Bury some garden treasures

GARDENING

BURY SOME Garden Treasure By Melanie Walker

No doubt. Autumn is definitely about to make itself felt. Greens are already changing colour to rusts and browns, heralding the dry, dusty, 'colourless' season - which means it's time to be bright and get out and plan your spring colour theme. It's time to 'turn your garden on' – with bulbs!

Bulbs are the easiest things to grow, provided you remember a few basics and have done some planning.

One thing to bear in mind is that going indigenous makes a lot of sense, considering many of the exotic spring flowering bulbs are expecting much cooler and longer winter seasons than we have here. And so much of gorgeous to be had – sparaxis, tritonia, heavenly scented freesia, ixia, watsonia and the strikingly tall chasmanthe. That being said though, a geographical border does not an 'indigenous' plant make.

We have such a different climate to that which many of our local varieties come from, so those naturally occurring Cape bulbs will be expecting to have winter rainfall. Which means you have to take that, amongst many other factors into account if you expect a bumper colour feast come spring.

However, get it right and they'll reward you with gorgeous blooms with almost no effort on your behalf, as after you've given them the attention they need at planting time, all you need do is give them regular watering to ensure success. This isn't Bulb Basics 101 though. There are directions on all packets telling you how to plant them, so we won't go into that here. Just don't put them into the ground before it's cold enough, so not now as our ground temperatures, let alone daytime temps, are still too high. End of the April ⁄early May should be about right.

Consider where you want to have your colour display and in what form. If you have a small space garden, or are looking to jazz up a patio or a balcony with some fabulous colour, then bulbs in containers are the way to go. Masses of flowers in pots reap huge rewards – and there's nothing wrong with having a moveable feast of colour that will cheer up not just your patio but fill in, or create a focal point, in any other place in your garden that's looking a bit bare.

Bulbs look better flowering en masse rather than singles here and there, so don't place them far apart. Keep it together. If you haven't refreshed the soil in the container you're going to be planting in with good compost and some bulb food, please do so before placing your bulbs. They'll thank you for it. And once they're planted, be sure to keep them moist and mulched.

When planting up containers – for indoors or outdoors – make sure they have good drainage. Although bulbs like to be moist, if they're overwet, they'll rot. Don't forget to check on the amount of moisture in the soil regularly, as pots dry out quite quickly, especially on sunny patios.

In fact, rather keep containers in a semi-shade area if possible. Talking about heat, if you want to plant bulbs such as daffs, tulips and hyacinths up your driveway or along a sunny wall, take care that they are protected against the heat that will radiate from the surfaces as they don't appreciate too much warmth.

BEST TIPS FOR SUCCESS WHEN PLANTING BULBS

When growing bulbs in a pot, pick a container that is the right size and will complement your chosen bulbs. Layer your bulbs. Put ten to fifteen centimetres of compost in your container then place an odd number of daffodil or narcissus bulbs on top; even numbers of plants always look odd. These need to be planted twice the depth of their size.

Then cover with another ten cm layer of compost and plant the next sized bulbs, such as Muscari, cover and plant the smallest bulbs (ipheon would work a treat) then cover with a final few centimetres of compost.

A SPECTACULAR VISION