LIVE24SEVEN // Property & Interiors Light bulb moments TREAT YOURSELF TO SOME BULBS THIS MONTH!
Summer may be over but the team at Stockton Bury Gardens are already planning for spring 2017. Tamsin Westhorpe shares her tips on bulb planting.
flowered on the same day every year and how spoilt we would all become if every apple was perfect. Gardening is an unpredictable challenge and I’m grateful for that.
The challenge that faces all of us gardeners this month is overwintering plants. We may be lucky and not see a frost for weeks, but it’s wise to be prepared. Here we move our greenhouse fuchsias to the cool cellar under the house so they can enjoy undisturbed beauty sleep. Potted eucomis head back to the polytunnel for winter and the cannas are removed from their garden pots and potted up into plastic ones to spend winter undercover. It feels a bit like the end of term in the garden with plants being moved, greenhouses cleaned and preparation getting underway for spring 2017.
October marks the end of the season for us at Stockton Bury Gardens. It is now that we look back over the successes and failures of the gardening year. It’s been flowerful and fruitful but the weather hasn’t been easy. Think back to April when the rain fell for days and then fast forward to August when gardens were hit by a wave of hot weather. Due to this pattern of weather it’s set to be a poor year for top fruit and the plum harvest was disappointing for us.
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As gardeners, we moan about the weather but its behaviour does mean that no two years in the garden are ever the same. How boring it would be if the wisteria
Tulips will soon be planted in large terracotta pots in the garden that were, up until now, home to summer bedding. Bulbs are one of the biggest temptations to gardeners and also the biggest regrets. Forget to buy them now and you’ll spend the spring enviously eyeing up your neighbours’ displays wishing you had invested in them. Last year I planted about 50 Crocus ‘Ruby Giant’ in the Pigeon House Garden. When the purple, yes purple (who knows why they were named ‘Ruby Giant’) flowers appeared in spring it was such a delight. We’d forgotten all about them. Bulbs are always a very welcome surprise.
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If you’re planting pots with pansies and heathers this month, then don’t miss the opportunity to plant bulbs under them and your container displays will then provide interest right up until Easter. For small pots muscari, crocus and dwarf narcissus are perfect and for larger ones, go for tulips and narcissus. If you’re keen to extend the bulb season for as long as possible plant two layers of bulbs in the pot. This way, when the set planted closer to the surface have faded the deeper set will take over.
Bulbs can also be planted directly into the garden. Success with some is trickier than others. Take Fritillaria meleagris for example. We have great success here in our Spring Garden and over the years this plant has naturalised. However, this bulb is a delicacy for garden mice so if you’ve planted them before and seen no results this could be why. It’s worth trying again but planting a bit deeper and covering the bulbs with a fine mesh and then back filing with soil. The larger Fritillaria imperialis is a very impressive bulb when planted in a border. It was certainly a talking point when the 1m high stems carrying orange blooms graced the Paddock Gardens here this spring.
Having said that, for me the tulip remains my weakness. The incredible range of colours available to us is just wonderful. It’s the parrot tulips that make me go weak at the knees.
My advice to you all is to treat yourself to some bulbs this month – after all, if you’re going to be as busy as me clearing up autumn leaves then you deserve it!
Fritillaria meleagris in the Spring Garden
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