other bulbs.

For super-early flowers, often blooming among the grass, a crowd of white snowdrops is a happy surprise as winter ends.

Small, drooping flowers, each white with a touch of green, remind one of the heads of Nubian goats. A colony of snowdrops would be at home in a rock garden.

The snowdrop (Galanthus) is soon followed by Leucojum, or snowflake; according to variety, it can be 6-to-20 inches high. This should thrive as winter’s melting snow, and doesn’t mind wet feet. Each stem bears 2 to 5 nodding lightly-fragrant blooms and lasts for weeks.

But we left out hyacinths! The top of each stem is crowded with regular florets, looking like the busby of a British Guard. Those clove-scented flowers may be yellow, apricot, salmon,blue white or purple. They need plenty of sun.

Last autumn I was given some saffron crocus corms to plant. More than one gardener has worked on that bed; I notice that the labels by each crocus have been laid aside, so my plans may have been derailed. I’ll keep checking as these should flower at the end of the month or October.

Other autumn crocus can pop up in surprise us. Crocus speciosus, planted in a sheltered spot bloomed in late September for me. I have just learned that I could have forked over that area after bloom time and so, could have tossed around fertile cormlets for a bigger display the next season.

However, in that area I had just planted some Colchicum bulbs. This astonishing “meadow saffron”, ordered in the summer, arrives ready to go, and should be planted at once. It insists on blooming with large (for crocus) pink or white flowers and can be set on a windowsill or mantelpiece for a brief conversation piece. Colchicene is an ancient alleviator of gout; is it used today?

When it finishes blooming, it disappears. Next spring, some floppy leaves appear in its place — to renew Colchicum’s growth for that autumn’s surprise.

It seems the season comes to an end, and then these flowers pop up. Want to try this way of drawing out the flowering year?