It’s always good to have something to look forward to, especially at the moment and bulb lasagnes are a great way to create a display of flowers from February through to May. Layering bulbs is really easy to do and topped with winter flowering plants such as pansies, violas and cyclamen you have color from now until the first bulbs appear in February.
It’s a really brilliant way of planting lots of bulbs in any container. Start with the last flowering bulb, usually the largest bulbs, at the bottom building up to the smallest (Crocus or Muscari) on the top. Don’t worry about the bulbs getting in the way, miraculously the shoots hit the bulb above, curve around it and carry on.
Most spring bulbs be can grown in a lasagne, try bulbs that grow to different heights to create a striking spring display. With crocus on the top layer, flowering in February and March, then the narcissus will appear in March to April followed by tulips from April to May. Check the flowering times of tulips, there are early flowering ones such as the smaller, beautiful cream and rose ‘Quebec’ in March/April, the almost black ‘Queen of the Night’ in mid to late spring and ‘Jan Reus’ a glorious purple and red tulip which appears late April into May. Also check out the heights, the display is more effective if you put tall tulips at the back of your container. Yesterday I planted all three in one container.
Like many people I get carried away and always order more bulbs than I have containers for but surprisingly I always manage to plant them all. These are just a few combinations I have planted in the last few days ready for spring 2021.
Iris Reticulata ‘Clairette’
Narcissi ‘February Gold’
Tulip ‘Mary Ann’
Muscari ‘Siberian Tiger’
Narcissi ‘Jetfire’
Tulip ‘Fire of Love’
It is not too late to buy bulbs, I get over enthusiastic and start buying in September, but it’s recommended to wait until November to plant tulips because the cold weather prevents a disease called tulip fire, although I can never wait that long! Sadly most of the garden centres have now given their bulb areas over to Christmas so their choice is poor, of at all, but there are still plenty available to buy on-line. I source my bulbs from Peter Nyssen, (www.peternyssen.com) JParkers (www.jparkers.co.uk) and Farmer Gracy (www.farmergracy.co.uk). Sarah Raven (www.sarahraven.com) is great for combination ideas. You can get hundreds of wonderful ideas from Pinterest (www.pinterest.co.uk) – search for bulb lasagne.
Method
I use peat free multi-purpose compost mixed with horticultural or alpine grit to aid drainage, this prevents bulbs getting too wet and rotting. A proportion of about three-quarters compost to one-quarter grit is fine. A lot of the garden centres sell prepared bulb compost, usually 2 for 1, if you don’t want to be mixing up your own.
A pot around 30cms to 45cms in diameter and 38cms deep is ideal, but you can go larger and pack lots of bulbs and layers in, or use a smaller pot for a smaller display. I’ve used a small shallow container with a bright red early tulip ‘Fusilier’ and anemone blanda.
Ensure your containers have good drainage holes at the bottom, put a layer of crocks or a layer of small washed pebbles (I buy these from Hilliers) and add a layer of compost about 7cms deep. Your first layer of bulbs, usually tulips, are the ones that flower layer in spring. The bulbs can be placed closer than you would plant out in the ground but no bulbs should be touching, and remember, in the words of Monty Don, the pointy ends of the bulbs are the tops.
Cover the bulbs with a layer of compost of about 3cms or just enough to cover, remember the shoots will find their way to the top so don’t worry too much about trying to make sure bulbs are not directly on top of each other. Continue your layers like this with the earliest flowering such as Muscari and crocus on the top. You need to use your judgment on how many layers you can get into your pots, four is about average and if you are going to top your pots with cyclamen, pansies and/or violas bear in mind you need room to plant these too. Otherwise, finish with a layer of fine gravel or grit, leave around 2cms of space between it and the top of the pot. This last layer keeps the container from drying out, it stops weeds, prevents the soil washing out in heavy rain, and it looks nice as well. Also a layer or gravel is a deterrent to squirrels, I often make a little cover from chicken wire to keep the pesky rascals from digging up my bulbs. I have also sprinkled chilli flakes on the top which they don’t like.
Here are some ideas for spring bulbs which you could use on each layer of your lasagne:
- Bottom layer: tulips, hyacinths.
- Next layer: narcissus, daffodils, anemone, muscari (grape hyacinths
- Top layer: snowdrop, crocus, miniature iris.
Happy planting!