villi niitty edition three autumn ‘09 for simple
garden living
bulbs
planting for spring!
favourites natural garden
Ready to dig? 2
Welcome to the autumn issue of villi niitty magazine! What a lovely growing season we´ve had! Almost 90 days of spring flowering bulbs, and if you plant now you can have it to! Autumn is filled with crisp sunny days, but with a hint of melancholy. A bittersweet season with a chance to start afresh. We have added some great new stuff for your home and of course you are welcome with your bulb order for some extraordinary rare tulips and daffodils for next spring. Please enjoy issue number three of villi niitty magazine and now get out there planting! If it´s raining that means it is perfect planting weather and it feels so nice to come inside for a cup of tea afterwards... Else & Vesa Leivo P.S. Put a note in your diary to visit WWP 30.-31.8 and Annala autumn market 10.9, see you there! D.S.
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CONTENTS 5
4 5
5 favourites New! Autumn ‘09
8 bulbs planting for spring!
11 natural garden spontaneous biennials
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ON THE COVER: Handfork by Burgon & Ball. Historical tulip and daffodil bulbs. All products from www.villiniitty.fi
Published by the staff of
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villi niitty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
favourites for simple garden living
29,Easy bulb planting with this sturdy tool from DeWit.
new!
9,90 eur Tin O´Twine is now available in a new fab colour, lilac!
28,-
6,20 eur Pretty Fête de la Lumière lantern lights up your garden.
Wire baskets for harvest time... available in three sizes. From 28 eur 5
favourites autumn pleasures
25,-
59,50
122,6
Making notes, sketching & writing letters...
favourites
4,90
9,90 Vintage style soap holder
Twig heart
High quality note cards 3,20 eur / each
`Elegans Alba´ 1895 Practical and decorative bootscraper in cast iron with birds, keeps the mud at bay...
12,-
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bulbs planting for spring! 10
`Blue Parrot´
Tulipa whittalli
GROWING TULIPS PLANTING
Plant your tulips, pointed side up, in october-november. We recommend that you plant your bulbs at a depth of 25 cm and 10 cm apart. Tests in our garden has shown that this is good because then you don´t disturb the bulbs during summer when you might plant other flowers in your border. SOIL AND GROWING CONDITIONS
Tulips loves a sandy, humus-rich, well-drained soil and thrives in full sun, but also does well in wandering shade. PERENNIAL TULIPS?
The whole purpose of a tulip bulb is to flower. In fact, in the center of each bulb, tiny leaves cradle a baby bud. The white onion-like bulb that surrounds the bud stores all the nutrients that the bud needs to sprout and grow. Once planted, the only real help the tulip needs to grow is moist soil. To keep your tulips flowering year after year, you need to lift them when the foliage has died down completely. Lifting bulbs isn´t any more complex than digging them out of the ground or dumping them out of the pot. Usually each bloom produces one good-sized bulb and two smaller offshoots that can be thrown away. Save all the little bulbs from Duc van Tols they will produce a flower if they are more than 2-3 cm. BOTANICAL TULIPS
Botanical tulips or species tulips can be found in the wild, growing in mountain areas of central Asia. Cool, wet springs are followed by dry, hot summers there. Try to mimick these conditions when you plant your bulbs in your garden. Plant in a very sandy soil at a depth of 10 cm, botanical tulips don´t need to be lifted each year.
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`Double Campernelle´
Narcissus moschatus
GROWING DAFFODILS PLANTING
Plant as soon as possible in august-september so that the bulbs have time to grow new roots and establish themselves well. Cover the ground with a thick layer of straw or leaves if frosts arrive early. Plant the bulbs at a depth of 35 cm and 20 cm apart, except for mini daffodils like Rip van Winkle and Little Witch they only need 15 cm. If the bulbs are planted to shallow this might harm the flowering. The bulb will be prone to drying out during spring and is less likely to obtain sufficient nutrients. As a consequence, flowering is aborted. Prevent this from happening by planting at a depth of three times the height of the bulb. SOIL AND GROWING CONDITIONS
Daffodils are very easy to grow and require little maintenance. They tolerate more moist soils than tulips, and benefit from watering if the autumn is really dry. Plant in full sun or partly shade. They look really pretty swaying in the breeze under shrubs and trees. Most daffodils naturalize (spreads freely) and can be divided in late summer. It’s really important to let the foliage die down because that´s how the bulb gathers strength to produce a flower bud for next spring. SPECIES NARCISSUS
Wild daffodils grow in the mountains, and blooms as the snow melts. They can even be found growing and blooming in standing water in early spring. But after the snow melts, the area is dry. So, to get repeat bloom and keep them thriving, plant them where they get lots of water early in the spring. Then try to keep them completely dry over the summer. A good place to try is just outside your house under the roof.
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natural garden Verbascum chaixii `Album´
Allow self-seeders like biennials to spread and make your garden more natural looking.
Biennials are plants that takes two years to grow from seed to fruition and die. The first year a rosette of leaves emerges and proceeds to flower the following one. These provide an element of a natural look in your garden, where they spring up spontaneously. If you don´t like where they grow it´s fairly easy to move them somewhere more suitable. Just dig them up, replant and make sure you water them in until they are established in their new growing position. Foxgloves, mulleins and hollyhocks all belong to the generous selfseeding biennials and are greatly appreciated for their vertical impact in a naturalistic garden. Looks great growing together with different types of grasses. Can be sown in late summer or early autumn. Alcea rosea `Nigra´
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