Gardening
ABOVE: Other beautiful ideas for spring flowers are Cyclamen coum, snowdrops (inset) and the spectacular and aptly-named snakeshead fritillaries (below right)
flowering through the snow in January, and followed by crocus and irises in February – along with the early species narcissi and scillas. March brings on the first early-flowering tulips and more daffodils with April and May being the months for main tulip displays, snakeshead fritillaries, and bluebells. Alliums and eremurus (foxtail lilies) come into their own in June, giving six months of colour from bulbs. If you’re not sure where you want to position your bulbs in the autumn (when it’s planting time) why not plant them in pots so they can start growing and then position them in the border at flowering time? Once you’re sure you have the right position, you can then plant them in the ground after flowering: just dig a large hole and plant the whole root-ball without disturbing the individual bulbs. Another idea is to plant them in plastic mesh baskets. You can plant the whole thing in the ground and the bulbs are contained if you ever want to move them; yet they’re getting the moisture needed from the surrounding soil without rotting off. Your bulbs can be planted from September to December, avoiding 54
frozen ground. Earliest flowering varieties such as snowdrops should be planted first with late flowering tulips preferring to be planted in November. Don’t worry if you buy your bulbs and put them in such a safe place that you forget to plant them on time – we’ve all done it! As long as they haven’t dried out too much they can be planted as late as February; they’ll just flower much later and not as profusely in their first year, but they should perform properly the following spring. Most bulbs require free-draining soil, so if you have heavy clay soil add a little sand, grit and compost when planting. To give a good display, bulbs should be planted in groups of at least six. When planting bulbs, size does matter! The bigger the bulbs, the higher the yield of bigger, more beautiful flowers. You’ll see cheap bulbs for sale in market stalls and supermarkets, but they’ll usually be significantly smaller, lower-grade bulbs. So now you know all their benefits, it’s time to choose what you want. There are very few rules when it comes to putting bulbs together – anything goes! They can look great in colour blocks of the same variety (such as a bank of
yellow daffodils) or a colour-themed display (by choosing all white-flowering bulbs such as crocus, anemone blanda, white narcissi, tulips and hyacinths). Using two contrasting colours together such as blue and yellow works well, and so does a complete mixed colour palette – the choice is yours! If you’re growing bulbs in a pot, plant a ‘bulb lasagne’, so called due to the method of layering the bulbs in the compost. It’s ideal if you have limited space, and you should choose bulbs that will flower together or in succession throughout the spring. Pick three or four types of bulb that will grow to different heights. Try dwarf iris, species narcissi and a taller tulip. Use the largest pot available and put a layer of grit in the bottom for drainage, then add bulb fibre or bulb planting compost. The largest, latest-flowering bulbs should be planted first, then covered with a layer of compost, and this should be repeated with the smallest, earliest-flowering bulbs in the top layer. If you can’t decide, look out for the Perfect for Pots collection from Taylors Bulbs that will be available in the garden centre. So with all this in mind, now is the perfect time to start planning for a spectacular show next spring. Wendy Warner is Manager of Thaxters Garden Centre at 49 Hunstanton Road, Dersingham PE31 6NA. Visit the website at www.thaxters.co.uk or telephone 01485 541514
KLmagazine September 2017