Bulbs To Light Up Springtime

The garden is way past its best come autumn. Armed with a warm jacket and a trowel, you can use this bare and baron time to start planning and planting bulbs that will start to bring the garden back to life faster than spring itself.

The earliest flowering bulbs are also the most delicate looking. Crocus, dwarf iris, yellow aconites, snowdrops and narcissus tete-á-tete produce small stalks of flowers that can resist all a British winter can throw at them.

As these are rather small and delicate, they look best planted in shallow pots or window boxes, but they also look fitting clustered around the base of a feature tree. Crocus bulbs can also be planted in the root ball of potted winter heathers for both greenery and colour.

Come mid-spring, two of the most loved bulbs come into flower: pretty tulips and fragrant hyacinths. Some of the most vibrant coloured tulips are Tulipa Stresa, Tulipa praestans Fusilier and Tulipa Abu Hassan. These can be complemented by planting with Spiraea japonica Goldflame. Some of the taller mid-spring bulbs can be complemented by a carpet of tiny Muscari and Anemone blanda.

With spring in full swing, more dramatic and sculptural bulbs take centre stage. Fritillaria imperialis Lutea create quite a display planted in a large terracotta pot. Taller bulbs, such as Nectaroscordum siculum and blue Camassias can be potted centrally among smaller flowering bulbs, which will hide their tall stems and draw attention to their large striking blooms.

The planting time for bulbs varies according to their flowering time, but basically the earlier they bloom the earlier they need to be planted. Early flowering bulbs should be planted from early autumn in order to give them time to establish roots over the winter. Tulip bulbs, however, can be planted up to early winter and still go on to produce beautiful blooms.

You can select from a huge choice of bulbs in garden stores and online. Bulbs are best planted as soon as possible after purchase to give them time to settle in. Good quality bulbs should be firm and healthy with undamaged growing tips, few or no visible roots and no sign of disease or damage.

Different varieties of bulbs require different planting conditions, so always follow individual instructions as to how deeply they need to be placed and when. In general, though, bulbs most often need to be planted about three times deeper than their height. The flat base should always be at the bottom as this will produce the root system.

If you plan on planting bulbs among flower beds or around a tree, one useful trick is to scatter the contents of the pack over the ground to create a more natural display. You can then dig down to the required depth.

The best thing about planting bulbs is you almost forget what you’ve planted and where. It comes always comes as a nice surprise when they come into bloom: it’s like your garden giving you a nice bunch of flowers to say thanks for all your hard work.