Spring flowering bulbs are gardening's ultimate return on investment. Planted from September through November, these botanical powerhouses burst forth from winter's grip with waves of colour that evolve from the first snowdrops after Christmas through magnificent tulips and alliums in late May.
What sets bulbs apart from other garden plants is their remarkable ability to naturalize—multiplying year after year with zero additional effort. Plant a single daffodil bulb this autumn, and next spring you'll have your first golden trumpet. By the following year, you might have two or three flowers, and within a few seasons, a magnificent clump that can be divided to spread beauty throughout your garden.
The sheer versatility of spring bulbs makes them indispensable for gardeners of all experience levels. They thrive in sun or shade, containers or borders, under trees or naturalized in lawns. Their only nemesis is waterlogged soil, making proper drainage their sole critical requirement. Planting couldn't be simpler—just dig a hole roughly three times the bulb's depth, place it pointy-side up, and let nature handle the rest.
For container gardeners, "lasagna planting" offers extraordinary value, creating months of continuous blooms from a single pot. By layering different varieties at varying depths—typically with late-flowering alliums or tulips at the bottom, mid-season daffodils in the middle, and early crocuses near the surface—you create a self-sustaining display that evolves from February through May.
From dramatic alliums with their perfect spherical blooms to vibrant tulips, cheerful daffodils, delicate muscari, and unusual fritillaria, the diversity of spring bulbs offers something for every garden aesthetic. Whether you're seeking high-impact displays with colour-coordinated combinations or rare collector varieties with fascinating histories, autumn is the time to plan and plant.
Don't miss this opportunity to create a self-perpetuating display that delivers maximum joy when gardens need it most. The bulbs you plant today truly represent gardening's highest impact for lowest input—they're the gift that keeps on giving for years to come. Ready to transform your spring garden? Start planting now!
Listen back to EP199 with Dave & Jules from Esker Farm Daffodils
https://www.buzzsprout.com/857398/episodes/13849995
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 290 of Master my Gardenpodcast, and this week's episode
is talking about the subject ofspring flowering bulbs.
Now, spring flowering bulbs forany of you new gardeners out,
there are bulbs that are plantedin the autumn time, you know,
basically from now until the endof November, and those bulbs
(00:32):
will flower next spring andthey're the first flowers, the
first kind of things that bringcheer in a new year, and they're
things like snowdrop just afterChristmas, following on into
Crocuses and then into Daffodils, tulips and so on right up
until kind of the end of May.
And you know they're highimpact, beautiful color, last
(00:58):
for years and, as I've said onthe podcast before, in terms of
color and in terms of, you know,value for money over time.
Bulbs it's very hard to beat abulb because the majority of
them naturalize, meaning thatthey will multiply.
So you'll plant one bulb andend up with two the following
year and four the next year andso on.
(01:20):
And because they naturalize,because spread, then you can
move them to other parts of thegarden and so on, and so they're
very, very they're great valuefor the impact that they give
and the flower that they give atcertain time, at that time of
the year is probably the mostwelcome flower that you'll have
(01:40):
in your garden.
You know, it's after typicallyhere in Ireland you're after
your your long, typically darkkind of winter, and then these
first signs of spring come withthe, with the introduction of
the flower from the flower bulb,and the thing about it is it's,
it's, it's just so littleeffort.
(02:01):
You know the, the bulbs are thesimplest thing in the world to
plant.
You basically can't go wrongwith them, they'll.
The only time they will everfail is if they're planted into
waterlogged soil or growingmedia.
You know, if you put them in apot and they, they just get
waterlogged or you don't drillholes in it, but other than that
(02:21):
, they will grow in shade,they'll grow in sun, they'll
grow in dry ground, they'll growin every situation, as I say,
except for waterlogged soil.
And because of that and becauseof the versatility of them,
they're small to plant, they'reeasy to plant or quick to plant,
and they're just so much, somuch of a high impact for low
(02:44):
input in terms of labor.
And so they're just so much, somuch of a high impact for low
input in terms of labor.
So they're really, they'rereally a no brainer for people
who want to get color into thegarden.
And I suppose, like all thingsin gardening, we're kind of
always looking a season or twoahead or planning a season or
two ahead in terms of you knowwhat to be planting, and bulbs
(03:11):
is no different.
So if you're looking ahead tonext spring and saying I'd love
to have a bit of color here or abit of color there, then now is
the time to remedy that reallyreally simply, with flower bulbs
and yeah, they couldn't be moresimpler they're dig a little
hole, typically speaking two tothree times the depth of the
actual bulb itself, and that'skind of a good rule of thumb,
you know.
So for the likes of a daffodil,which would be quite a big bulb
(03:34):
, you go three times the depthof that.
Now they can take a bit more,but generally, as a rule of
thumb for anyone, three timesthe depth of the actual bulb.
So, for example, a crocus is atiny little bulb and three times
the depth that actual bulb.
So, for example, a crocus is atiny little bulb and three times
the depth.
That means you're planting itquite shallow in the ground, and
the same goes for any of thebulbs.
Really You're kind of lookingat three times the depth.
Some of them will take a littlebit more than that, but that's
(03:56):
kind of a good rule of thumb,you know.
If you wanted to kind of put anoverall figure on it, that's
kind of a good, good rule athome.
Um, the versatility of these isis huge.
You know what, what you can dowith them is is massive.
And for any of you that youknow have been visiting your
(04:16):
garden centers, you will havestarted to see.
You know those bulbs coming inand you know the, the array of
colors, the varieties, the newvarieties that kind of come on
stream every year, or somethingdifferent comes on stream every
year Colors, different types,different flowering periods.
You just have so much choice atthis stage of the year and
(04:40):
again they'll give maximumflower from very, very, very low
input.
So that's what you know.
That's why they're they'reloved so much, especially if you
get a kind of a dry you knowdry time through september,
october, november.
Then people really do takeadvantage of that window and and
bulbs do get planted quite alot and, as I, there is a bulb
(05:04):
for kind of every situation,typically mixed through borders,
brilliant in pots, naturalizedin lawns, naturalized under
trees.
And you know, because of thatversatility and because of the
options that you have there's,you know, and pretty much every
year, you could add bulbs toyour garden and still, you know,
(05:24):
and still not.
It's not like anything else.
You can always add and alwaysput in more, always multiply
something that you liked andit'll only bring more and more
joy, you know, next spring.
So any of you that are onsocial media, you'll have been
(05:53):
bombarded with all the plantingof the lasagna planting, I guess
, of bulbs, and it's a, it's agreat way of getting a lot of
flour in a pot to the podcastfor a long time.
I prefer, personally, I preferto keep, you know, single color
or single, single types of bulbsin the same pot.
But if you're going for thelasagna plant and there really
is some good, some good examplesof that and lasagna planting is
(06:16):
, you know, it's taken from thename of the lasagna dish, that,
the italianagna dish that we allenjoy so much, and if you think
of that, it's a layered pastadish.
The planting of the bulbs in alasagna way is the exact same
thing.
It's the planting in layers andthose layers basically mean
(06:38):
that you can plant two or threedifferent types or even up to
four and five different types ofbulb within the same pot.
Two or three different types oreven up to four and five
different types of bulb withinthe same pot, and you will get a
sequence of flowering.
So you'll get an earlyflowering and just as that's
fading right through will comethe next flower and you end up
with flower over a long periodof time from a single pot and
(07:01):
that pot can be, you know,placed anywhere outside, on your
patio, on your decking, at yourfront door and so on.
And it's that.
That's what we're seeing at themoment.
Some good examples of lasagnaplanting.
Essentially, whatever potyou're doing, make sure it's big
enough, and you start off withkind of five centimeters, two
inches, of growing media at thebottom of the pot, ensuring that
(07:24):
you have drainage holes in thebottom of the pot.
Ensuring that you have drainageholes in the bottom of the pot
and that they are free draining.
So if the if it's a really flatpot on the base, you have to
make sure that the moisture isactually able to drain away out
there.
So you might need to get littlelittle pot legs that lift it up
a little bit, because it doesneed to be free draining, as you
met.
As I mentioned at the verystart, the only place bulbs
(07:44):
won't grow is in waterloggedsoil or growing media.
So that's the big thing.
But some good examples of nicelasagna plantings are get your
pot decent size.
You're probably looking at a potwith a diameter, a circular pot
in diameter, of kind of 30centimetres as a minimum, maybe
up from that as well, 30, 35, 40.
(08:04):
They're kind of 30 centimetersas a minimum and maybe up from
that as well 30, 35, 40.
They're kind of the ideal sizes, but 30 centimeters would be a
good one.
You're typically looking for arelatively deep pot.
Again, you'll be looking forsomething maybe 30 centimeters
deep, that kind of depth, andthat's to allow for this
layering that we're talkingabout.
And so, for example, you'llstart off with any of these.
You'll start off with your fivecentimeters or two inches of
(08:26):
growing media at the bottom ofthe pot and then in the first
one, for example, we'll layerallium bulbs down at this level,
and you know alliums arefantastic they're.
There's loads of really goodvarieties, which we'll talk
about in a little while, butbrilliant varieties and
brilliant colors and you can geta mix of colors of of kind of
deep purples and whites, andthey'll be the first flower and
(08:49):
then on top of that we're goingto have our, our sorry, they're
the second flower within thismix.
On top of that, then we'regoing to have our hyacinths, and
hyacinths again.
They're beautiful, beautifulbulbs, again, a nice array of
colours.
There You'll get pinks, you'llget whites, you'll get dark
purples.
There's some beautifulvarieties, and again we'll talk
(09:10):
about maybe one or two of thosein a little while.
So your alliums go at the base.
You cover that with a layer ofcompost, again a couple of
inches of compost.
Then on top of that yourhyacinth bulb goes, and then you
cover those hyacinth bulbsright and you fill right to
within kind of an inch of thepot, of the top of the pot.
Typically at that stage youmight cover it over with a
(09:33):
decorative mesh or a littlehorticultural grit or something
like that.
And then what happens is thehyacinths will pop up, they'll
flower first, as I said, andthen the alliums will come
through later and they'll flower.
You know, kind of april time.
And that's where you're gettingthis continuity, this lasagna
planting.
Another good example of that issame thing same pot, roughly
(09:55):
the same size, 30 centimeters,30 centimeters deep.
Again, you're starting withfive centimeters and five
centimeters or two inches ofgrowing media at the bottom.
Your first layer will be yourtulips cover over to get again a
couple of inches of growingmedia.
Then you're going with yourdaffodils cover that over with a
couple of a couple of inches ofgrowing media and then your
(10:18):
crocuses go on top of that andyou can choose colors that work
together.
You can choose colors that youknow complement each other as
well, or or one that gives youcontinuity.
And in that scenario of thetulips, the daffodils and the
crocus, your crocus, which isthe, the one at the top of the
pot, that's going to flowerfirst.
The daffodil, which is in themiddle, is going to flower
(10:38):
second.
So you're talking about, withthe crocus, you're talking about
sort of february time, thenwith the daffodil you're talking
march into april, depending onthe, on the variety or depending
on whether you've mixed orsingle varieties, and then
you're going to go into thetulips and they're going to
flower last, which is going tobe sort of april and may, and
there, with that, you're gettinggood flower from early February
(11:02):
right through to the end of Mayand you know there are two
examples of lasagnas.
There's other examples whereyou can use up to five varieties
.
You could combine all five thatI mentioned there across the
two pots.
You could combine all of thosein, you know, in one pot if you
wanted to.
And the.
The reason I I won't say Idon't like lasagna planting
(11:27):
because they are, you know, justa great way of of really simply
one planting one, you know, one, one time planting for a lot of
flour, the.
The reason I don't love them isthat if you know, if you can
envisage the, the daffodil, asthat has stopped flowering, you
(11:48):
still have this kind of foliagethere and I think that kind of
gets in the way a little bit andmaybe distracts from the flower
of the tulip that's coming up,for example.
So just with that it can, ifit's.
If you don't get your ratiosbang on, I think you can look a
little bit untidy at times.
So what's?
Another good option is to gettwo nice decorative pots, to get
(12:10):
some basic grow pots that willfit directly into that.
You start off with your pot,your, your grow pot, filled with
crocuses, for example, and whenthey're just about to hit full
bloom, you pop that grow potinto your decorative pot at your
door or whatever, and that willbe gone over, kind of six weeks
later.
(12:30):
At that stage your daffodilswill be in full flower and then
you just pop out your crocuses,pop in your daffodils, that'll
get its period in the sun,that'll get to be the star of
the show for a little while.
Then, as soon as that starts tofade, you take that out and you
pop in your pot again the samesize grow pot with tulips in it,
and all of the time you have afresh and different look with an
(12:54):
individual bulb being the starof the show for that period of
time.
And so it's just a different, adifferent way of doing it.
Lasagna planting is brilliantand suitable, you know, because
you would need a bit of space todo the staging that I'm talking
about.
You'll need somewhere to havethese grow pots.
Sure, if you're in a small towngarden or balcony or so on,
then that may not be feasible.
So there's always a place forall of these.
(13:15):
But, as I say, bulbs, ideal inthe in the ground, ideal in pots
, and just a brilliant,brilliant way of adding colour
to the garden.
Now, what bulbs are we talkingabout at this time of the year,
and you know, any of you thatare on social media are going to
be bombarded at the moment withads for different people
(13:38):
selling bulbs.
You're going to be bombardedwith videos about planting of
bulbs and so on, and really isthe simplest thing in the world
to do and what falls into thiscategory at this time of the
year?
I'll probably miss one or two,but we're looking at things like
daffodils.
We're looking at tulips,alliums, crocuses, snowdrops,
(14:00):
and the caveat with snowdrops is, while almost all the rest of
them you can plant kind of fromnow through to the end of, even
up to the end of November, Iwould be saying with snowdrops
they need to be planted early,very early in this window,
certainly no later than, I think, kind of mid-September or
thereabouts.
After that, the bulbsthemselves are very, very small
(14:24):
and they don't take kindly tobeing sitting around for a long
time.
So if they were left out, say,until October, november, if you
had a little pack of 10snowdrops, the chances of all 10
of them growing will bereducing all the time.
I'm not saying you won't gethave success, but sometimes you
won't and so they're the onethat you want to get done early
(14:45):
in the window, but other thanthat, all the rest of them, kind
of from now through to the endof november.
We're looking at um daffodils.
I mentioned narcissi muscari,which is a brilliant one,
slightly underrated actually,muscari is, yeah, quite
underrated.
Then you're looking at thingslike, you know, camassias,
fritillaria, hyacins, andthere's others that I've missed
(15:08):
as well and the ability to mixand match, the ability to create
different levels of flowering.
You know, your low floweringthings like Crocus and snowdrop,
brittle areas just stayingreally low, and then your taller
things like your daffs andtulips and so on.
(15:31):
Your ability to have differentlevels is brilliant and, as I
say, a splash of color.
Now, a lot of the time they arebetter planted in blocks.
So if you're planted out intothe open the time, they are
better planted in blocks.
So if you're planted out intothe open ground, they're better
planted out into blocks.
So, group planting you know, ifyou plant a single bulb, you're
going to get potentially asingle flower next year and
(15:53):
while they will multiply for thefirst couple years, they're
going to be, you know, a littlebit underwhelming.
So say, for example, if you'replanting in your flower beds,
your tulips and so on.
You're better block planting.
So planting three, four, five,six, that will block together
that you will have that numberof flower heads coming up in
that spot next spring and thatwould be look much more
(16:14):
impressive.
You can get some brilliantcombinations.
You know there's.
Alliums, for example, arereally really they stand out
quite a lot.
And just looking at basicvarieties you'll see like most
shops will stock purplesensation.
That's probably the mostpopular.
(16:35):
Globemaster is another good one, quite a lot bigger.
The flower head is a lot bigger.
Gladiator again is another goodone, quite a lot bigger.
The, the flower head is a lotbigger.
Gladiator again is another one.
But they're all kind of yourbasic purples, that typical
allium style flower.
But a really good way of sortof changing the look of that so
you could group them together inyou know fives or sixes and you
(16:57):
get a high impact from those.
But another good way of doing itis like getting your your tall
one, like, say, giganteum andallium giganteum, and that one
will be, you know, a couple offoot tall.
Then possibly mixing below it,mixing a purple and a white.
So say, for example, you haveyour giganteum which will grow
(17:18):
up to two and a half foot tall,then flowering just below it
with slightly smaller flowerheads, the likes of gladiator,
mixed with a white, so mounteverest or ping pong or some of
those, and what you end up withis you end up with this kind of
a staging where you have a big,tall, big tall, gigantium, huge
(17:40):
ball, huge flower head, and then, sort of stationed underneath
it, you have these smallerglobes, and it's a brilliant,
it's a brilliant combination andprovided that ground doesn't
get waterlogged, then they willcontinue to multiply, they will
continue to thrive and you willhave that flower for a long,
long, long time to come in thatspot.
(18:01):
So nice way of combining them.
And with tulips then as well.
They're huge for high impactand a lot of people, you know,
especially a lot of the opengardens, use huge amounts of
tulips in order to create colorteams that they're working with.
So, you know, every year theythey change this, or edit this,
(18:23):
as some of them call it, andwhat they're looking to do is
have a particular color team oftulips and if you imagine the
tulips, so they're going to becoming at the end of the bulb
season and they're going to bethey're going to be sort of
overlapping with your earlyflowering perennials and you get
these fantastic pictures, youknow, from perennial borders in
(18:48):
kind of April or, sorry, end ofApril, may into June, where you
have the perennials, the earlyseason perennials starting to
flower, the likes of jeans andso on, and then you have your,
your tulips, which are there,mixed through them, and it's
generally that kind of colorcombinations that the likes of
(19:09):
open gardens are looking at, sothey might have a certain color
dream or whatever it is that'sflowering or will be flowering
at that time of the year, andthey get a compatible color to
go along with that within atulip, and you can pretty much
get any colour within a tulip.
So if your colour team is, youknow, tangerine within your
flowers, then you can get acolour that matches in with that
(19:31):
and just plant it en massethrough the border and you get
these really high, vibrantdisplays in end of April, may
and June and again.
But you are planting on massand you will need to plant a lot
of bulbs to get that sort ofimpact.
But another way of doing it isto plant blocks of them through
(19:51):
a border.
So if you have a long borderand you're just looking to add
pops of interest through thatborder along the front.
Maybe you you could plant sortof six to eight tulips in
planting holes every few meters,mix the colors or, if you want
to stick with a singular color,and combine that and multiply
(20:12):
that up along or duplicate thatup along, and it gives you these
blocks of color all in one spot.
Now tulips, they, over the lastgood few years they've become.
They're less vibrant, they'reless vigorous.
The second year a lot of themare dying out with with
(20:33):
different viruses as well.
So you'll get you'll always getone great year out of them and
then potentially the second yearyou might have less bulbs there
, or the flowers themselvesmightn't be as good, or the
plants themselves might be, youknow, sort of a bit warped.
They don't grow as well thesecond year and that is down to
a virus.
But if you're looking to gettulips that will, I suppose,
(20:55):
last and will be there in yourgarden for a long, long time to
come, then you're looking forsomething.
Like you know, the speciestulips or some of the apple
dorms are quite good at comingback, and they're so.
They're going to come back,they're going to naturalize and
again, for any of you newergardeners, naturalize means that
they'll multiply and keepduplicating themselves.
(21:16):
So if you plant two bulbs nextyear, you'll have four, the
following year you'll have eight, and so on, and they'll
continue to increase.
Now you will need to maybesplit out some of those type
bulbs in order to give themspace over time, and that allows
you to move them elsewhere inthe garden.
So if you want tulips for thelong term, then you might have
(21:38):
to go with species ones or thelikes of the older style apple
dorms.
You won't have the colour choicethat you will have in modern
day tulips, but and they're notsometimes the species ones are
quite small, but you will stillget, you know, you will still
get good impact from them andyou'll have the longevity maybe
that you wouldn't have fromstandard tulips.
(21:59):
But in terms of impact, tulipsreally do give a fantastic
impact.
Along with alliums if I had topick one, you know that gives
the most impact when it's donewell.
I don't think anything can beatan allium when it's done well
in terms of to giving that highimpact.
Just because the flower is isquite big, and when you have
(22:21):
that exact same flower all atthe same height, it just it's
high impact and the colors arequite vibrant at that time of
the year and when you're mixingthe purples and the whites
together, it really can catchyour eye.
If you are mixing purple andwhite, you're not going to kind
of do a 50-50 mix.
You won't do, you know, halfwhite and half purple.
But you might do two thirdspurple and one third white and
(22:41):
that's a better combination.
It can better combination.
It can look a little bit,little bit insipid if you have
just half and half, so just alittle bit less of the whites
and other bulbs, then that we'retalking about.
So we're talking about crocuses, so one of the earlier flower
ones through february.
Brilliant for brilliant,brilliant for naturalizing,
(23:03):
brilliant for multiplying.
Uh, superb in lawns tonaturalize areas of lawns.
You know a lot of people willgrow crocus lawns which they
plant a huge amount of crocusesin and then, just for that
period of time, they'll allowthat to dominate the garden and
they can be really high impactand really beautiful.
Snowdrops is the other one Imentioned.
Those.
Get those planted early.
(23:24):
If you're not, you can alsoplant snowdrops in the
springtime and they're plantedin what they call the green.
So basically you buy them in apot and they have all their
green leaves on it and you'repotting them in at that stage
and then, after you pot them in,they'll die back into the
ground and then next yearthey'll come back much stronger
In the green.
For snowdrops is a much betterway of growing them, but the
(23:47):
availability of them is lessthan it would be of autumn bulbs
.
So autumn bulbs are fine, butjust do that early when it comes
to snowdrops.
Daffodils, then I mentioned, youknow.
So you have again so many, somuch choice.
And when we talk about somekind of more special ones and
special sellers of them in aminute, but daffodils, you have
so much choice.
(24:07):
You have again differentheights, different flowering
periods.
You know, we spoke about itbefore you can get daffodils to
flower the earliest daffodilsflowering in December.
So with the correct combinationyou could have daffodils
flowering right through fromDecember, early December, right
through till kind of May time,and that's a phenomenal period
(24:30):
of time.
Now it will.
It will require severaldifferent varieties, but again
you're getting you're gettingsuch a you know, you're getting
such a great length of time outof, out of that type of flower.
So brilliant examples there.
Then you'll have Narcissi,which are basically they look
for all the world like aminiature one.
And there's some phenomenallygood bulbs within that, the
(24:53):
likes of Tetetet.
They're brilliant if you're ona site that's windy.
Superb in pots because they'resmaller.
There's less leaf growth,they're a lot tidier, very, very
resilient.
There's less leaf growth,they're a lot tidier, very, very
resilient and they multiplybrilliantly and naturalize again
.
So narcissi are superb,tetetets, you've rip-framed
(25:15):
winkle, you've minnow, you'vejetfire.
Jetfire is a beautiful one withan orange eye.
So really well, strong plants,rarely any issues with them Will
multiply, as I said, brilliantin pots, brilliant in borders,
brilliant in rockeries or alpinetype plantings.
So you know loads of optionsthere.
(25:37):
Then another one is muscari,definitely one of the most
underrated bulbs, I would say.
It's so hardy, the flower isinteresting.
You know it looks really good.
Resilient, will grow in almostany ground, but overlooked a
little bit.
I think it's probablyovershadowed by some of the rest
(25:59):
of them, but certainly in termsof it gives a lot.
You know it looks really well.
Flowers for a long period oftime, and definitely one that
you shouldn't overlook, shouldalways try and include it.
For me, camassias will be animportant one this year.
I want to get some more kind offlower into the early season
(26:20):
meadow.
So I have loads of crocuses inthere, loads of bluebells in
there.
The bluebells, there'sthousands of them there, but I'm
probably not getting the effectfrom them because at the stage
that they're flowering, the, themeadow itself and the meadow
plants themselves are actuallystarting to kind of come up.
So the, the bluebell flower, isnot standing out as much as as
(26:45):
as I would like or I would wouldhave thought.
Having said, it's a fantasticaddition to meadow from the
point of view of early seasonpollinators.
They love the bluebells at thattime of the year.
And the crocuses that are inthere are a brilliant one.
I forget the name of them now,but it's something mammoth.
It must be yellow mammoth.
I think it's a big.
It's a bigger than kind ofnormal crocus, which is what I
(27:06):
wanted to get above kind of themeadow as it starts to grow, and
but they're quite impactful.
They're there three or fouryears now and they're, you know,
they're multiplying and they dolook quite well, um, in the
meadow.
But camassias will give thatcolor just before the meadow
starts to take off and they'llbe tall, so they'll be able to
kind of be visible within,within the meadow.
(27:26):
So camassias, and they'll betall so they'll be able to kind
of be visible within the meadow.
So Comassias is one that I'llbe adding in, definitely this
autumn.
Another one is Fritillaria,again underrated a little bit,
kind of an unusual flower.
The flower itself kind of goessideways, it always seems to be
looking away from you, if thatmakes sense, um, but it's a
(27:49):
really good.
It's a really good andinteresting little flower, so
one that again probably getsoverlooked a little bit, but
really worthwhile including.
And then hyacinths.
You know, hyacinths are seen, Isuppose, a little bit as you
know they're more moretraditional, maybe a little
old-fashioned in some people'seyes, definitely.
You know, if you remember backyears ago you would always see
(28:10):
them flowering at Christmas time.
They were forced heisens andthey were a lovely flower, that
kind of associated withChristmas time.
But typically they're going tobe flowering in kind of February
time, late January, February,into March.
But they're again an underratedflower and you get such vibrant
colours in them.
(28:31):
The purples, the pinks, whites,and the colours are really,
really vibrant within them.
So really worth including.
And most of these bulbs areavailable in all garden centres.
They're available, as I say.
You'd be bombarded with adsfrom all the online sellers of
them, and all that at the moment, you can also buy.
(28:52):
You know, if you don't want togo too deep into choosing
certain varieties orcombinations or anything, you
can also buy these kind of packswhich are sold as 90 days of
colour or 100 days forpollinators and this kind of
thing and what that is.
They're basically boxes ofpre-mixed bulbs.
(29:13):
They could be crocuses,snowdrops, daffodils, tulips,
muscaries all of those mixedwithin a singular box, and
they're going to give you whatknow what, what it says on the
10 100 days of color or 100 daysof feed for pollinators, or you
know that sort of thing, andthey'll typically be color, uh,
(29:34):
color coordinated.
So you'll get all the kind of ablue purple mix or you might
get a pink white mix, and youknow they're a good way of if
you're not looking tospecifically go out and choose
what you want for for whatposition.
They're a good way of, ifyou're not looking to
specifically go out and choosewhat you want for for what
position.
They're a good way of ofgetting going with bulbs and
they're kind of all your, youknow your kind of standard bulbs
(29:56):
that you'll see in all, in allplaces.
You might remember back anyonethat has been listening to the
podcast from a long time back inepisode 199, which is a good
while ago, over 100 episodes agonow, so nearly two years ago, I
spoke to Dave and Jules fromEscort Farm Daffodils, and
that's a family room business upin Northern Ireland and I
(30:18):
suppose their business isslightly different.
So a lot of their customers aredaffodil collectors.
So I don't know how manydaffodil varieties there are in
the world, but there's a huge,huge amount of them.
Many of themffodil varietiesthere are in the world, but
there's a huge, huge amount ofthem.
Many of them have been bredhere in Ireland and the UK, the
US and there's, you know,collectors of these daffodils
and other special bulbs all overthe world.
(30:39):
There's daffodil societies,there's daffodil competitions,
know, you bring your a stem of asingular flower and you enter
competitions and it's an amazingworld.
It's not not particularly aworld that interests me in a
huge way, um, but it's.
It's amazing what goes on andhow interested and how specific
(31:05):
a lot of these growers are.
But Dave and Jules grow alltheir own bulbs up in Northern
Ireland.
There I think could be counteddown, but they have some
beautiful, beautiful bulbs andthese are special bulbs.
These are not the ones thatyou're going to find
mass-produced.
These are not the ones that areshipped all over the world.
(31:25):
These are special bulbs thatare there's a story behind them,
there's a breeder, you know,there's a gold metal behind it
or there's a division thatthey're in within these
categories and they're really,really special.
And I think for me I wasflicking through, flicking
through their brochure earlieron again and some absolutely
(31:47):
stunning, stunning bulbs in it,a lot of new varieties, ones
that are kind of rare, and theyhave, you know, packs there
where you can start yourcollection.
So if you're interested incollection, in collecting
daffodils and building acollection of daffodils, where
you start with you know eight orten different varieties and
then you multiply and add tothat over time, then that's, you
(32:09):
know, you couldn't get betterthan than escarferam.
But for me I was lookingthrough it and there's some,
there's some really interestingones and a couple of couple of
ones that stood out to me andones I intend to order.
There's one called nanny annand my grandmother was ann, so
to have a daffodil called nannyann would be would be really
(32:30):
interesting for me.
There was another one calledollie's medal my dad is ollie
and so and they were beautifulflowers.
So they're, they're kind ofnice flowers but you have that
way of having a flower thatconnects to your garden.
And you know, we've heard in thepodcast so many times over the
years about flowers fromparents' gardens, from
grandparents' gardens, or plantsthat remind or I suppose people
(32:57):
can relate somebody to, and Ithink that's kind of a nice
thing as well.
When it comes to some of thesespecial bulbs and they are
special when you look at youlook at the at the brochure it's
fantastic.
Looking through the list thenthere's some brilliant names and
beautiful flowering, beautifulflowering daffodils.
A wee cracker was one, Ipresume that's uh, you know,
(33:21):
with the name wee, which is awee cracker is wee is a sort of
term of affection for somethingsmall, and I guess that was
probably bred up in northernireland, possibly scotland.
Then there's another beautifulone, bobby dazzler.
There's one called finn mccool,who's a historical mythological
(33:46):
figure here in Ireland and youknow there's obviously some
connection there to the Giant'sCauseway and so on.
So there's beautiful bulbs allwith stories in them and that's
a different sort of differentmodel.
You know, when people areinterested in collecting a lot
of open gardens now are buildingconnections, collections of
snowdrops, collections ofdaffodils and so on.
(34:08):
And, as I say, you can't go,you couldn't go any further or
any better than escrow farmdaffodils for that.
So, dave and jules and that wason episode 199 I'll actually
put the link to that episode inthe show notes as well, so if
any wanted to go back and listento that, it's a it's a
brilliant episode and it's andit's a different side to spring
(34:29):
bulbs.
It's not, as I said, the massproduced ones that you'll see
everywhere and they all havetheir place.
So just to sort of highlightthat.
But bulbs, I guess they're.
As I said at the start, theseare probably the thing that
gives the most impact for theleast input of effort and for
(34:53):
that reason I think it will getmost gardeners' votes.
It's a huge impact over a longperiod of time, at a time of
year when we all really need abit of cheer and a bit of colour
.
That's what bulbs deliver.
I think that's why they'rethey're so loved.
A lot of the time people forgetabout it.
(35:13):
Until the springtime they go oh, look at that person's tulips
or that person's daffodils,they've such a brilliant color
in their garden.
I must do that.
Well, if you want that, thennow is the time.
As I say, we're always kind ofplanning, working, looking ahead
, a couple of windows, and youknow there's, there's even and
we'll be covering an episode onthis in the coming weeks and
(35:35):
possibly even a grow along inthe coming weeks, where we,
where we look at perennials andwe'll grow perennials from seed
that will basically be sown inthe next kind of month or so and
then next year we'll haveflower from those and they're
going to, you know.
So, again, we're planning inadvance.
Also, looking at things at themoment, you know, looking ahead
(35:56):
to springtime I think we need tocover an episode on this,
really.
But looking ahead, you'relooking at things like hyacinths
for spring color, and now isthe time to be thinking about
all of those, getting them intoposition, getting them into your
gardens.
But again, I think we'll coveranother episode on that to, I
suppose, get people thinking andto get people planning in
advance on that.
(36:16):
But bulbs, it's hard to lookpast them.
They're superb.
As I said a couple of times now.
They're delivering probably themost impact for the least input
of effort, and I think that'ssomething that we'll all agree
is worthwhile and yeah, that'sbeen this week's episode.
(36:37):
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 290 of Master my Gardenpodcast, and this week's episode
is talking about the subject ofspring flowering bulbs.
Now, spring flowering bulbs forany of you new gardeners out,
there are bulbs that are plantedin the autumn time, you know,
basically from now until the endof November, and those bulbs
(00:32):
will flower next spring andthey're the first flowers, the
first kind of things that bringcheer in a new year, and they're
things like snowdrop just afterChristmas, following on into
Crocuses and then into Daffodils, tulips and so on right up
until kind of the end of May.
And you know they're highimpact, beautiful color, last
(00:58):
for years and, as I've said onthe podcast before, in terms of
color and in terms of, you know,value for money over time.
Bulbs it's very hard to beat abulb because the majority of
them naturalize, meaning thatthey will multiply.
So you'll plant one bulb andend up with two the following
year and four the next year andso on.
(01:20):
And because they naturalize,because spread, then you can
move them to other parts of thegarden and so on, and so they're
very, very they're great valuefor the impact that they give
and the flower that they give atcertain time, at that time of
the year is probably the mostwelcome flower that you'll have
(01:40):
in your garden.
You know, it's after typicallyhere in Ireland you're after
your your long, typically darkkind of winter, and then these
first signs of spring come withthe, with the introduction of
the flower from the flower bulb,and the thing about it is it's,
it's, it's just so littleeffort.
(02:01):
You know the, the bulbs are thesimplest thing in the world to
plant.
You basically can't go wrongwith them, they'll.
The only time they will everfail is if they're planted into
waterlogged soil or growingmedia.
You know, if you put them in apot and they, they just get
waterlogged or you don't drillholes in it, but other than that
(02:21):
, they will grow in shade,they'll grow in sun, they'll
grow in dry ground, they'll growin every situation, as I say,
except for waterlogged soil.
And because of that and becauseof the versatility of them,
they're small to plant, they'reeasy to plant or quick to plant,
and they're just so much, somuch of a high impact for low
(02:44):
input in terms of labor.
And so they're just so much, somuch of a high impact for low
input in terms of labor.
So they're really, they'rereally a no brainer for people
who want to get color into thegarden.
And I suppose, like all thingsin gardening, we're kind of
always looking a season or twoahead or planning a season or
two ahead in terms of you knowwhat to be planting, and bulbs
(03:11):
is no different.
So if you're looking ahead tonext spring and saying I'd love
to have a bit of color here or abit of color there, then now is
the time to remedy that reallyreally simply, with flower bulbs
and yeah, they couldn't be moresimpler they're dig a little
hole, typically speaking two tothree times the depth of the
actual bulb itself, and that'skind of a good rule of thumb,
you know.
So for the likes of a daffodil,which would be quite a big bulb
(03:34):
, you go three times the depthof that.
Now they can take a bit more,but generally, as a rule of
thumb for anyone, three timesthe depth of the actual bulb.
So, for example, a crocus is atiny little bulb and three times
the depth that actual bulb.
So, for example, a crocus is atiny little bulb and three times
the depth.
That means you're planting itquite shallow in the ground, and
the same goes for any of thebulbs.
Really You're kind of lookingat three times the depth.
Some of them will take a littlebit more than that, but that's
(03:56):
kind of a good rule of thumb,you know.
If you wanted to kind of put anoverall figure on it, that's
kind of a good, good rule athome.
Um, the versatility of these isis huge.
You know what, what you can dowith them is is massive.
And for any of you that youknow have been visiting your
(04:16):
garden centers, you will havestarted to see.
You know those bulbs coming inand you know the, the array of
colors, the varieties, the newvarieties that kind of come on
stream every year, or somethingdifferent comes on stream every
year Colors, different types,different flowering periods.
You just have so much choice atthis stage of the year and
(04:40):
again they'll give maximumflower from very, very, very low
input.
So that's what you know.
That's why they're they'reloved so much, especially if you
get a kind of a dry you knowdry time through september,
october, november.
Then people really do takeadvantage of that window and and
bulbs do get planted quite alot and, as I, there is a bulb
(05:04):
for kind of every situation,typically mixed through borders,
brilliant in pots, naturalizedin lawns, naturalized under
trees.
And you know, because of thatversatility and because of the
options that you have there's,you know, and pretty much every
year, you could add bulbs toyour garden and still, you know,
(05:24):
and still not.
It's not like anything else.
You can always add and alwaysput in more, always multiply
something that you liked andit'll only bring more and more
joy, you know, next spring.
So any of you that are onsocial media, you'll have been
(05:53):
bombarded with all the plantingof the lasagna planting, I guess
, of bulbs, and it's a, it's agreat way of getting a lot of
flour in a pot to the podcastfor a long time.
I prefer, personally, I preferto keep, you know, single color
or single, single types of bulbsin the same pot.
But if you're going for thelasagna plant and there really
is some good, some good examplesof that and lasagna planting is
(06:16):
, you know, it's taken from thename of the lasagna dish, that,
the italianagna dish that we allenjoy so much, and if you think
of that, it's a layered pastadish.
The planting of the bulbs in alasagna way is the exact same
thing.
It's the planting in layers andthose layers basically mean
(06:38):
that you can plant two or threedifferent types or even up to
four and five different types ofbulb within the same pot.
Two or three different types oreven up to four and five
different types of bulb withinthe same pot, and you will get a
sequence of flowering.
So you'll get an earlyflowering and just as that's
fading right through will comethe next flower and you end up
with flower over a long periodof time from a single pot and
(07:01):
that pot can be, you know,placed anywhere outside, on your
patio, on your decking, at yourfront door and so on.
And it's that.
That's what we're seeing at themoment.
Some good examples of lasagnaplanting.
Essentially, whatever potyou're doing, make sure it's big
enough, and you start off withkind of five centimeters, two
inches, of growing media at thebottom of the pot, ensuring that
(07:24):
you have drainage holes in thebottom of the pot.
Ensuring that you have drainageholes in the bottom of the pot
and that they are free draining.
So if the if it's a really flatpot on the base, you have to
make sure that the moisture isactually able to drain away out
there.
So you might need to get littlelittle pot legs that lift it up
a little bit, because it doesneed to be free draining, as you
met.
As I mentioned at the verystart, the only place bulbs
(07:44):
won't grow is in waterloggedsoil or growing media.
So that's the big thing.
But some good examples of nicelasagna plantings are get your
pot decent size.
You're probably looking at a potwith a diameter, a circular pot
in diameter, of kind of 30centimetres as a minimum, maybe
up from that as well, 30, 35, 40.
(08:04):
They're kind of 30 centimetersas a minimum and maybe up from
that as well 30, 35, 40.
They're kind of the ideal sizes, but 30 centimeters would be a
good one.
You're typically looking for arelatively deep pot.
Again, you'll be looking forsomething maybe 30 centimeters
deep, that kind of depth, andthat's to allow for this
layering that we're talkingabout.
And so, for example, you'llstart off with any of these.
You'll start off with your fivecentimeters or two inches of
(08:26):
growing media at the bottom ofthe pot and then in the first
one, for example, we'll layerallium bulbs down at this level,
and you know alliums arefantastic they're.
There's loads of really goodvarieties, which we'll talk
about in a little while, butbrilliant varieties and
brilliant colors and you can geta mix of colors of of kind of
deep purples and whites, andthey'll be the first flower and
(08:49):
then on top of that we're goingto have our, our sorry, they're
the second flower within thismix.
On top of that, then we'regoing to have our hyacinths, and
hyacinths again.
They're beautiful, beautifulbulbs, again, a nice array of
colours.
There You'll get pinks, you'llget whites, you'll get dark
purples.
There's some beautifulvarieties, and again we'll talk
(09:10):
about maybe one or two of thosein a little while.
So your alliums go at the base.
You cover that with a layer ofcompost, again a couple of
inches of compost.
Then on top of that yourhyacinth bulb goes, and then you
cover those hyacinth bulbsright and you fill right to
within kind of an inch of thepot, of the top of the pot.
Typically at that stage youmight cover it over with a
(09:33):
decorative mesh or a littlehorticultural grit or something
like that.
And then what happens is thehyacinths will pop up, they'll
flower first, as I said, andthen the alliums will come
through later and they'll flower.
You know, kind of april time.
And that's where you're gettingthis continuity, this lasagna
planting.
Another good example of that issame thing same pot, roughly
(09:55):
the same size, 30 centimeters,30 centimeters deep.
Again, you're starting withfive centimeters and five
centimeters or two inches ofgrowing media at the bottom.
Your first layer will be yourtulips cover over to get again a
couple of inches of growingmedia.
Then you're going with yourdaffodils cover that over with a
couple of a couple of inches ofgrowing media and then your
(10:18):
crocuses go on top of that andyou can choose colors that work
together.
You can choose colors that youknow complement each other as
well, or or one that gives youcontinuity.
And in that scenario of thetulips, the daffodils and the
crocus, your crocus, which isthe, the one at the top of the
pot, that's going to flowerfirst.
The daffodil, which is in themiddle, is going to flower
(10:38):
second.
So you're talking about, withthe crocus, you're talking about
sort of february time, thenwith the daffodil you're talking
march into april, depending onthe, on the variety or depending
on whether you've mixed orsingle varieties, and then
you're going to go into thetulips and they're going to
flower last, which is going tobe sort of april and may, and
there, with that, you're gettinggood flower from early February
(11:02):
right through to the end of Mayand you know there are two
examples of lasagnas.
There's other examples whereyou can use up to five varieties
.
You could combine all five thatI mentioned there across the
two pots.
You could combine all of thosein, you know, in one pot if you
wanted to.
And the.
The reason I I won't say Idon't like lasagna planting
(11:27):
because they are, you know, justa great way of of really simply
one planting one, you know, one, one time planting for a lot of
flour, the.
The reason I don't love them isthat if you know, if you can
envisage the, the daffodil, asthat has stopped flowering, you
(11:48):
still have this kind of foliagethere and I think that kind of
gets in the way a little bit andmaybe distracts from the flower
of the tulip that's coming up,for example.
So just with that it can, ifit's.
If you don't get your ratiosbang on, I think you can look a
little bit untidy at times.
So what's?
Another good option is to gettwo nice decorative pots, to get
(12:10):
some basic grow pots that willfit directly into that.
You start off with your pot,your, your grow pot, filled with
crocuses, for example, and whenthey're just about to hit full
bloom, you pop that grow potinto your decorative pot at your
door or whatever, and that willbe gone over, kind of six weeks
later.
(12:30):
At that stage your daffodilswill be in full flower and then
you just pop out your crocuses,pop in your daffodils, that'll
get its period in the sun,that'll get to be the star of
the show for a little while.
Then, as soon as that starts tofade, you take that out and you
pop in your pot again the samesize grow pot with tulips in it,
and all of the time you have afresh and different look with an
(12:54):
individual bulb being the starof the show for that period of
time.
And so it's just a different, adifferent way of doing it.
Lasagna planting is brilliantand suitable, you know, because
you would need a bit of space todo the staging that I'm talking
about.
You'll need somewhere to havethese grow pots.
Sure, if you're in a small towngarden or balcony or so on,
then that may not be feasible.
So there's always a place forall of these.
(13:15):
But, as I say, bulbs, ideal inthe in the ground, ideal in pots
, and just a brilliant,brilliant way of adding colour
to the garden.
Now, what bulbs are we talkingabout at this time of the year,
and you know, any of you thatare on social media are going to
be bombarded at the moment withads for different people
(13:38):
selling bulbs.
You're going to be bombardedwith videos about planting of
bulbs and so on, and really isthe simplest thing in the world
to do and what falls into thiscategory at this time of the
year?
I'll probably miss one or two,but we're looking at things like
daffodils.
We're looking at tulips,alliums, crocuses, snowdrops,
(14:00):
and the caveat with snowdrops is, while almost all the rest of
them you can plant kind of fromnow through to the end of, even
up to the end of November, Iwould be saying with snowdrops
they need to be planted early,very early in this window,
certainly no later than, I think, kind of mid-September or
thereabouts.
After that, the bulbsthemselves are very, very small
(14:24):
and they don't take kindly tobeing sitting around for a long
time.
So if they were left out, say,until October, november, if you
had a little pack of 10snowdrops, the chances of all 10
of them growing will bereducing all the time.
I'm not saying you won't gethave success, but sometimes you
won't and so they're the onethat you want to get done early
(14:45):
in the window, but other thanthat, all the rest of them, kind
of from now through to the endof november.
We're looking at um daffodils.
I mentioned narcissi muscari,which is a brilliant one,
slightly underrated actually,muscari is, yeah, quite
underrated.
Then you're looking at thingslike, you know, camassias,
fritillaria, hyacins, andthere's others that I've missed
(15:08):
as well and the ability to mixand match, the ability to create
different levels of flowering.
You know, your low floweringthings like Crocus and snowdrop,
brittle areas just stayingreally low, and then your taller
things like your daffs andtulips and so on.
(15:31):
Your ability to have differentlevels is brilliant and, as I
say, a splash of color.
Now, a lot of the time they arebetter planted in blocks.
So if you're planted out intothe open the time, they are
better planted in blocks.
So if you're planted out intothe open ground, they're better
planted out into blocks.
So, group planting you know, ifyou plant a single bulb, you're
going to get potentially asingle flower next year and
(15:53):
while they will multiply for thefirst couple years, they're
going to be, you know, a littlebit underwhelming.
So say, for example, if you'replanting in your flower beds,
your tulips and so on.
You're better block planting.
So planting three, four, five,six, that will block together
that you will have that numberof flower heads coming up in
that spot next spring and thatwould be look much more
(16:14):
impressive.
You can get some brilliantcombinations.
You know there's.
Alliums, for example, arereally really they stand out
quite a lot.
And just looking at basicvarieties you'll see like most
shops will stock purplesensation.
That's probably the mostpopular.
(16:35):
Globemaster is another good one, quite a lot bigger.
The flower head is a lot bigger.
Gladiator again is another goodone, quite a lot bigger.
The, the flower head is a lotbigger.
Gladiator again is another one.
But they're all kind of yourbasic purples, that typical
allium style flower.
But a really good way of sortof changing the look of that so
you could group them together inyou know fives or sixes and you
(16:57):
get a high impact from those.
But another good way of doing itis like getting your your tall
one, like, say, giganteum andallium giganteum, and that one
will be, you know, a couple offoot tall.
Then possibly mixing below it,mixing a purple and a white.
So say, for example, you haveyour giganteum which will grow
(17:18):
up to two and a half foot tall,then flowering just below it
with slightly smaller flowerheads, the likes of gladiator,
mixed with a white, so mounteverest or ping pong or some of
those, and what you end up withis you end up with this kind of
a staging where you have a big,tall, big tall, gigantium, huge
(17:40):
ball, huge flower head, and then, sort of stationed underneath
it, you have these smallerglobes, and it's a brilliant,
it's a brilliant combination andprovided that ground doesn't
get waterlogged, then they willcontinue to multiply, they will
continue to thrive and you willhave that flower for a long,
long, long time to come in thatspot.
(18:01):
So nice way of combining them.
And with tulips then as well.
They're huge for high impactand a lot of people, you know,
especially a lot of the opengardens, use huge amounts of
tulips in order to create colorteams that they're working with.
So, you know, every year theythey change this, or edit this,
(18:23):
as some of them call it, andwhat they're looking to do is
have a particular color team oftulips and if you imagine the
tulips, so they're going to becoming at the end of the bulb
season and they're going to bethey're going to be sort of
overlapping with your earlyflowering perennials and you get
these fantastic pictures, youknow, from perennial borders in
(18:48):
kind of April or, sorry, end ofApril, may into June, where you
have the perennials, the earlyseason perennials starting to
flower, the likes of jeans andso on, and then you have your,
your tulips, which are there,mixed through them, and it's
generally that kind of colorcombinations that the likes of
(19:09):
open gardens are looking at, sothey might have a certain color
dream or whatever it is that'sflowering or will be flowering
at that time of the year, andthey get a compatible color to
go along with that within atulip, and you can pretty much
get any colour within a tulip.
So if your colour team is, youknow, tangerine within your
flowers, then you can get acolour that matches in with that
(19:31):
and just plant it en massethrough the border and you get
these really high, vibrantdisplays in end of April, may
and June and again.
But you are planting on massand you will need to plant a lot
of bulbs to get that sort ofimpact.
But another way of doing it isto plant blocks of them through
(19:51):
a border.
So if you have a long borderand you're just looking to add
pops of interest through thatborder along the front.
Maybe you you could plant sortof six to eight tulips in
planting holes every few meters,mix the colors or, if you want
to stick with a singular color,and combine that and multiply
(20:12):
that up along or duplicate thatup along, and it gives you these
blocks of color all in one spot.
Now tulips, they, over the lastgood few years they've become.
They're less vibrant, they'reless vigorous.
The second year a lot of themare dying out with with
(20:33):
different viruses as well.
So you'll get you'll always getone great year out of them and
then potentially the second yearyou might have less bulbs there
, or the flowers themselvesmightn't be as good, or the
plants themselves might be, youknow, sort of a bit warped.
They don't grow as well thesecond year and that is down to
a virus.
But if you're looking to gettulips that will, I suppose,
(20:55):
last and will be there in yourgarden for a long, long time to
come, then you're looking forsomething.
Like you know, the speciestulips or some of the apple
dorms are quite good at comingback, and they're so.
They're going to come back,they're going to naturalize and
again, for any of you newergardeners, naturalize means that
they'll multiply and keepduplicating themselves.
(21:16):
So if you plant two bulbs nextyear, you'll have four, the
following year you'll have eight, and so on, and they'll
continue to increase.
Now you will need to maybesplit out some of those type
bulbs in order to give themspace over time, and that allows
you to move them elsewhere inthe garden.
So if you want tulips for thelong term, then you might have
(21:38):
to go with species ones or thelikes of the older style apple
dorms.
You won't have the colour choicethat you will have in modern
day tulips, but and they're notsometimes the species ones are
quite small, but you will stillget, you know, you will still
get good impact from them andyou'll have the longevity maybe
that you wouldn't have fromstandard tulips.
(21:59):
But in terms of impact, tulipsreally do give a fantastic
impact.
Along with alliums if I had topick one, you know that gives
the most impact when it's donewell.
I don't think anything can beatan allium when it's done well
in terms of to giving that highimpact.
Just because the flower is isquite big, and when you have
(22:21):
that exact same flower all atthe same height, it just it's
high impact and the colors arequite vibrant at that time of
the year and when you're mixingthe purples and the whites
together, it really can catchyour eye.
If you are mixing purple andwhite, you're not going to kind
of do a 50-50 mix.
You won't do, you know, halfwhite and half purple.
But you might do two thirdspurple and one third white and
(22:41):
that's a better combination.
It can better combination.
It can look a little bit,little bit insipid if you have
just half and half, so just alittle bit less of the whites
and other bulbs, then that we'retalking about.
So we're talking about crocuses, so one of the earlier flower
ones through february.
Brilliant for brilliant,brilliant for naturalizing,
(23:03):
brilliant for multiplying.
Uh, superb in lawns tonaturalize areas of lawns.
You know a lot of people willgrow crocus lawns which they
plant a huge amount of crocusesin and then, just for that
period of time, they'll allowthat to dominate the garden and
they can be really high impactand really beautiful.
Snowdrops is the other one Imentioned.
Those.
Get those planted early.
(23:24):
If you're not, you can alsoplant snowdrops in the
springtime and they're plantedin what they call the green.
So basically you buy them in apot and they have all their
green leaves on it and you'repotting them in at that stage
and then, after you pot them in,they'll die back into the
ground and then next yearthey'll come back much stronger
In the green.
For snowdrops is a much betterway of growing them, but the
(23:47):
availability of them is lessthan it would be of autumn bulbs
.
So autumn bulbs are fine, butjust do that early when it comes
to snowdrops.
Daffodils, then I mentioned, youknow.
So you have again so many, somuch choice.
And when we talk about somekind of more special ones and
special sellers of them in aminute, but daffodils, you have
so much choice.
(24:07):
You have again differentheights, different flowering
periods.
You know, we spoke about itbefore you can get daffodils to
flower the earliest daffodilsflowering in December.
So with the correct combinationyou could have daffodils
flowering right through fromDecember, early December, right
through till kind of May time,and that's a phenomenal period
(24:30):
of time.
Now it will.
It will require severaldifferent varieties, but again
you're getting you're gettingsuch a you know, you're getting
such a great length of time outof, out of that type of flower.
So brilliant examples there.
Then you'll have Narcissi,which are basically they look
for all the world like aminiature one.
And there's some phenomenallygood bulbs within that, the
(24:53):
likes of Tetetet.
They're brilliant if you're ona site that's windy.
Superb in pots because they'resmaller.
There's less leaf growth,they're a lot tidier, very, very
resilient.
There's less leaf growth,they're a lot tidier, very, very
resilient and they multiplybrilliantly and naturalize again
.
So narcissi are superb,tetetets, you've rip-framed
(25:15):
winkle, you've minnow, you'vejetfire.
Jetfire is a beautiful one withan orange eye.
So really well, strong plants,rarely any issues with them Will
multiply, as I said, brilliantin pots, brilliant in borders,
brilliant in rockeries or alpinetype plantings.
So you know loads of optionsthere.
(25:37):
Then another one is muscari,definitely one of the most
underrated bulbs, I would say.
It's so hardy, the flower isinteresting.
You know it looks really good.
Resilient, will grow in almostany ground, but overlooked a
little bit.
I think it's probablyovershadowed by some of the rest
(25:59):
of them, but certainly in termsof it gives a lot.
You know it looks really well.
Flowers for a long period oftime, and definitely one that
you shouldn't overlook, shouldalways try and include it.
For me, camassias will be animportant one this year.
I want to get some more kind offlower into the early season
(26:20):
meadow.
So I have loads of crocuses inthere, loads of bluebells in
there.
The bluebells, there'sthousands of them there, but I'm
probably not getting the effectfrom them because at the stage
that they're flowering, the, themeadow itself and the meadow
plants themselves are actuallystarting to kind of come up.
So the, the bluebell flower, isnot standing out as much as as
(26:45):
as I would like or I would wouldhave thought.
Having said, it's a fantasticaddition to meadow from the
point of view of early seasonpollinators.
They love the bluebells at thattime of the year.
And the crocuses that are inthere are a brilliant one.
I forget the name of them now,but it's something mammoth.
It must be yellow mammoth.
I think it's a big.
It's a bigger than kind ofnormal crocus, which is what I
(27:06):
wanted to get above kind of themeadow as it starts to grow, and
but they're quite impactful.
They're there three or fouryears now and they're, you know,
they're multiplying and they dolook quite well, um, in the
meadow.
But camassias will give thatcolor just before the meadow
starts to take off and they'llbe tall, so they'll be able to
kind of be visible within,within the meadow.
(27:26):
So camassias, and they'll betall so they'll be able to kind
of be visible within the meadow.
So Comassias is one that I'llbe adding in, definitely this
autumn.
Another one is Fritillaria,again underrated a little bit,
kind of an unusual flower.
The flower itself kind of goessideways, it always seems to be
looking away from you, if thatmakes sense, um, but it's a
(27:49):
really good.
It's a really good andinteresting little flower, so
one that again probably getsoverlooked a little bit, but
really worthwhile including.
And then hyacinths.
You know, hyacinths are seen, Isuppose, a little bit as you
know they're more moretraditional, maybe a little
old-fashioned in some people'seyes, definitely.
You know, if you remember backyears ago you would always see
(28:10):
them flowering at Christmas time.
They were forced heisens andthey were a lovely flower, that
kind of associated withChristmas time.
But typically they're going tobe flowering in kind of February
time, late January, February,into March.
But they're again an underratedflower and you get such vibrant
colours in them.
(28:31):
The purples, the pinks, whites,and the colours are really,
really vibrant within them.
So really worth including.
And most of these bulbs areavailable in all garden centres.
They're available, as I say.
You'd be bombarded with adsfrom all the online sellers of
them, and all that at the moment, you can also buy.
(28:52):
You know, if you don't want togo too deep into choosing
certain varieties orcombinations or anything, you
can also buy these kind of packswhich are sold as 90 days of
colour or 100 days forpollinators and this kind of
thing and what that is.
They're basically boxes ofpre-mixed bulbs.
(29:13):
They could be crocuses,snowdrops, daffodils, tulips,
muscaries all of those mixedwithin a singular box, and
they're going to give you whatknow what, what it says on the
10 100 days of color or 100 daysof feed for pollinators, or you
know that sort of thing, andthey'll typically be color, uh,
(29:34):
color coordinated.
So you'll get all the kind of ablue purple mix or you might
get a pink white mix, and youknow they're a good way of if
you're not looking tospecifically go out and choose
what you want for for whatposition.
They're a good way of, ifyou're not looking to
specifically go out and choosewhat you want for for what
position.
They're a good way of ofgetting going with bulbs and
they're kind of all your, youknow your kind of standard bulbs
(29:56):
that you'll see in all, in allplaces.
You might remember back anyonethat has been listening to the
podcast from a long time back inepisode 199, which is a good
while ago, over 100 episodes agonow, so nearly two years ago, I
spoke to Dave and Jules fromEscort Farm Daffodils, and
that's a family room business upin Northern Ireland and I
(30:18):
suppose their business isslightly different.
So a lot of their customers aredaffodil collectors.
So I don't know how manydaffodil varieties there are in
the world, but there's a huge,huge amount of them.
Many of themffodil varietiesthere are in the world, but
there's a huge, huge amount ofthem.
Many of them have been bredhere in Ireland and the UK, the
US and there's, you know,collectors of these daffodils
and other special bulbs all overthe world.
(30:39):
There's daffodil societies,there's daffodil competitions,
know, you bring your a stem of asingular flower and you enter
competitions and it's an amazingworld.
It's not not particularly aworld that interests me in a
huge way, um, but it's.
It's amazing what goes on andhow interested and how specific
(31:05):
a lot of these growers are.
But Dave and Jules grow alltheir own bulbs up in Northern
Ireland.
There I think could be counteddown, but they have some
beautiful, beautiful bulbs andthese are special bulbs.
These are not the ones thatyou're going to find
mass-produced.
These are not the ones that areshipped all over the world.
(31:25):
These are special bulbs thatare there's a story behind them,
there's a breeder, you know,there's a gold metal behind it
or there's a division thatthey're in within these
categories and they're really,really special.
And I think for me I wasflicking through, flicking
through their brochure earlieron again and some absolutely
(31:47):
stunning, stunning bulbs in it,a lot of new varieties, ones
that are kind of rare, and theyhave, you know, packs there
where you can start yourcollection.
So if you're interested incollection, in collecting
daffodils and building acollection of daffodils, where
you start with you know eight orten different varieties and
then you multiply and add tothat over time, then that's, you
(32:09):
know, you couldn't get betterthan than escarferam.
But for me I was lookingthrough it and there's some,
there's some really interestingones and a couple of couple of
ones that stood out to me andones I intend to order.
There's one called nanny annand my grandmother was ann, so
to have a daffodil called nannyann would be would be really
(32:30):
interesting for me.
There was another one calledollie's medal my dad is ollie
and so and they were beautifulflowers.
So they're, they're kind ofnice flowers but you have that
way of having a flower thatconnects to your garden.
And you know, we've heard in thepodcast so many times over the
years about flowers fromparents' gardens, from
grandparents' gardens, or plantsthat remind or I suppose people
(32:57):
can relate somebody to, and Ithink that's kind of a nice
thing as well.
When it comes to some of thesespecial bulbs and they are
special when you look at youlook at the at the brochure it's
fantastic.
Looking through the list thenthere's some brilliant names and
beautiful flowering, beautifulflowering daffodils.
A wee cracker was one, Ipresume that's uh, you know,
(33:21):
with the name wee, which is awee cracker is wee is a sort of
term of affection for somethingsmall, and I guess that was
probably bred up in northernireland, possibly scotland.
Then there's another beautifulone, bobby dazzler.
There's one called finn mccool,who's a historical mythological
(33:46):
figure here in Ireland and youknow there's obviously some
connection there to the Giant'sCauseway and so on.
So there's beautiful bulbs allwith stories in them and that's
a different sort of differentmodel.
You know, when people areinterested in collecting a lot
of open gardens now are buildingconnections, collections of
snowdrops, collections ofdaffodils and so on.
(34:08):
And, as I say, you can't go,you couldn't go any further or
any better than escrow farmdaffodils for that.
So, dave and jules and that wason episode 199 I'll actually
put the link to that episode inthe show notes as well, so if
any wanted to go back and listento that, it's a it's a
brilliant episode and it's andit's a different side to spring
(34:29):
bulbs.
It's not, as I said, the massproduced ones that you'll see
everywhere and they all havetheir place.
So just to sort of highlightthat.
But bulbs, I guess they're.
As I said at the start, theseare probably the thing that
gives the most impact for theleast input of effort and for
(34:53):
that reason I think it will getmost gardeners' votes.
It's a huge impact over a longperiod of time, at a time of
year when we all really need abit of cheer and a bit of colour
.
That's what bulbs deliver.
I think that's why they'rethey're so loved.
A lot of the time people forgetabout it.
(35:13):
Until the springtime they go oh, look at that person's tulips
or that person's daffodils,they've such a brilliant color
in their garden.
I must do that.
Well, if you want that, thennow is the time.
As I say, we're always kind ofplanning, working, looking ahead
, a couple of windows, and youknow there's, there's even and
we'll be covering an episode onthis in the coming weeks and
(35:35):
possibly even a grow along inthe coming weeks, where we,
where we look at perennials andwe'll grow perennials from seed
that will basically be sown inthe next kind of month or so and
then next year we'll haveflower from those and they're
going to, you know.
So, again, we're planning inadvance.
Also, looking at things at themoment, you know, looking ahead
(35:56):
to springtime I think we need tocover an episode on this,
really.
But looking ahead, you'relooking at things like hyacinths
for spring color, and now isthe time to be thinking about
all of those, getting them intoposition, getting them into your
gardens.
But again, I think we'll coveranother episode on that to, I
suppose, get people thinking andto get people planning in
advance on that.
(36:16):
But bulbs, it's hard to lookpast them.
They're superb.
As I said a couple of times now.
They're delivering probably themost impact for the least input
of effort, and I think that'ssomething that we'll all agree
is worthwhile and yeah, that'sbeen this week's episode.
(36:37):
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
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