Although our garden is crowded with plants, there always seems to be room for more spring bulbs which do the job of filling gaps in borders so beautifully before the shrubs and perennials begin to grow away and cover the ground, hiding the leaves as the bulbs die back after flowering.
When it comes to choosing spring bulbs I am very weak willed and always end up with many more than I bargained for, which leaves us with a big planting job! As well as planting in the ground, Mrs McGregor likes to plant some big pots with Tulips so that they can be grouped together on the patio near the dining room doors for a colourful display. For now, the Tulips can wait – they are best planted in November – but the rest need to be planted whenever we get some dry weather!
I have bought some more late flowering Daffodils including ‘Pheasant Eye’ and the double ‘Yellow Cheerfulness’ both of which have a lovely scent. ‘Pheasant Eye’ is in flower in May, following on from the April flowering ‘Cheerfulness’, which makes a great bloom for the house.
They are nice big bulbs and as always, I plant them at three times the depth of the bulb so a big hole is required! Our soil is quite well drained, so I just sprinkle some bone meal in the base of the hole and lightly fork it in before planting the bulbs, covering them and marking the area with a label and some grit so that they are not disturbed.
I have always been fond of the white Anemone blanda ‘Alba’ which we have planted in one border under deciduous shrubs. Over the years they have spread well, gently seeding and one plant has hopped into another border, so I have bought some more to keep it company and speed up the process of creating another colony! The original plant has placed itself under a spring flowering Viburnum which has scented white flowers so the whole area should look a picture in April.
Scilla siberica are another favorite of mine – their electric blue flowers on short, sturdy stems look great in a cool border in part shade when they flower in March. Like the Anemone, they gently seed to produce a small colony without much looking after. The Anemone corms and Scilla bulbs are much smaller than the Daffodils and Tulips, so less digging is required, but it is always a puzzle planting the Anemones. Their dark brown knobbly corms give no indication of which way is up, so I put them just below the surface of the soil and they seem to right themselves each time.
Autumn is really taking a hold on the garden now and there will soon be lots of pruning and tidying to be done after the wet and windy weather that we have had recently. But for now, it’s back to finding the perfect spots for my Daffodils and other spring treasures.....
