Alarm bells should be ringing this month if you still have not planted your spring-flowering bulbs.
Tulips should definitely go in this month. Plant them a few inches apart in rough, slightly disorganized groups and bury them really deeply – 6 inches down if you can. This will put off all but the most energetic of squirrels, but if you have had a major problem in the past, bury a small piece of chicken wire between the bulbs and the soil surface. They really, really don’t like that.
I absolutely adore tulips. These are some combinations that work for me: ‘Ballerina’ tulips with emerging shoots of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’. ‘Spring Green’ tulips around the base of a white-barked Himalayan birch (Betula utilis ‘Jacquemontii). Tall, white-and-green-flowered Allium nigrum with ‘White Triumphator’ tulips.
Daffodil, crocus and allium bulbs do better the earlier they are planted – September or October are ideal times, I have to say – but better late than never and they can still go in now. Plant them all with at least twice their height’s worth of soil over their heads.
If bulbs are to be left alone to naturalize, sprinkle a little grit and slow-acting, long-lasting bonemeal under their bottoms at planting time for good measure. And remember to mark where you have planted them. I stick a few slim wooden kebab sticks in the ground around each ‘drift’ – quicker to do than write labels, and just visible enough for long enough to remind me not to plant anything else in what may seem, for the next few months, like a tantalizingly vacant spot. You may think you will remember where everything is, but how many times have we all stuck our spades through our bulbs, I wonder?
Tags: Autumn, Garden, Helen Yemm
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