March 21, 2025 • 23 mins
Ready to transform your garden into a symphony of summer color? This episode reveals exactly what you need to plant now for months of vibrant blooms ahead.
After weeks of unusually dry weather in Ireland, we're exploring the perfect timing to establish summer-flowering plants that will reward you with an avalanche of color. The secret? A strategic mix of bulbs, bare root perennials, and carefully selected seeds that offer maximum impact for minimal investment.
Discover the world of summer-flowering bulbs - from the show-stopping dinner plate dahlias with their 22cm blooms to elegant lilies that return year after year. We explore why now is the perfect time to snag bare root peonies at a fraction of their potted price, and how to position gladioli for best effect in cottage-style borders. You'll learn which bulbs offer the most reliable performance (including some underrated gems like Nerien's) and how to manage enthusiastic spreaders like Crocosmia.
For the budget-conscious gardener, we reveal why bare root perennials represent exceptional value compared to container-grown plants, and share tips on scoring end-of-season bargains from online suppliers. Whether you're planning a formal border or dreaming of a meadow filled with wildflowers, this episode provides practical guidance on creating spectacular summer displays.
The gardening calendar is turning rapidly toward planting season - grab your trowel and get ready to create your most colorful garden yet! And don't miss next week when we'll be tackling the art of pruning fruit trees.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 268 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode, we'relooking at the subject of
summer color and what we can donow to ensure that we have lots
of summer colour in the comingweeks.
And there is lots we can bedoing now and I suppose over the
last few weeks we've been herein Ireland we've been very
(00:36):
pleasantly surprised with areally nice dry spell.
It has been quite cold butnonetheless we've had dry
weather, weather almost no rainin around a month now, and that
has meant that the ground hasdried up quite a lot.
As I say, we don't have a hugeamount of growth yet because
it's still quite cold, but atthe same time it has been
possible to get a huge amount ofwork done and you know,
(01:00):
conditions have been nice anddry for for people who are out
and about in their gardens andthat has certainly been a really
welcome, really welcome boost,getting a little bit of warmer
weather this week now.
So I'm expecting kind of growthlevels to pick up and
everything to really start tokick off.
But yeah, in general it's beena beautiful few weeks and to see
(01:22):
sunshine, which is something wehadn't seen a whole lot of to
see sunshine of late has been.
Hadn't seen a whole lot of tosee sunshine of late has been
has been really really nice andwelcome.
Uh, still quite early, you know, in terms of seedlings and
stuff like that.
So they're still going to needa lot of uh watching and
protecting because we're stillin march of many weathers and
sometimes april can be, can besomething similar.
(01:42):
So just have to keep keep aneye on it and fingers crossed it
continues in the in the veinthat it is.
At the moment we're gettingthis nice sunny weather and
hoping for a little bit morewarmth coming up.
But in terms of summer color andyou know it's it's obviously
the time of the year when it'spossible to have the most
vibrant colors.
(02:03):
All you know, from summertimeright through into autumn time
and that's typically it can befrom your perennials, your
annuals and things like bulbs,and that's what we're going to
kind of focus on.
You know, what plants, whatbulbs, what seeds can we be
(02:23):
getting now?
That's going to kind of ensurethis.
I suppose avalanche of ofsummer color as the year goes on
, and you know we speak aboutbulbs quite a lot, particularly
in the autumn time, becausethat's the time of the year, the
.
You know, the autumn plantingseason is kind of a bigger
season in terms of, in terms ofbulbs, you know, you have all
(02:44):
your, your, your ones that areflowering now, basically
everything from snowdrops tocrocuses to daffodils, you know,
and so on and so on, and that'sin terms of availability of, of
of the the range.
There's a lot more sort ofvarieties available at that
stage, but there's still somereally really good ones in the
springs and spring floweringbulbs are.
(03:07):
They give huge impact, albeitthat there's a smaller array of
of variety out there.
So what are we looking at interms of?
We're going to look at bulbsfirst, and then we look at seeds
, maybe, and then we look atother things, bare roots and
plants and so on.
So, initially, what?
What?
The main ones that we'retalking about?
You're looking at dahlias,you're looking at lilies,
(03:31):
gladioli, peonies, crocosmias,noreens, freesias and that sort
of thing, and they're they'reyour bulbs that you can buy at
the moment, and these are goingto be basically, they're a bulb
in a bag for anyone that hasn'tgrown like this before.
They're a bulb in a bag you.
You plant them whentemperatures are warm enough,
(03:53):
which could be in a couple ofweeks time, but in the meantime
you can, if you have agreenhouse, you can get them
potted up there or put them intoan area where they can be
protected.
You're looking for kind ofground temperatures, a little
bit like sowing potatoes.
You're looking for groundtemperatures to be up 10 12
degrees consistently and you'renot looking for too much frost
and then they'll kick into life,essentially, and they'll grow
(04:13):
on and flower this summer.
And they really are.
They really are phenomenal easyway of, you know, having flower
over a long period of time,really, really, really, really
cost-effective way as well offlowering up over a long period.
So to look at these kind ofbulbs, first, dahlias there is
thousands of varieties from whatI believe there's.
(04:36):
You know, approximately 2,000varieties of dahlias have been
named and they're a phenomenalsource of summer color.
Dahlias have been named andthey're a phenomenal source of
summer color and you know, whenyou go to your, your super, your
, your garden centers at themoment or your nurseries at the
moment, you will see dahliabulbs.
Essentially, there's differenttypes of dahlia bulbs as well.
(04:58):
There's seven or eightdifferent types of them and
within that then you'll have akind of a style of flower or a
style of growth.
So there's there's asiaticbulbs, there's dinner plate ones
.
Dinner plates are reallyinteresting so they're
essentially, as the namesuggests, they're, a dinner
plate size head on them.
(05:19):
So really huge flower and somereally nice ones there.
Something like like ThomasEdison is a really nice one.
It's huge, huge flower, so upto sort of nine or 10 inches in
width.
You know, which is what's that?
20, 22 centimeters in width ofa flower head.
So huge flowers and reallyreally nice for, you know, for
(05:42):
for bouquets and so on.
That's so dinner plate is areally really good one.
Then you have obviously pom-pomones.
Don't particularly like them.
I think they're a little bit uh, sort of fussy, looking like
the more natural, like the moreopen ones, the traditional ones,
like bishop's children, uh,bishop of landorff.
I like all of those type oftraditional ones.
(06:04):
I just prefer to flower on them.
But there is some fantasticones and last year at one of the
garden fairs I can't rememberwhich one it was now, but I
bought some bulbs at that, ordahlia tubers, should I say at
that and got the Café Olé and apink version of it.
(06:26):
So they were beautiful, reallygood.
Now, the pink version was aphenomenal flower.
Again, I can't remember exactlythe variety, but it was a pink
version of the cafe au lait.
It was an interesting oneactually in the summertime
because the flower wasphenomenal on it.
It was just so vibrant,flowered for a long period of
(06:48):
time, was really vigorous.
Lots of flower on them wereperfect for taking in and
putting into a vase, so for cutflowers they were brilliant.
But it was an interesting onebecause wasps actually there was
some kind of a sap coming offthe stem of them and the wasps
really went mad for it.
So during the height of thesummer there was you know 20, 30
(07:11):
wasps all around the, the stemof it, sucking on the, on the
sap.
Obviously, uh, I think, and itwas just, it was just phenomenal
to see, but they never, theynever bothered much with
anything else in the area.
But whatever it was was reallyattract.
It was really attracting in thewasps there but they didn't,
didn't cause any issues.
(07:31):
It was around the patio, theydidn't cause any issues there.
They just seemed to be socontent just taking in the,
taking in the sap or whatever itwas they were doing from from
this particular dahlia.
So those dahlia's I.
I left in the ground it wastheir first year being planted I
kind of mulched them heavily.
So fingers crossed, once theweather starts to improve or the
(07:52):
temperatures start to improve,that we'll see them peeping up
again, hoping to get anothergreat display.
And then next autumn I will digthem and sort of try and
multiply the plants a little bit.
But dahl dale is, as I said,over 2000 varieties available.
It's absolutely endless.
And then the various differenttypes.
So, uh, dinner plate as I saythey're, they're typically
(08:16):
really big ones.
And then for me, I like thetraditional, the traditional
ones, and they can be grown forthe likes of, you know, bishops,
children or bishop land, of anyof those.
They can be grown from seed nowquite easily as well.
So once you start getting intolate march, early april still
loads of time to sow them fromseed and you will have flower
(08:37):
this year.
That's, that's the beauty of ofof those at this stage now,
it'll be late summer, intoautumn, when you, when you get
that flower but it will be willbe fantastic.
And then, once you have themproduced, you can, as I say, you
can dig up, up the tubers andyou can multiply, apply your
plants over time.
So, like the the autumnplanting bulbs, you know bulbs
(08:59):
at this stage of the year aregreat investment and give great
I I suppose, return for yourspend.
The other kind of big categoryof bulbs at this stage is lilies
, and again you have seven oreight different types of lilies.
You know there's the trumpetlilies, there's the tree lilies
(09:19):
and all of that, but in generalit's the trumpet ones that are
kind of the traditional type andagain they're the ones that I
particularly like.
There's oriental ones whichhave you know sort of more
pintier flowers, and I don'toverly love those.
But any of the lilies, againthey're going to be hardy, again
they're going to give you aflower over a long period of
(09:41):
time.
They're going to last for yearsand years and years and they
really are again give a greatshow over a period of time and
you will, over time the clump,particularly of the trumpet
lilies, the clumps do get biggerand you'll be able to separate
out some of those as well.
So that's lilies.
Another one is gladioli, andthese are a bit of a funny one
(10:01):
because they're they're seen tobe a little bit old-fashioned,
but they're still actually quitea good they're.
They're seen to be a little bitold-fashioned but they're still
actually quite a good they're.
They're a very good floweractually.
They're very much suited tobeing in a border and to be
peeping up through other plants.
They're not not so good, youknow, standing on their own,
because they're a little bit thethe stems and that the lower
(10:24):
part of the plant is very stockylooking as opposed to.
You know, if it's in the middleof a border it can peep up and
you get this flower above, abovea kind of canopy of growth, and
it's a little bit nicer thatway.
So they're suited to being inthe cottage style, heavier type
planting as opposed to beingsort of standing on their own.
But they're really.
(10:45):
They are old-fashioned, youwould admit that, but they're
definitely, you know, they'redefinitely a really nice flower
and they do last.
And in that setting wherethey're within a bed, within a
border and peeping through, theygive great, great flower and,
again, they will grow absolutelyanywhere.
(11:06):
They're really easy to grow and, yeah, maybe a little bit
old-fashioned, but I still thinkthere's a great place for them
and you won't be disappointed inthat setting where you have
them among other plants,particularly, you know, peeping
through along with roses, alongwith grasses.
You know that kind of cottagestyle planting.
They can look really, reallywell at this time of year.
(11:28):
Then we're looking at peonies.
So peonies are a brilliant oneto get at this time of the year,
so you'll get them.
You'll get them either a kindof as a bare root plant or, and
that it really is a brilliant, abrilliant time to get them,
because peony plants now to geta good-sized peony plant, any of
(11:51):
the nice varieties like CiceraBernat or any of those they're
going to be really nice and agood-sized plant is going to
probably cost you anything from15 to 25 euro, 30 euro, euro
thereabouts, and you'll get.
You get the same sort of uh,bare root plant or or tuber at
(12:13):
this stage of the year and it'llbe maybe anything from four to
seven or eight euro, dependingon the size of it.
But it's a brilliant, brilliantway of getting a really really
nice plant, getting itestablished and getting flower
pretty much straight away withit.
So that's another good one atthis stage of the year.
Again, there's lots ofdifferent varieties, lots of
different types as well, butpeonies is a another good and
(12:37):
easy one to grow at this time ofyear.
Next one is a bit, is a bit likethe gladioli some, some people
love it, some hate it, somepeople call it a weed.
But crocosmia definitely has abig impact, particularly over
time.
It will spread and I think thisis why people kind of call it a
weed.
If it gets, if it getsneglected, it will start to take
(13:00):
over, start to spread.
But if you're able to keepsplitting it, keep taking some
bit away and just keep it incheck, I guess it doesn't
necessarily take over but youcan get some great color from it
.
The likes of the crocosmialucifer, really bright, vibrant,
red, hardy, will grow prettymuch anywhere as well.
Again, more of a border plant.
(13:22):
So the the bottom half of theplant is quite underwhelming, to
be honest.
It's just, you know, green,kind of stocky growth again.
But up top you get these reallynice red, vibrant flowers and
again, if they're, if they'reabove a canopy of of foliage,
they can look really really well.
So they have their place, sortof mid-border, that's kind of
their their place.
And, yeah, krokosmia is.
(13:44):
There's lovely orange ones aswell.
There's um, I can't think ofvariety now, but there's some
beautiful, really deep orangeones that that again will look
well in most borders.
So you get.
You get different colors inthem and they're, they're,
they're a fantastic plant.
Another one which is again wouldbe, would be seen, as you know,
(14:04):
sort of cottage style, olderstyle planting, but again really
really good, solid performer isnoreens slightly underrated, I
think, as a plant, so noreensare really really hardy.
Come back every year, multiplyflower pretty much without fail
and, yeah, they're just, they'rejust a nice, a nice flower, and
(14:24):
again they suit that cottagestyle planting.
So you know, so there's kind offour or five that you'll get at
the moment from kind of bulbsor carms or tubers, whatever you
want to call them.
You have dahlias, you havelilies, you've daddy all I,
you've peonies, you've crocosmiaand noreens.
Don't forget you're from fordahlias, you can grow quite well
from seeds as well at thisstage of the year.
(14:45):
So that's, that's another bigpossibility and the other thing
that you'll see more so with theyou'll see it in in some of the
bigger garden centers andyou'll see it with the online
bulb sellers.
You can get a huge amount ofperennials as sort of bare root
plants at this stage of the yearand I've used this before again
.
You know in terms of, in termsof, you know value for money
(15:09):
they're.
They're superb value for moneyversus going out and buying you
know a, a big plant in a threeliter pot or whatever.
They're superb value andessentially, what what you're
going to get here is is prettymuch any perennial plant that
you can think of, so it'severything from the one.
The last ones that I got werestill bees.
(15:30):
There was a certain varietythat I was looking for, couldn't
find seed, couldn't find plants, but then found them on forget
which.
One of the online bulk peoplehad them as a you know, sort of
bare root plant and they werestarting to starting to sprout.
So it was around this time lastyear or the year before they
were starting to sprout and thenjust, yeah, really, really good
(15:54):
plants from them pretty muchstraight away.
So you get them into the ground, make sure you give them good
watering at the start, a littlebit of seaweed to get them
established, and they'll justreally kick off and give great,
great return in year one andthen, obviously, going forward
year after year.
So still, bees is a great one.
You can also get, um, prettymuch, as I say, pretty much any
(16:16):
of the perennials you can buylike this at this time of the
year.
So agapanthus thing withagapanthus is they can be very
slow, so you'll buy them andthey will just take a little bit
longer than say they still beesor whatever.
Uh, agelias, agastacheas,dahlias we mentioned, you know,
(16:37):
pretty any echinaceas, any ofthe perennials that you would
sow, and again, we would havespoken about sowing seeds in the
autumn time, which is the besttime to sow perennial seeds.
But if you haven't done that,you can get your sort of bare
root plants now and again you'llhave great flower this year.
So that's a huge, hugeadvantage.
You can still sow seeds of anyof these.
(16:59):
You just won't get flower inthis coming year, or at least
it'll be.
You won't get much flower.
It's really going to be nextyear before you see the benefit
of the typical perennial types.
So they're some of the oneslike but perennials from Beirut
plants at this stage of the yearis, yeah, hugely, hugely
(17:22):
beneficial and a great way ofgetting a lot of plants, you
know, for if you're doing a bigbarber or something like that,
it's a great way to get a lot ofplants and watch out as the, as
the end of the berry seasoncomes, a lot of the,
particularly the online people.
They may not have availabilityof everything, but they'll
certainly be doing kind of 50off a lot of the, particularly
the online people.
They may not have availabilityof everything, but they'll
certainly be doing kind of 50%off a lot of the, a lot of the
(17:42):
different ones at that stage.
So, yeah, there's, there'sgreat opportunities, great
opportunities to to get a lot offlower.
Then you can still sow a lot ofthe perennial seeds, as I say,
but you won't get necessarilyany flower this this summer and
autumn of them, but they'restill well worth doing at this
stage.
And, of course, there's theannuals and annuals.
(18:06):
While certain annuals I don'tthink they're, you know, they're
the the right way to be doingit.
So, for example, certainbedding plants.
I don't know that it's a greatway of going out and buying
plants.
You know, when you think of theenergy and the, the, I suppose,
the effort, the amount ofinputs that goes into producing
(18:27):
really small tray of plants thatlast for a very small window of
time, not sure whether thatmakes huge sense, but in terms
of sown seed, you can definitelysow any of those yourself.
All you need is, you know,windowsill greenhouse, if you
have it, and and, yeah, you'llbe able to.
You'll be able to grow nearlyall of those really really
(18:49):
quickly at this stage of theyear, once the temperatures
start to come up.
There's a lot of seeds that youcan direct sow as well, the
likes of cornflowers and thingslike that.
You can.
You can direct sow those intoyour beds.
For me I'll be sown the likes ofcosmos, brilliant variety,
cosmos.
Last year I can't remember thename of it at all, but it was.
It was a fantastic pink andpurple shaded one.
Uh, the way the way it grew,the way it it ended up, it
(19:12):
created kind of a hedge ofcosmos which was really gorgeous
where it was.
Uh, trying to find that samevariety again.
I've looked twice now andhaven't seen it, but, um, I'll
know it when I see it.
I don't remember the name, butI know that the picture when I
see it.
So, trying to get those.
It was a thompson and morganseed, so I'll be keeping my eye
out for those.
(19:33):
They need to get sewn.
Have some sewn already butdefinitely need to get that one
if I can, because it was just,it was just spectacular.
And yes, then pretty much any ofthe, any of the perennials, as
I say can be got from fromBeirut to this stage of the year
.
But do, do, look out, do keepan eye out for the kind of end
of season sales, particularly onthe online people.
(19:55):
You get your, you know youryour 50 off as they try to exit
their stock before the windowcloses.
And it's a great time to gatherup plants and once you're able
to mine them and keep themwatered over the coming months,
they'll be perfect and gettingnear the end as well.
But, like things like bare rootroses for the next few weeks as
well, there's still anopportunity there to do that and
, again, they're going to giveyou flower this year maybe not
(20:17):
full flower, but you'll getdecent flower off those.
And, of course, you know youhave your, your wild flower
meadows that can be sown in thenext couple of weeks as well,
and another, another great wayof of getting getting seed into
your garden.
If it's not a wild flowermeadow you're going for, a
floral meadow is another option.
So floral meadows arecultivated flowers and that's an
(20:37):
option again for sowing overthe coming weeks and it's a
great way of flowering up, Isuppose, a bigger area really,
really quickly and it's, youknow, it's something that will
give you flower definitely overthe next kind of five, six
months.
So loads of opportunities forfor flower at this stage that
you know for later on in thesummer that even if you haven't
(20:58):
for flower at this stage, thatyou know for later on in the
summer, that even if you haven'tanything done at this stage,
you can still do this.
And so that's your summerflowering bulbs, your sowing of
seed of certain ones likedahlias.
Again, you'll have huge successwith them.
Get the dahlias sown nextcouple of weeks, pot them up
into a slightly bigger pot.
So you sew them in a seed tray.
(21:18):
You'll move them to a slightlybigger pot, like a nine
centimeter pot.
You'll prick them out into that.
A couple of weeks later you'llmove them into a slightly bigger
pot again and by the end ofsort of mid-may, end of may,
they'll be fantastic plants,ready to go out into any border
and they will flower very, verywell this year.
So, yeah, great opportunitiesthere.
(21:38):
And then, obviously, your yourbare root plants, your bare root
perennials that are going to beavailable and are still
available in a lot of gardencenters and a lot of the online
bud people.
So great way of of, as I say,flowering up spaces over the
over the coming months.
Next week's episode is anepisode on pruning of fruit
(22:00):
trees, so that'll be a reallyinteresting one.
Looking forward to that.
And, yeah, lots of guestinterviews coming up over the
next few weeks and we'll haveour usual sewing guides.
And open gardens are startingto come back in over the next
couple of weeks.
Try to cover those during thesummertime, you know, when the
gardens themselves are open.
So we'll chat to some of thoseopen garden people in, as I say,
(22:20):
over the next couple of monthsand bring you ones that are
worth catching, worth seeing.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Looking forward to seeing howyou get on with all your summer
flowers.
So get out, get planting, getsowing and, yeah, look forward
to the avalanche of color lateron the year.
That's been this week's episode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
(23:02):
thank you.
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 268 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode, we'relooking at the subject of
summer color and what we can donow to ensure that we have lots
of summer colour in the comingweeks.
And there is lots we can bedoing now and I suppose over the
last few weeks we've been herein Ireland we've been very
(00:36):
pleasantly surprised with areally nice dry spell.
It has been quite cold butnonetheless we've had dry
weather, weather almost no rainin around a month now, and that
has meant that the ground hasdried up quite a lot.
As I say, we don't have a hugeamount of growth yet because
it's still quite cold, but atthe same time it has been
possible to get a huge amount ofwork done and you know,
(01:00):
conditions have been nice anddry for for people who are out
and about in their gardens andthat has certainly been a really
welcome, really welcome boost,getting a little bit of warmer
weather this week now.
So I'm expecting kind of growthlevels to pick up and
everything to really start tokick off.
But yeah, in general it's beena beautiful few weeks and to see
(01:22):
sunshine, which is something wehadn't seen a whole lot of to
see sunshine of late has been.
Hadn't seen a whole lot of tosee sunshine of late has been
has been really really nice andwelcome.
Uh, still quite early, you know, in terms of seedlings and
stuff like that.
So they're still going to needa lot of uh watching and
protecting because we're stillin march of many weathers and
sometimes april can be, can besomething similar.
(01:42):
So just have to keep keep aneye on it and fingers crossed it
continues in the in the veinthat it is.
At the moment we're gettingthis nice sunny weather and
hoping for a little bit morewarmth coming up.
But in terms of summer color andyou know it's it's obviously
the time of the year when it'spossible to have the most
vibrant colors.
(02:03):
All you know, from summertimeright through into autumn time
and that's typically it can befrom your perennials, your
annuals and things like bulbs,and that's what we're going to
kind of focus on.
You know, what plants, whatbulbs, what seeds can we be
(02:23):
getting now?
That's going to kind of ensurethis.
I suppose avalanche of ofsummer color as the year goes on
, and you know we speak aboutbulbs quite a lot, particularly
in the autumn time, becausethat's the time of the year, the
.
You know, the autumn plantingseason is kind of a bigger
season in terms of, in terms ofbulbs, you know, you have all
(02:44):
your, your, your ones that areflowering now, basically
everything from snowdrops tocrocuses to daffodils, you know,
and so on and so on, and that'sin terms of availability of, of
of the the range.
There's a lot more sort ofvarieties available at that
stage, but there's still somereally really good ones in the
springs and spring floweringbulbs are.
(03:07):
They give huge impact, albeitthat there's a smaller array of
of variety out there.
So what are we looking at interms of?
We're going to look at bulbsfirst, and then we look at seeds
, maybe, and then we look atother things, bare roots and
plants and so on.
So, initially, what?
What?
The main ones that we'retalking about?
You're looking at dahlias,you're looking at lilies,
(03:31):
gladioli, peonies, crocosmias,noreens, freesias and that sort
of thing, and they're they'reyour bulbs that you can buy at
the moment, and these are goingto be basically, they're a bulb
in a bag for anyone that hasn'tgrown like this before.
They're a bulb in a bag you.
You plant them whentemperatures are warm enough,
(03:53):
which could be in a couple ofweeks time, but in the meantime
you can, if you have agreenhouse, you can get them
potted up there or put them intoan area where they can be
protected.
You're looking for kind ofground temperatures, a little
bit like sowing potatoes.
You're looking for groundtemperatures to be up 10 12
degrees consistently and you'renot looking for too much frost
and then they'll kick into life,essentially, and they'll grow
(04:13):
on and flower this summer.
And they really are.
They really are phenomenal easyway of, you know, having flower
over a long period of time,really, really, really, really
cost-effective way as well offlowering up over a long period.
So to look at these kind ofbulbs, first, dahlias there is
thousands of varieties from whatI believe there's.
(04:36):
You know, approximately 2,000varieties of dahlias have been
named and they're a phenomenalsource of summer color.
Dahlias have been named andthey're a phenomenal source of
summer color and you know, whenyou go to your, your super, your
, your garden centers at themoment or your nurseries at the
moment, you will see dahliabulbs.
Essentially, there's differenttypes of dahlia bulbs as well.
(04:58):
There's seven or eightdifferent types of them and
within that then you'll have akind of a style of flower or a
style of growth.
So there's there's asiaticbulbs, there's dinner plate ones
.
Dinner plates are reallyinteresting so they're
essentially, as the namesuggests, they're, a dinner
plate size head on them.
(05:19):
So really huge flower and somereally nice ones there.
Something like like ThomasEdison is a really nice one.
It's huge, huge flower, so upto sort of nine or 10 inches in
width.
You know, which is what's that?
20, 22 centimeters in width ofa flower head.
So huge flowers and reallyreally nice for, you know, for
(05:42):
for bouquets and so on.
That's so dinner plate is areally really good one.
Then you have obviously pom-pomones.
Don't particularly like them.
I think they're a little bit uh, sort of fussy, looking like
the more natural, like the moreopen ones, the traditional ones,
like bishop's children, uh,bishop of landorff.
I like all of those type oftraditional ones.
(06:04):
I just prefer to flower on them.
But there is some fantasticones and last year at one of the
garden fairs I can't rememberwhich one it was now, but I
bought some bulbs at that, ordahlia tubers, should I say at
that and got the Café Olé and apink version of it.
(06:26):
So they were beautiful, reallygood.
Now, the pink version was aphenomenal flower.
Again, I can't remember exactlythe variety, but it was a pink
version of the cafe au lait.
It was an interesting oneactually in the summertime
because the flower wasphenomenal on it.
It was just so vibrant,flowered for a long period of
(06:48):
time, was really vigorous.
Lots of flower on them wereperfect for taking in and
putting into a vase, so for cutflowers they were brilliant.
But it was an interesting onebecause wasps actually there was
some kind of a sap coming offthe stem of them and the wasps
really went mad for it.
So during the height of thesummer there was you know 20, 30
(07:11):
wasps all around the, the stemof it, sucking on the, on the
sap.
Obviously, uh, I think, and itwas just, it was just phenomenal
to see, but they never, theynever bothered much with
anything else in the area.
But whatever it was was reallyattract.
It was really attracting in thewasps there but they didn't,
didn't cause any issues.
(07:31):
It was around the patio, theydidn't cause any issues there.
They just seemed to be socontent just taking in the,
taking in the sap or whatever itwas they were doing from from
this particular dahlia.
So those dahlia's I.
I left in the ground it wastheir first year being planted I
kind of mulched them heavily.
So fingers crossed, once theweather starts to improve or the
(07:52):
temperatures start to improve,that we'll see them peeping up
again, hoping to get anothergreat display.
And then next autumn I will digthem and sort of try and
multiply the plants a little bit.
But dahl dale is, as I said,over 2000 varieties available.
It's absolutely endless.
And then the various differenttypes.
So, uh, dinner plate as I saythey're, they're typically
(08:16):
really big ones.
And then for me, I like thetraditional, the traditional
ones, and they can be grown forthe likes of, you know, bishops,
children or bishop land, of anyof those.
They can be grown from seed nowquite easily as well.
So once you start getting intolate march, early april still
loads of time to sow them fromseed and you will have flower
(08:37):
this year.
That's, that's the beauty of ofof those at this stage now,
it'll be late summer, intoautumn, when you, when you get
that flower but it will be willbe fantastic.
And then, once you have themproduced, you can, as I say, you
can dig up, up the tubers andyou can multiply, apply your
plants over time.
So, like the the autumnplanting bulbs, you know bulbs
(08:59):
at this stage of the year aregreat investment and give great
I I suppose, return for yourspend.
The other kind of big categoryof bulbs at this stage is lilies
, and again you have seven oreight different types of lilies.
You know there's the trumpetlilies, there's the tree lilies
(09:19):
and all of that, but in generalit's the trumpet ones that are
kind of the traditional type andagain they're the ones that I
particularly like.
There's oriental ones whichhave you know sort of more
pintier flowers, and I don'toverly love those.
But any of the lilies, againthey're going to be hardy, again
they're going to give you aflower over a long period of
(09:41):
time.
They're going to last for yearsand years and years and they
really are again give a greatshow over a period of time and
you will, over time the clump,particularly of the trumpet
lilies, the clumps do get biggerand you'll be able to separate
out some of those as well.
So that's lilies.
Another one is gladioli, andthese are a bit of a funny one
(10:01):
because they're they're seen tobe a little bit old-fashioned,
but they're still actually quitea good they're.
They're seen to be a little bitold-fashioned but they're still
actually quite a good they're.
They're a very good floweractually.
They're very much suited tobeing in a border and to be
peeping up through other plants.
They're not not so good, youknow, standing on their own,
because they're a little bit thethe stems and that the lower
(10:24):
part of the plant is very stockylooking as opposed to.
You know, if it's in the middleof a border it can peep up and
you get this flower above, abovea kind of canopy of growth, and
it's a little bit nicer thatway.
So they're suited to being inthe cottage style, heavier type
planting as opposed to beingsort of standing on their own.
But they're really.
(10:45):
They are old-fashioned, youwould admit that, but they're
definitely, you know, they'redefinitely a really nice flower
and they do last.
And in that setting wherethey're within a bed, within a
border and peeping through, theygive great, great flower and,
again, they will grow absolutelyanywhere.
(11:06):
They're really easy to grow and, yeah, maybe a little bit
old-fashioned, but I still thinkthere's a great place for them
and you won't be disappointed inthat setting where you have
them among other plants,particularly, you know, peeping
through along with roses, alongwith grasses.
You know that kind of cottagestyle planting.
They can look really, reallywell at this time of year.
(11:28):
Then we're looking at peonies.
So peonies are a brilliant oneto get at this time of the year,
so you'll get them.
You'll get them either a kindof as a bare root plant or, and
that it really is a brilliant, abrilliant time to get them,
because peony plants now to geta good-sized peony plant, any of
(11:51):
the nice varieties like CiceraBernat or any of those they're
going to be really nice and agood-sized plant is going to
probably cost you anything from15 to 25 euro, 30 euro, euro
thereabouts, and you'll get.
You get the same sort of uh,bare root plant or or tuber at
(12:13):
this stage of the year and it'llbe maybe anything from four to
seven or eight euro, dependingon the size of it.
But it's a brilliant, brilliantway of getting a really really
nice plant, getting itestablished and getting flower
pretty much straight away withit.
So that's another good one atthis stage of the year.
Again, there's lots ofdifferent varieties, lots of
different types as well, butpeonies is a another good and
(12:37):
easy one to grow at this time ofyear.
Next one is a bit, is a bit likethe gladioli some, some people
love it, some hate it, somepeople call it a weed.
But crocosmia definitely has abig impact, particularly over
time.
It will spread and I think thisis why people kind of call it a
weed.
If it gets, if it getsneglected, it will start to take
(13:00):
over, start to spread.
But if you're able to keepsplitting it, keep taking some
bit away and just keep it incheck, I guess it doesn't
necessarily take over but youcan get some great color from it
.
The likes of the crocosmialucifer, really bright, vibrant,
red, hardy, will grow prettymuch anywhere as well.
Again, more of a border plant.
(13:22):
So the the bottom half of theplant is quite underwhelming, to
be honest.
It's just, you know, green,kind of stocky growth again.
But up top you get these reallynice red, vibrant flowers and
again, if they're, if they'reabove a canopy of of foliage,
they can look really really well.
So they have their place, sortof mid-border, that's kind of
their their place.
And, yeah, krokosmia is.
(13:44):
There's lovely orange ones aswell.
There's um, I can't think ofvariety now, but there's some
beautiful, really deep orangeones that that again will look
well in most borders.
So you get.
You get different colors inthem and they're, they're,
they're a fantastic plant.
Another one which is again wouldbe, would be seen, as you know,
(14:04):
sort of cottage style, olderstyle planting, but again really
really good, solid performer isnoreens slightly underrated, I
think, as a plant, so noreensare really really hardy.
Come back every year, multiplyflower pretty much without fail
and, yeah, they're just, they'rejust a nice, a nice flower, and
(14:24):
again they suit that cottagestyle planting.
So you know, so there's kind offour or five that you'll get at
the moment from kind of bulbsor carms or tubers, whatever you
want to call them.
You have dahlias, you havelilies, you've daddy all I,
you've peonies, you've crocosmiaand noreens.
Don't forget you're from fordahlias, you can grow quite well
from seeds as well at thisstage of the year.
(14:45):
So that's, that's another bigpossibility and the other thing
that you'll see more so with theyou'll see it in in some of the
bigger garden centers andyou'll see it with the online
bulb sellers.
You can get a huge amount ofperennials as sort of bare root
plants at this stage of the yearand I've used this before again
.
You know in terms of, in termsof, you know value for money
(15:09):
they're.
They're superb value for moneyversus going out and buying you
know a, a big plant in a threeliter pot or whatever.
They're superb value andessentially, what what you're
going to get here is is prettymuch any perennial plant that
you can think of, so it'severything from the one.
The last ones that I got werestill bees.
(15:30):
There was a certain varietythat I was looking for, couldn't
find seed, couldn't find plants, but then found them on forget
which.
One of the online bulk peoplehad them as a you know, sort of
bare root plant and they werestarting to starting to sprout.
So it was around this time lastyear or the year before they
were starting to sprout and thenjust, yeah, really, really good
(15:54):
plants from them pretty muchstraight away.
So you get them into the ground, make sure you give them good
watering at the start, a littlebit of seaweed to get them
established, and they'll justreally kick off and give great,
great return in year one andthen, obviously, going forward
year after year.
So still, bees is a great one.
You can also get, um, prettymuch, as I say, pretty much any
(16:16):
of the perennials you can buylike this at this time of the
year.
So agapanthus thing withagapanthus is they can be very
slow, so you'll buy them andthey will just take a little bit
longer than say they still beesor whatever.
Uh, agelias, agastacheas,dahlias we mentioned, you know,
(16:37):
pretty any echinaceas, any ofthe perennials that you would
sow, and again, we would havespoken about sowing seeds in the
autumn time, which is the besttime to sow perennial seeds.
But if you haven't done that,you can get your sort of bare
root plants now and again you'llhave great flower this year.
So that's a huge, hugeadvantage.
You can still sow seeds of anyof these.
(16:59):
You just won't get flower inthis coming year, or at least
it'll be.
You won't get much flower.
It's really going to be nextyear before you see the benefit
of the typical perennial types.
So they're some of the oneslike but perennials from Beirut
plants at this stage of the yearis, yeah, hugely, hugely
(17:22):
beneficial and a great way ofgetting a lot of plants, you
know, for if you're doing a bigbarber or something like that,
it's a great way to get a lot ofplants and watch out as the, as
the end of the berry seasoncomes, a lot of the,
particularly the online people.
They may not have availabilityof everything, but they'll
certainly be doing kind of 50off a lot of the, particularly
the online people.
They may not have availabilityof everything, but they'll
certainly be doing kind of 50%off a lot of the, a lot of the
(17:42):
different ones at that stage.
So, yeah, there's, there'sgreat opportunities, great
opportunities to to get a lot offlower.
Then you can still sow a lot ofthe perennial seeds, as I say,
but you won't get necessarilyany flower this this summer and
autumn of them, but they'restill well worth doing at this
stage.
And, of course, there's theannuals and annuals.
(18:06):
While certain annuals I don'tthink they're, you know, they're
the the right way to be doingit.
So, for example, certainbedding plants.
I don't know that it's a greatway of going out and buying
plants.
You know, when you think of theenergy and the, the, I suppose,
the effort, the amount ofinputs that goes into producing
(18:27):
really small tray of plants thatlast for a very small window of
time, not sure whether thatmakes huge sense, but in terms
of sown seed, you can definitelysow any of those yourself.
All you need is, you know,windowsill greenhouse, if you
have it, and and, yeah, you'llbe able to.
You'll be able to grow nearlyall of those really really
(18:49):
quickly at this stage of theyear, once the temperatures
start to come up.
There's a lot of seeds that youcan direct sow as well, the
likes of cornflowers and thingslike that.
You can.
You can direct sow those intoyour beds.
For me I'll be sown the likes ofcosmos, brilliant variety,
cosmos.
Last year I can't remember thename of it at all, but it was.
It was a fantastic pink andpurple shaded one.
Uh, the way the way it grew,the way it it ended up, it
(19:12):
created kind of a hedge ofcosmos which was really gorgeous
where it was.
Uh, trying to find that samevariety again.
I've looked twice now andhaven't seen it, but, um, I'll
know it when I see it.
I don't remember the name, butI know that the picture when I
see it.
So, trying to get those.
It was a thompson and morganseed, so I'll be keeping my eye
out for those.
(19:33):
They need to get sewn.
Have some sewn already butdefinitely need to get that one
if I can, because it was just,it was just spectacular.
And yes, then pretty much any ofthe, any of the perennials, as
I say can be got from fromBeirut to this stage of the year
.
But do, do, look out, do keepan eye out for the kind of end
of season sales, particularly onthe online people.
(19:55):
You get your, you know youryour 50 off as they try to exit
their stock before the windowcloses.
And it's a great time to gatherup plants and once you're able
to mine them and keep themwatered over the coming months,
they'll be perfect and gettingnear the end as well.
But, like things like bare rootroses for the next few weeks as
well, there's still anopportunity there to do that and
, again, they're going to giveyou flower this year maybe not
(20:17):
full flower, but you'll getdecent flower off those.
And, of course, you know youhave your, your wild flower
meadows that can be sown in thenext couple of weeks as well,
and another, another great wayof of getting getting seed into
your garden.
If it's not a wild flowermeadow you're going for, a
floral meadow is another option.
So floral meadows arecultivated flowers and that's an
(20:37):
option again for sowing overthe coming weeks and it's a
great way of flowering up, Isuppose, a bigger area really,
really quickly and it's, youknow, it's something that will
give you flower definitely overthe next kind of five, six
months.
So loads of opportunities forfor flower at this stage that
you know for later on in thesummer that even if you haven't
(20:58):
for flower at this stage, thatyou know for later on in the
summer, that even if you haven'tanything done at this stage,
you can still do this.
And so that's your summerflowering bulbs, your sowing of
seed of certain ones likedahlias.
Again, you'll have huge successwith them.
Get the dahlias sown nextcouple of weeks, pot them up
into a slightly bigger pot.
So you sew them in a seed tray.
(21:18):
You'll move them to a slightlybigger pot, like a nine
centimeter pot.
You'll prick them out into that.
A couple of weeks later you'llmove them into a slightly bigger
pot again and by the end ofsort of mid-may, end of may,
they'll be fantastic plants,ready to go out into any border
and they will flower very, verywell this year.
So, yeah, great opportunitiesthere.
(21:38):
And then, obviously, your yourbare root plants, your bare root
perennials that are going to beavailable and are still
available in a lot of gardencenters and a lot of the online
bud people.
So great way of of, as I say,flowering up spaces over the
over the coming months.
Next week's episode is anepisode on pruning of fruit
(22:00):
trees, so that'll be a reallyinteresting one.
Looking forward to that.
And, yeah, lots of guestinterviews coming up over the
next few weeks and we'll haveour usual sewing guides.
And open gardens are startingto come back in over the next
couple of weeks.
Try to cover those during thesummertime, you know, when the
gardens themselves are open.
So we'll chat to some of thoseopen garden people in, as I say,
(22:20):
over the next couple of monthsand bring you ones that are
worth catching, worth seeing.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Looking forward to seeing howyou get on with all your summer
flowers.
So get out, get planting, getsowing and, yeah, look forward
to the avalanche of color lateron the year.
That's been this week's episode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
(23:02):
thank you.
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