Sleeping Beauties... Landscape Designer, Sarah Murch, tells us which, when and how many bulbs to plant for the most stunning spring awakenings.
T
here’s always something to do in a garden, but right now, I’m feeling relaxed about mine. The weeds have stopped growing. Borders are overflowing with glorious grasses and colourful perennials. Autumn berries and crab apples glisten like jewels from branches. And as the first fiery leaves blaze on the Acers, I can take my foot off the pedal. Which is why I’ve just succumbed to those tempting bulb catalogues again and ordered another 6000 bulbs. It’s so easy to get carried away buying bulbs in sunny September but far less appealing planting them in cold, grey November. To be honest, bulb planting is not my favourite job. Hours bent double with little to show for your efforts except muddy boots and an aching back. Give me weeding any day. Yet so worth it! Because nothing brings a garden alive in spring like bulbs. Flowering just when we need that injection of colour to lift the spirits after a long, beige winter. So, don’t put away your boots just yet. There’s still plenty of time to plant bulbs for a truly breath-taking display of colour from New Year’s Day right up to June, when summer perennials will pick up the baton.
50
Best bulbs o f r successional spring colour Earliest to flower in the depths of winter are those tiny carpeting bulbs growing effectivley under deciduous trees and shrubs, in swathes through your borders, or as a tapestry of colour through grass. Be liberal, mix species together, they enjoy each other's company. Galanthus elwesii, is a tall, elegant snowdrop flowering on New Year’s Day. Eranthus hyemalis, winter aconite, has bright, cheery yellow flowers, in early February. Crocus are cheap, reliable and soon bulk up. One of the loveliest is Crocus chrysanthus 'Blue Pearl' - those delicate, pearlescent flowers will stop you in your tracks. Or try mixing Crocus tommmasinianus ‘Whitewell Purple’ with C. ‘Bar’s Purple’ for a wash of mauves through grass. Go mad, plant thousands, you need that mass of tiny flowers to create an impact. Unexpected in winter is exquisite, miniature Iris reticulata ‘J.S. Djt’, with wine coloured flowers, ideal for pots. And for a jolt of electric blue mid-March try Scilla siberica, a tiny, nodding squill, great for bumblebees too. Flowering next are Daffodils. Narcissus 'Tete a Tete' is a reliable early splash of yellow, lovely in grass or clumps of 20 amongst borders.
