Plant some new bulbs this autumn
October is a prime month for planting and if you visit a nursery or garden centre you will see, alongside plants in pots, a range of dry bulbs for autumn planting. Much of this will be a dazzling variety of daffodils and tulips. I will say a little bit about those first and then mention some other perhaps less well known bulbs that you might like to consider. Good old daffodils, we all think of the bright yellow trumpet variety and I love those as a harbinger of spring but there is a wide range, with many recent introductions, all the way through the Pheasant’s Eye Narcissus to plants with a mass of apricot coloured petals so that you can hardly identify the trumpet. One note about Daffodils is that if you look them up botanically, they are all classified under the name Narcissus. There is no botanical difference in between what we think of as a rather more delicate white Narcissus and the big yellow daffodils.
Tulips kick in later only starting to flower in May which means that you need to think carefully about early summer flowers around them to avoid clashing colours. And Tulips offer truly glorious colours and the scope for some imaginative combinations. One word of warning if you are gardening with a fairly impermeable subsoil which for most people means clay or on deep rich soil with a permanent source of water so that in winter when the bulbs are dormant underground, the soil around them is quite wet. That gives tulips much more of a problem daffodils, for example, as they may rot off and not reappear at all after the first winter. Planting on a layer of grit can help but tulips in a damp garden are always quite a high risk strategy. Having said all that, I have grown tulips that have survived and flowered for ten years in some unlikely situations so if you like them, it is definitely worth experimenting.
But if you have a clay or damp soil and want to try some different bulbs for autumn planting, have a look at Camassia, pictured in the banner photograph. These are bulbs native to damp, even marshy places, very Hardy and totally happy in a clay or damp soil. Flowering in mid-May and very frequently seen at the Chelsea Flower Show in the third week they are sometimes described as enormous bluebells but this is slightly misleading. They do have the strappy leaves and an upright spike of blue flowers but they reach about 80 centimetres and the flowers are star shaped. Camassia are available in blue or white varieties which look great mixed together towards the back at the border.
Another easy to grow bulb is probably my favourite UK wildflower. though many people do not know it is native. This is the spectacular Snakeshead Fritillary. Growing naturally in damp meadows they will naturalise and spread by seed if they are happy in a situation, and that equally applies to a rich soil border. The Snakeshead name refers to the shape of the slightly closed in bell shape of the drooping flower and the checkerboard pattern of purple and white, each flower reminiscent of a snake’s head. Naturally variable in shade, there is even a completely white form and usually if you buy a bag of bulbs there will be a few beautiful white ones mixed in. The flowers rise up above thin glaucous leaves to about 30 centimetres and it is key not to dead head if you want them to spread.
So when you go to stock up on your favourite bulbs this autumn, have a look at some of the less familiar packages and see if you can’t squeeze a few in somewhere, particularly where you have a challenging situation.
Happy Gardening from Alison