There’s something quietly hopeful about planting a bulb in October. You tuck a small, plain-looking thing into the soil, walk away, and months later it bursts into colour. In cooler regions, autumn is exactly when gardeners get these spring-flowering bulbs into the ground, so their roots can settle in before winter. In India, this mostly applies to colder places like Kashmir, where the famous tulip garden in Srinagar blooms each spring, and the hill regions. If you live there, or have a cool spot of your own, here are five bulbs worth planting this month.