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Get ready for spring planting
The summer's over, the kids are back at school and it's time to plant some bulbs to look forward to in spring.
Whether it's drifts of daffodils, heady hyacinths or tantalising tulips, you can pep up your patio or give your borders a boost with these easy-to-grow bulbs.
Think carefully about the effect you want to create and how you are going to achieve it before buying and planting, though. Flowerbulbs with different flowers and foliage can create very different looks.
"You can accentuate the colour of a gold-variegated evergreen by adding yellow daffodils or tulips," says award-winning garden designer Andrew McIndoe, author of Unwins Book Of Bulbs (Westland, 9.99).
"Try contrasting deep plum tulips against a yellow-foliage shrub, or blend them with one that has wine-red leaves. Pink tulips are wonderful with silver-blue foliage, as are purple and blue crocus."
Good contrasts include Tulipa 'Black Parrot' against Philadelphus coronarius 'Aureus', while the purple balls of Allium 'Globemaster' sit well with the feathery foliage of fennel.
Drifts of bulbs are often more effective, as few look good planted individually unless they are big, such as large alliums, lilies and crown imperials.
McIndoe advises: "In large beds and borders, repeat groups of the same variety through the planting. This amplifies the effect and gives continuity."
Unless you have a really formal planting scheme, avoid planting bulbs in straight lines, which looks contrived.
Personally, I prefer flurries of bulbs of the same colour, whether in a border or in pots. I love small terracotta pots filled with blue muscari (grape hyacinths), carpets of snowdrops filling in the light shade under trees, and drifts of bluebells in woodlands in dappled shade.
McIndoe says that blue can prove a useful link between other colours in the border and that adding blue can make other colours work together.
In rockeries and small borders, dwarf varieties are ideal, such as Narcissus 'February Gold' and 'Hawera', but avoid mixed daffodils as they flower at different times and the colour mix isn't always complementary.
Tall Darwin and lily-flowering tulips are perfect for planting with herbaceous perennials, as their blooms rise above the emerging foliage.
Many bulbs thrive in shade or semi shade, in woodlands under trees, where may other plants would fail, so make the most of them.
Remember, too, that bulbs such as tulips and daffodils (Narcissi) planted directly in a border can become a nuisance after flowering, as their faded foliage is unsightly and you might forget where you planted them when cultivating the ground in the dormant season.
If you're worried about this you may be better off planting them in terracotta or dark ceramic pots and placing them unobtrusively in your border during the flowering season.
That way, they can be removed immediately afterwards and the bulbs put somewhere dark and dry until the autumn, when they can be replanted. You can then fill your pots with annuals for some summer colour.
Spring bulbs can be planted straight into outdoor containers and left on the patio until spring, although I tend to put them somewhere where they won't suffer too much damp over the winter and stick them on pot feet so the bulbs don't rot.
By spring, you should have a burst of colour which can continue into early summer if you choose your bulbs wisely.
BEST OF THE BUNCH - Dahlia
Dahlias have been back in vogue for some time now, their giant flowers in a vast array of colours towering above shorter perennials. Popular varieties include the scarlet red 'Bishop of Llandaff', which grows to around 1m (3ft) and whose beetroot foliage provides striking contrast to brightly coloured perennials. There have been lots of oranges in the gardening shows this year, planted amid deep purple salvias and aubergine-coloured heucheras, and if you want to go for that effect, go for bold statements like 'David Howard' and 'Harvest Amanda'.
Dahlia tubers should be planted after the last frost in late spring around 15cm (6in) deep. You'll need to take precaution against slugs and stake tall varieties and keep them well fed and watered in dry spells. They should flower from mid or late summer well into autumn and are great for cutting.
When the first frost blackens the leaves, dig up the tubers, cut the stems off 5cm (2in) above the base, wash the soil off the roots, allow the tubers to dry off and and store them in a frost-free shed for the winter.
GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT - Garlic
If you are a lover of garlic - and let's face it, who isn't these days? - it's time to think about planting your own in autumn. Buy bulbs specially cultivated for planting and plant cloves individually in module trays with large cells, keeping them in a cold frame for the winter or at the base of a sheltered wall. The plants can then be planted in the ground in spring.
Alternatively plant in a sunny site in well drained soil, breaking each bulb into individual cloves and spacing them 8-10cm (3-4in) apart, with 30cm (24in) between rows. Plant so that the tips are just below soil level.
Weed regularly and give it an occasional thorough watering during dry spells to boost the yield, but don't water the bulbs once they are large and well formed or they might rot.
Good varieties include 'Purple Wight', a purple-streaked type which can be harvested from the end of June, and 'Solent White', which produces late-maturing bulbs and stores well.
THREE WAYS TO - Encourage wildlife into your garden
1. If your garden doesn't naturally provide enough habitat for wildlife, add a few bird-nesting boxes, bat roosting boxes or even hedgehog houses, which you part bury in dead leaves.
2. Make a small pool to encourage frogs, toads, damsel flies and dragonflies.
3. Provide a shelter for insects by stacking a pile of logs in the corner of the garden.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
:: Pick early varieties of apples and pears when slightly underripe.
:: Pot young alpines raised from cuttings in spring, using a gritty compost, and overwinter in a cold frame before planting out next year.
:: Give autumn green crops a light dressing of general fertiliser.
:: Lift clumps of Lilium regale and re-set them, planting them around 15cm (5in) deep in well-drained soil, improved with compost and scatter a little sand in the hole to improve drainage.
:: Sow poppies outdoors where they can flower next year. The seedlings will only require thinning.
:: Plant out spring-flowering biennials, including forget-me-nots and wallflowers, in their flowering positions to give them time to establish before winter.
:: Plant new border perennials and water the plants in well.
:: Continue to plant prepared bulbs in bowls for indoor display at Christmas and early next year.
:: Clear areas of summer bedding past its best to make room for spring bedding and bulbs.
:: Plant evergreen shrubs, conifers or hedging plants like laurel, as warm soil conditions encourage root growth and establishment before winter.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
