A collection deserves its name when every piece would be worth having on its own, and we believe these four qualify. Together they set yellows, blues, purples and whites against one another in a planting of considerable variety.
The checkered lily, Fritillaria meleagris, is the conversation piece: bell-shaped flowers in reddish-brown to dark purple, speckled with gray and white, on stems 14 to 16 inches tall. Allium moly, known as golden garlic, offers bright yellow stars that hold up well in fresh-cut arrangements. Striped squill naturalizes, returning in greater numbers each year, while grape hyacinths contribute long-lasting, fragrant flowers in blue-purple.
Grape hyacinths take full to moderate sun or moderate shade, and the squill is content with partial light. Choose 100 bulbs, or 200 with a planting tool for a larger canvas. We find it a fine way to give one garden the range of many.
