Late Spring Flowering Bulbs

Keep the colour going strong in your garden with our late spring flowering bulbs. At Carbeth Plants, our wide range of classic spring bulbs that bloom late into spring brighten up your garden and keep the display running. We choose each variety meticulously to ensure it delivers real performance around your garden into the late season, not just for how it looks in a photo.

From tall alliums to architectural fritillaria and hardy gladiolus byzantinus, every bulb here picks up just as the earlier spring show fades. This ensures your garden gets the best display of colour and pollinator interest right through into early summer. Order your bulbs online today, ready to go in alongside the rest of your autumn bloom before the window closes

Why Choose Late Spring Flowering Bulbs for Your Garden

Once late winter or early spring bulbs like irises and daffodils run their course, the spring splash of colour tends to fade fast from gardens. This is where planting late spring bulbs enters the picture. Unlike varieties that fade away by April, hardy bulbs like these carry your beds and borders through into early summer.

  • Longer colour: late spring flowering varieties bridge the gap between early spring bulbs finishing and summer bedding plants taking over. This makes sure your borders don't look bare for long.
  • Pollinator friendly: camassia, alliums and gladiolus byzantinus are all popular with bees and other pollinating insects.
  • Real structure: from neat ixia through to tall fritillaria and gladiolus spikes, late spring bulbs are ideal for bringing height as well as colour to a border.
  • Reliable most years: bulbs such as alliums, camassia and gladiolus byzantinus naturalise and come back year after year with very little upkeep.

Once planted, these bulbs pick up the display just as the colour from late winter and early spring flowers begin to fade.

Late Spring Bulbs for Every Border

You can choose from our wide range of spring bulbs for every kind of border. Each option flowers at a slightly different time.

  • Tulips: these are among the best-known spring bulbs, with cup-shaped flowers that face upwards in almost every colour. Browse our tulip bulbs.
  • Alliums: these bulbs bloom into purple, pink, white, and gold flowerheads shaped like globes that pollinators love and return to each year. View our allium bulbs.
  • Camassia: these are popularly grown for their tall spikes of star-shaped flowers that range from blue to violet in colour. They naturalise well in borders and meadows. Browse our camassia bulbs.
  • Gladiolus byzantinus: a hardy gladiolus with tall, deep magenta spikes, planted in autumn like your other bulbs rather than the spring planting more usual for other gladioli. See our gladiolus byzantinus.
  • Fritillaria imperialis and persica: architectural bulbs with tall stems and downward-facing blooms that can be either crown-shaped or bell-shaped. Check out our fritillaria bulbs.
  • Ixia: these are neat and colourful flowers on slender stems, ideal for pots and cut flowers. See our ixia bulbs.

Mix two or three varieties with staggered flowering times for a long season of colour

How to Plant Late Spring Flowering Bulbs

Most late spring bulbs go in during autumn, right alongside your other spring bulbs. However, depth and spacing vary a little depending on the type of bulb.

  • Position: choose a sunny, well-drained spot to plant your spring bulbs. If you leave them somewhere waterlogged, they can show signs of rot.
  • Depth and spacing: plant most bulbs two to three times their own height in soil (three to four times for larger alliums). Space them roughly 10 cm apart.
  • Timing: most of these bulbs are planted between September and November. Tulips, though, do best if they are planted a little later, from October to December, since cooler soil helps reduce the risk of tulip fire, a fungal disease that spreads more easily in warm, damp conditions.
  • Gladiolus byzantinus: plant this one from autumn to early spring, earlier than most other gladiolus varieties, which typically go in during April or May.

Planting in generous groups rather than single bulbs gives your garden a fuller, more natural-looking display of flowers once everything comes up.

Caring for Your Late Spring-Flowering Bulbs & UK Delivery

A little aftercare keeps many spring bulbs coming back and flowering well again next year.

  • Foliage: once flowering finishes, leave the foliage in place until it dies down on its own, since it's still feeding the bulb for next spring.
  • Hide the mess: planting perennials or later flowering plants nearby, or around the base of a shrub, helps hide the foliage while it dies back.
  • Watering: water during dry spells, especially while newly planted bulbs are still establishing.
  • Naturalising: many of these bulbs naturalise well and simply stay in the ground from one year to the next, without much upkeep.

Orders are delivered across mainland UK, with standard delivery from £4.99 (free on orders over £40) and a next working day option also available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Late spring flowers such as alliums, camassia, late tulips, fritillaria, gladiolus byzantinus and ixia come into bloom right as many earlier spring bulbs finish their display. These varieties flower a little later than early spring favourite bulbs and carry colour through until early summer arrives in the garden.
Alliums are often among the longest flowering spring bulbs, with blooms lasting several weeks followed by attractive seed heads. Camassia and fritillaria also hold their flowers well, and mixing early, mid and late varieties means something will flower at different times right through the season.
Most late spring bulbs finish flowering by early summer, though a few, including some alliums, continue into midsummer. For colour deeper into summer, gardeners often turn to true summer bulbs like dahlias and gladioli, planted separately from the autumn-planted varieties featured here.
April is generally too late for most autumn-planted spring bulbs, including tulips and daffodils, though summer bulbs like gladioli and lilies are usually planted from April onwards. Fritillaria and some later tulip varieties also flower in April, so there is still colour in your garden even without fresh planting.
July suits summer flowering bulbs such as dahlias, rather than spring bulbs, which need a period of autumn and winter cold to flower properly. Most late spring flowering bulbs are planted from September to November, so July is really a month for looking ahead to autumn planting
Among perennial bulbs, alliums are hard to beat, since wide varieties flower for weeks and then keep their structural seed heads for months after. This makes them a reliable choice for anyone after long-lasting colour that returns each year with very little upkeep
These bulbs are often listed together as the five classic bloomers of a UK spring garden: daffodils, tulips, crocuses, hyacinths and bluebells, all popular garden centre favourites each spring. Late spring flowering bulbs such as alliums and camassia follow on from these, extending colour into early summer.
Alliums and daffodils are widely considered among the easiest and most rewarding bulbs for beginners, since they need very little care once planted. Tulips are nearly as simple, though they need well-drained soil to do their best. Simply plant bulbs at the right depth in a sunny spot and leave them to establish.