Ruud Kleinpaste: Autumn flowers - Invest in some bulbs and corms!

Seeing as it’s now autumn, a number of bulbs can be planted in the garden. Here’s a few of them: 

  

Tulip  

A fabulous early spring colour. There’s some historical stuff with the Dutch making heaps of money out of often virus-ridden “varieties” (early 1600-s AD) selling them for Fl 3000.00 per bulb (while the average yearly wage of a skilled craftsman was around Fl 300.00) – the bulb bubble burst in 1637 AD. These days they are a bit cheaper and more reliable. 

They grow well in South Island with very cool winters – up north they need winter chilling (taking out of the soil and put in fridge for 8 weeks). In mild climates it pays to plant later in the year, in May or June. 

But in South Island, planting the bulbs can start in a few weeks; order them now! 

Great bulb outlets:

• Bulbs direct 
• Garden Post 
• NZBulbs 
• Fiesta Bulbs 
• Hadstock Farm in Springston  

Work the soil to 20 cm deep in sunny to semi-shade positions(bulbs prefer well-drained soils). Plant 15 cm spaced and 15 cm deep – in warmer climates, plant them a bit deeper (20 cm deep).  

A bit of mulch over the planting site will keep weeds down. Bulb fertiliser is recommended and after flowering, some blood and bone will feed the green leaves.  

Do NOT cut those green leaves after flowering: they gather sunlight (photosynthesis) for re-stocking the food reserves inside the bulbs underground.  

 

Narcissus Daffodils  

Prep the soil to 40 cm or so – daffodils’ roots go way down!  

Plant them 10 cm deep and spaced to 10 cm apart. Well-drained soils work best – perhaps under deciduous trees. Hagley Park is a great example. Planting them in full sun is okay too. Mass planting works well, and the bulbs will come up year after year. 

They are not as fussy as tulips in terms of cool winter soils. Apart from the far north, the whole of New Zealand is daffodil country. Bulbs will multiply. 

 

Crocus: the lovely smelling spring flowers 

Plant the corms in autumn a couple of centimetres deep and closely-spaced for best effect – they are best lifted after the foliage dies down. 

Of course, Saffron is a crocus, but it flowers in Autumn (March). 

 

Leucojum, also known as snowflake  

It has a special place in my heart: we used to have a rare and endangered native species in the wetlands where I used to roam as a nature nerd in the Netherlands.  

Many different varieties now – flowering in early spring, planting in early April. 

 

Bulbs in containers  

Most of these bulbs do well in containers. Picture a terracotta pot with these plants massed together – you can shift them inside when they flower to enjoy, or put them on the patio so you see them through the ranch-slider. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be rude climb past is our man in the garden.
He's with us now cold road.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yoda, Jack. Do you do bulbs at all?

Speaker 4 (00:21):
I don't really do bombs.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I don't do I really do bolls, but I do.
I mean, I'm I'm a knap throw and through, so
I do appreciate a good effodil, you know.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Can we put it that way?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
She did? Yeah, Yeah, any good tulip? Yeah no, I
was just going to say, otherwise, I'll just have a
check to Nikola Willis. She's always on about green shoots,
so I thought, yeah, very good. God, I can't believe
that's linking English.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
But anyway that I can, if anyone it's you, I can.
I don't. Don't make surprise, don't disgust it in yourself.
Come on, we know how this works.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I know I know how it works. Anyway, But actually
it is an idea to talk about this because what
you're doing now with bolts like tulips now sissus croakers
and all the other things they call you. They're all
on the website, of course. But here's the thing. You
are now starting to work ahead for spring. Yes, yeah,
you know, it makes sense. Ah, so it's the growth

(01:16):
of your home literally that you're looking at the planet
and everything. So tulip's very simple. Oh, by the way,
good story about a Dutch story about tulips. Do you
remember the sixteen hundreds?

Speaker 4 (01:29):
I don't, but I know what you're referencing.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Tulip bulb cost three thousand florins. It's like three thousand.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
It was the bitcoin of the of the sixteen hundreds, right, it.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Was a and that's well, the yearly wages of craftsman
was about three hundred flors a year. Unbelievable. Anyway, that burst,
of course after thirty seven thirty eight years. Anyway, that's
that's the way. But now we can have and there's
some really cool ones. By the way, those funny tulips
that they were trading at the time were basically the

(02:07):
virus ridden versions of them, and the viruses gain these
wonderful colors. Yeah, this is actually quite yeah, yeah, okay,
And to this day we still have tulips with some
of these funny little viruses in them. So you can
do anything you like with you. I just want to say,
go and get and have a look around. Beautiful stuff

(02:28):
to have, easy to do. You work the soil twenties
centimeters deep and you chuck them in because those globs,
of course, like well drained soils, you don't want them
to wet because they start to rot. A yeah, yeah,
it's important. Now nice, it's the same thing you were
talking about it, especially Hagley Park, you know what I mean. Daffodils.
The roots, by the way go way down. So you

(02:50):
prepare the soil for about forty centimeters deep, but there
are only ten centimeters in terms of the depth of
planting them. Full sun is fine. Crocus here's another one
I like. Crocus is absolutely wonderful, beautiful smell, of course.
And then there's this weird crocus called ceff From, which

(03:11):
reminds me of those tulips of the sixteen hunders. Because
cept from, of course, there's an extremely expensive material you
can put in your in your food there. But because
they are autumn flowers, you plant them later in December
March you'll be too late for that. And then loculium,
the snowflake. And but finally, because this is important, you

(03:32):
can actually hit most of those bulbs in containers and
in containers. They do well because you can totally manage
the not too much or too much water systems in
those containers. Beautiful to do.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
That, mate, superb.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
I thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
We'll make sure all of those varietals and the photos
are up on the website.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Hey, thanks for the tomato seeds. They arrived this week
as well.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Really appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Your job.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, so don't worry. I'll do my best on
that front. Route climb past in the garden for us.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks dB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio