A time to Bulb

It is that metre of yr again in Britain when my living is immerse by the choosing , ordering , receiving , pass out and planting of bulbs .

The electric light is possibly the most gross example of packaging that has ever been created . You compass a jam in the fall into which you swing a palm sized brown nugget . An retiring thing in itself but control absolutely everything require to bring forth , over the cold wintertime workweek , roots , leave , shoots and some staggeringly beautiful blossom . It is the horticultural eq of Hans Christian Andersen ’s Ugly Duckling . Who would have thought that something quite that gnarly could acquire something as gorgeous as , for exercise , this .. ?

So the schedule function something like this : sometime in the next calendar week or so many thousands of assorted bulbs will arrive on my doorstep – and the doorsteps of various clients scattered across the land . We then have to get them in the ground as soon as we can : the exception are the tulips which can usually hold off until November . There is no dandy skill in bulb planting , just a lot of rather windy labour and bending down . The general rule is to plant the bulb about twice its own depth and a good two bulb widths apart . This is in particular important with Alliums as the flowers look better break – if they bump into each other then it just looks like a flowery venn diagram . If you have grueling soil then a bed of grit at the bottom of the gob wo n’t do any harm at all .

Oh , and retrieve to plant them the right manner up … .

After planting house the soil down well so that there are no air pockets and also to make it a bit more difficult for marauding mice who are quite capable of burrow down and making short employment of your light bulb – especially Crocus . Actually , mice are a problem all the time : I had a bag of two hundred Tulips sitting in my shed for a fortnight during which clock time the mice ate about eighty of them . I really go for it was tidy sum of black eye and not just one really , really enormous one !

Now , in Britain we have well jazz Radio show telephone Desert Island Discs . It was make up by a fella called Roy Plomley in 1942 and has been break away now for over seventy years . The assumption is simple , a guest ( or castaway)is invited to imagine that they have been washed up on a derelict island and can pick out eight pieces of music , a al-Qur’an ( apart from the Bible and Shakespeare which are already there ) and a luxury to take with them . They can take nothing utile that might help them escape . The guests have included Prime Ministers , Royalty , photographic film stars and musicians – you’re able to find out morehere(although I do n’t cerebrate you’re able to take heed to them from over there , pitiful ) or check Wikipedia .

Anyway the grounds that I am telling you all this is to introduce the theme of choosing eight bulb . Only eight out of all the hundreds that live . It is an interesting exercise and one in which I vary my mind all the time but my eight are ( for today )

Snowdrops : The first foretoken of lifetime . Best not plant as bulbs though . they should be imbed in about March ‘ in the putting surface ’ . this means that they are dug up after flowering and planted then .

Tulip turkestanica : One of the early Tulips . Very unlike to the rather gorgeous springiness numbers . This one is only about six inches high but smells cheerily peppery . Opens wide in the sunshine ( when there is any )

Narcissus lobularis : the aboriginal daffodil . Small ( only about six column inch in high spirits ) with a down facing tubular blossom . Great en masse shot in grass or under shrubs .

Tulip Spring Green : a viridiflora variety . whitened with a strong Mary Jane green band . There is a variation called Tulip flame Spring Green that has a gorgeous red streak .

Camassia cusickii Zwanenburg : deep sky-blue spicy flowers which look awing in long green goddess or border . come from Oregon so thank you very much .

Allium hollandicum Purple Sensation : flower globe about the size of tennis bollock . very , very chirpy . These are grow on a cant side in my garden

Lilium regale Album – really , really , really smelly . About a meter high with vast white yellow trumpet . Only rent is that if you get too airless for sniff them you are likely to get covered in pollen ! Reddy brown reverse to flowers

Tulip Ballerina : some of my clients are very untrusting of orangeness but I tend to snarf this tulip in anyway . Nobody has ever kick when their April is enlivened by these attractively shape flowers . They smell of orange boil sweet .

Anemone blanda : The woodwind anemone . You do n’t have to have a woodwind instrument to arise this small plant . Underneath deciduous bush or in a suspect corner will do fine . Also come in white and a sort of washy pinko . But I would amaze with the first two .

I know that is nine but it is my game and I will cheat if I require : and what about Fritillaries , Foxtail Lilies , Allium sphaerocephalon , Ornithogalum and Bluebells ?

Oh my goodness … in the Son of Fagin in the musical , Oliver .

“ I believe I ’ll have to think it out again … ”

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Bulbs

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