Bulbs

I dont know how many bulbs I’ve planted this week, probably thousands, there are so many to choose from now and they are all lovely.

I get asked lots of questions about bulbs that never cease to amaze me and I realised that I needed to clear up some misinformation.

Bulbs are dead simple to plant and care for, the packet will tell you the plant spacing and depth, I do recommend that you plant them deep enough as they can get ‘fried’ in the Australian summer sun if they are too shallow. I have this great machine that looks like a big hand drill, that I use to drill holes to any depth, its not great in gardens that are rocky but neither is a shovel, so generally it makes the job a lot easier. Bulbs are very adaptable to all soil types but most prefer a lot of sun, although not all.

Bulbs are not nutritionally particularly hungry but I always plant them with manure (I plant everything with manure), a wonderfully natural fertiliser and provides some organic matter to the soil and encourages the worms. For the bigger bulbs such as daffodils and naked ladies I do like to add a few water crystals as well, just to give them that extra helping hand.

Bulbs are also brilliant in pots, if you have spare pots, fill them with your favourite bulbs, they will be stunning around your front door in the spring, then move the pot to a cooler spot out of the way and out of the hot sun during the bulbs dormancy (summer). Every year you can place them in different spots around the garden for years of flowering joy.

Someone asked me the other day if bulbs needed to be lifted every year, the answer is a unresounding no. The only bulb that performs better for lifting is the tulip, they do not like to be watered while dormant (in the summer) and tend to rot. I treat tulips like annuals, I simply do not have time to keep exact track of where I planted them, or to dig them up each year. But they are so pretty that its lovely to have a few in the garden every year.

Mass plant your bulbs in similar varieties, the impact is much better than a bulb here and there. Swathes of bulbs under groves of trees or running along the front of a garden beds will always delight. Bulbs when happy will multiply like crazy, meaning you can lift and divide them in the summer and spread them around your garden, this is a simple and cost effective way of adding more spring colour to your garden.

After bulbs have flowered they can be a little untidy with their foliage, do not cut this off as bulbs use the energy from the foliage (photosynthesisation) to produce a flower next year. To create a tidy garden, I have known gardeners to plait the leaves and although this looks lovely, it is terribly time consuming and not necessary for the health of the bulb.