Many a good gardener I know has a secret seed addiction, I say secret as its easy to hide those guilty unsown seed packets but bulbs? Well its not so easy to hide the sacks and packets bulging with bulbs and corms. I have noticed over the years I have been blogging that there seems to be a heightened sense of panic and guilt the nearer we get to the end of the year as gardeners face the fact that they really were never going to plant those 200 tulips bulbs.
I am far from guilty and each year more bulbs find their way into the garage waiting to be planted. I do try to be good and this year in the Spring I made a note in my garden notebook of what bulbs I needed to add to what border. I dutifully consulted my notebook when the glossy bulb catalogues arrived but as the pages turned more delights winked at me and the list grew. But no! This year I was going to be sensible, I had a tight budget so I would not succumb to impulse buys and I didn’t, how good am I? But then it went a little pear-shaped; I spotted some cheap bulbs in Wilkinsons and well you can never have enough narcissus and then I joined the Spalding Bulb Blogger Group and was sent a selection of 100 mixed spring bulbs as a thank you. Oh dear, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that!
Well over the last two days I have planted around 200 bulbs. This may not sound a lot to some but my garden isn’t that big. I have planted Tulip Ballerina in the front garden along one side of the newly shaped lawn. These have been interplanted with Allium Sphareocephalon which I saw earlier in the summer at Cotswold Garden Flowers (see top picture). I have also planted Narcissus Tete-a-Tete, Minnow and Canaliculatus in the front garden among the edging of Deschampsia. Today I finished off the patio border with some Narcissus W P Milner and also planted up some Anemone Blanda and Mixed Iris from Spalding in pans. This is on top of the Narcissus planted last weekend.
But there is still a pile of bulbs waiting to be planted in the garage. There are some tulips mainly Jan Reus to go on the slope to supplement the ones already there; some Allium flavum, some Miscari and another bag which I can’t remember. In my defence most of the ones I ordered from Peter Nyssen have been planted, it is the free ones which are looking for homes. Oh and then I was watching Gardeners World last night and saw a tin bath planted up with masses of tulips and now I want to go to the local garden center to buy lots more tulips to plant up my tin bath.
So there you go not only am I self-confessed seedaholic but am also a bulb obsessive – healthy addictions I think as they only lead to brighten the world.
