Bright Ideas With Bulbs
March 13, 2009When we think of bulbs we tend to think of spring bulbs, but there are so many summer and autumn bulbs available to plant out now.
If you didn’t get around to planting your spring bulbs last autumn, garden centres are now selling growing flowering spring bulbs in pots that you can simply plant into your garden for instant colour.
Bulbs are an extremely useful element for the garden as they take up a small about of space and are really useful in filling up spaces around other plants in the border. A useful gardening design tip is to plant bulbs into containers and dot these around the garden wherever you’ve got a dull space and after the bulbs have gone over then the container can be put somewhere out of sight.
One lovely bulb that was a firm favourite of my grandmother, is the Gladiolus. She grew several rows of them to enjoy as cut flowers in the home. The Gladioli is one of best showy blowsy summer bulbs that come in a vast selection of colours.
I think that the stars among summer bulbs have to be the Lilies with their super elegant scented colourful flowers. Most Lilies are easy to grow and will last several years if planted in rich well-drained soil. Just remember to watch out for bright red coloured Lilies Beetles that like to munch on and ruin the plant.
For an exotic bulb you could choose the Eucomis Bicolor, otherwise know as the Pineapple lily because of its resemblance a pineapple. As this plant is quite tender, do plant it in a sheltered sunny spot with well-drained soil and remember to mulch in winter.
Don’t forget about getting some bulbs for late summer seasonal colour in your garden too. You could opt for the bright fiery colours of yellow, orange and reds of Crocosmia, you may know this as Montbretia. Plant this in bold clumps for best effect in your border and they look specatacular as cut flowers in the home too.
For some autumn colour you could go for Nerine bowdenii. This bulb has pretty small scented pink Lilly like flowers on long stems. This cheerful autumn bulb comes in white too and flowers best when the clump has aged and got congested, so it’s very useful as autumn filler in the flower border.
So remember bulbs aren’t just for spring, but can be used to give interest and colour in the garden through summer and autumn.
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© Copyright Judy Fenyvesi
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Image in this article: Photographer: Ian Britton
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