One of my goals is to have something blooming in my garden throughout the year.

While blooms are easy to produce in spring, during the heat of summer and into fall, it can be more challenging to have a wide range of flowers. Beyond shrubs, perennials and annuals, bulbs offer an easy way to add late season color to the garden. And, many of them can be easily tucked in between established perennials and shrubs. As we approach fall, it's the ideal time to plan and plant for this year and next.

Erica Glasener / AJC Special (ENLARGE)

Drumstick Allium are later blooming bulbs that look wonderful in gardens.

Walter Reeves / AJC Special (ENLARGE)

Surprise or Magic lily thrive in full sun or partial shade.

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In my own garden, I plan to add spring, summer and fall blooming bulbs this autumn.

I've already placed one order for daffodils (one can never have too many of these happy bulbs) and am about to place another for later blooming bulbs. On the top of my list is the Drumstick Allium, Allium sphaerocephalum. While I have often admired it in other gardens, I have never grown it. I was reacquainted with this gem this summer when I saw it blooming in a border that featured shrubs, perennials and bulbs with sunset colors.

Another combination I have enjoyed is Drumstick Allium with Crinum lilies which have large trumpet flowers and wide, strap-like foliage. Blooming in mid- to late June in our Southern gardens, the 1-inch egg-shaped flower heads start out green before turning rose and then wine red.

Other summer bloomers include lilies, a big and diverse group of bulbs with many different types including fragrant types like the orientals and the species.

One old-fashioned species that is easy to grow is the Formosa Lily, Lilium formosanum. Large white trumpet-shaped flowers appear in late summer atop 5-foot-tall to 7-foot-tall stems. The good news is they don't need staking and if they're happy, they will reseed in your garden. It's worth noting that they are also easy to pull out if you don't like where they plant themselves.

Two late summer bloomers that have graced many Southern gardens for years are Red Spider Lily, Lycoris radiata and Lycoris squamigera, also known as Surprise or Magic Lily. If you can get some from a friend, that's great, but if not, they are available from numerous mail order sources.

The Surprise Lily blooms appear almost like magic, lavender-pink amaryllis-like flowers on 3-foot-tall bare stems. Their foliage appears in the spring and dies back before they bloom. Lighting up the woodland in later summer to early fall is the Spider Lily with bright red-orange flowers. Combine it with ferns like Southern Shield fern, Thelypteris kunthii or other shade-loving perennials like hellebores and hostas. If you have inherited a bed of English ivy (as a rule I don't recommend planting ivy), you can plant a group of these hardy bulbs in the bed but make sure to keep the ivy pulled away from the bulbs.

If space is limited in your garden but you would like to add some summer and fall flowering bulbs, there are some charming choices like Crocus goulimyi. With fragrant soft lavender blooms it grows 3 inches to 4 inches high and multiplies easily. In the second addition of his delightfully informative book "Garden Bulbs for the South," Scott Ogden suggests it as an under-planting for Hamamelis virginiana, an autumn flowering witch hazel with golden yellow flowers.

A favorite of mine for its fall blooms is the Rain lily Zephyranthes candida which begins to flower with late summer rains. Its grassy green foliage persists through the winter and offsets the starry white blooms. This easy-care bulb makes a good edger for paths or at the front of the border.

ERICA'S PICK

Surprise Lily

Botanical name: Lycoris squamigera

About the plant: Lavendar-pink Amaryllis-like flowers shoot out of the ground on 3-foot tall naked stems in late summer. The strappy foliage dies back in spring before it blooms.

Use in the garden: Plant Surprise Lily in the woodland garden with ferns and other shade lovers.

Planting and care: This bulb will adapt to a range of soil types in full sun or part shade.

Source: Old House Gardens, 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103; 734-995-1486; www.oldhousegardens.com

Erica Glasener is a horticulturist and host of HGTV's "A Gardener's Diary" at 7 a.m. Thursdays.