Spring bulbs in... at the 11th hour

Big frost today. A bright & sunny morning, but definitely white & crisp out there. But the bulbs I bought nearly 2 months ago are still not planted. Pants. Gardeners' World had it as jobs to do for the weekend, but to me the look on Monty's face really saying "This should already be done, numbnuts". I might be projecting...

But as luck would have it I've got a free Sunday, & the sun is shining so it's Go! Go! Go!

Pots of pots

I'm planning on doing some more structural work this winter, so the plan is to put the new bulbs into pots. That way I can get them in soil right now & then position them out in the garden once all the heavy shifting is done. I've got some other bulbs that live in pots all the time, so fingers crossed these guys will be ok for now.

New bulbs on the block

So, who are the new recruits? Ladies & gentleman, may I present...

Dwarf Narcissus

I've never been 100% sure about dwarf daffs but I saw some at Alnwick Garden in early Spring this year & they looked very jolly.



So during my recent bulb binge, I picked up 3 x Silver Chimes, 5 x Tête À Tête & 5 x Minnow.

I'm afraid I forgot to take a picture of the Minnow card when I was in the garden centre, plus the Minnow & Tête bulbs were mixed up in the same bag to snaffle more variety for the bulk discount, so I've no idea what i've really got. I'll just have to wait until they flower & play spot the difference.

For mini flowers, these bulbs are huge! I'm surprised cos we've got lots of snowdrops & croci & they've got titchy bulbs. But no, these are all just as big as the tulip bulbs. I wonder if this means loads of flowers? Again, only time will tell...

Dwarf daffs from huge bulbs...

Tulips

We already have some tulips, but let's face it they're great so there's always room for some more.



So we have 3 x Queen Of The Night, 3 x Synaeda Orange & 10 x Shakespeare.

I thought I'd bought some white ones... I certainly spent a lot of time umming & ahhing over some, but if I remember correctly we already have 2 varieties in the garden - some traditional shaped ones, like white versions of the Queen Of The Night, plus some long thin ones, like the Synaeda.

Looking at this now though, I have no idea what possessed me to buy all those Shakespeares. What on earth was I planning to do with so many early, orange tulips? Tra la, I'm sure they'll be pretty enough.

Alliums

3 x Purple Sensation & 3 x Christophii. Again, they're in the same bag so I now don't know which is which.

I've had a Christophii before & it was amazing, but it only lasted 1 year. Bit of a shame. Is that cos they're bred to be sterile? Or did I plant it too shallow, as I've heard bulbs have to be planted really deep to last several Springs. I'll have to do some more research.

Let's pot them up

Gathering kit

Compost - check
Pots - check
Bulbs - check, check, check!

I bought some new pots earlier year. They were meant for other things, but I'm commandeering them for this now. I'll buy some more later. I've also got a few other large pots kicking about so out they come too.

I noticed the other week that the local farmshop does bags of peat-free compost - ace! The last time I went looking for peat-free multi-purpose at the local garden centre, it took ages. There were loads of different compost types & manufacturers, but I had to check each bag carefully to ensure peat-freeness. Even the Jamie Oliver brand growbags (Jamie Oliver?!) had peat in their mix. As gardening still accounts for the vast majority of peat use, & peat bog degredation is still an issue, I like to use peat-free if possible. Besides, my methods are so random that peatiness is unlikely to make much of a difference to my success rate.

Drainage

The pots all have drainage holes in the bottom, but if you just bang compost straight in the plant can end up waterlogged - the mass of roots & soil just won't drain efficiently. So to improve the drainage, first into the pot is some masonry.

Crocks for drainage

Crocks is a general term for any bit of broken pot or stone you have kicking about. Any stones I find when I'm digging the beds go into my crock pot. Broken vases, roof tile shards & bits of brick end up in there too.

Covering the crocks with gravel

The handful of crocks is covered with some pea gravel from the area in front of the house. This drives hubby mental as the gravel level slowly drops over time. But it's no biggie as we can always top it up if need be with another dumpy bag of shingle. Plus it means that I don't have to have a special store of gravel cluttering up the place just for this kind of job. This is multitasking gravel.

Again, the gravel improves the drainage by stopping the compost & roots getting all the way to the bottom of the pot.

You might think I'm labouring the drainage point here, but bulbs are prone to rotting if they get too wet. I've even seen advice about planting them on a layer of sand just to ensure they don't get soggy bottoms. I'll save the sand for when they go out into the beds, but for now the crocks & gravel combo should be fine.

Planting & positioning

Firm down a shallow layer of compost over the gravel & it's time to pop the bulbs in.

Cover the drainage with a layer of compost

Thankfully with most bulbs it's really easy to tell which is the right way up. Todays are nicely teardropped shaped, so it's pointy bit up to the sky, & sit them on their rooty flat bottoms, pressing down a little into the compost.

I've kept the bulbs away from the edge of the pot as I think I've heard they can be prone to frost damage, so they need to be kept snug in a compost blanket.

6 tulips with an allium in the middle

Now, when I planted these I was still labouring under the misapprehension that the Shakespeares flowered white, so in this pot we've got them alternating around the outside with the 3 Synaeda, & then a mystery Allium in the middle. So orange with orange & a bit of purple. But no worries - it just means I'll have an extended orange tulip season. Yay!

Other pot combos today include:

• 3 Queens, 3 Shakespeare & an Allium, which will be a heady orange & purple mix.
• 4 Shakespeare & an Allium, again, rocking opposite ends of the colour wheel.
• 3 Alliums, in the tallest, thinnest pot.... might be a bit prone to blowing over in the wind when in bloom that one...
• 3 Tête/Minnow.
• 2 Tête/Minnow but these were actually single bulbs at that Siamese twin stage, just ready to separate, so 4 bulbs for the price of 2 really. Bonus!
• 3 Silver Chimes. These guys were in their own bag so this should be a single colour pot.
• I put the remaining Chimes out at the end of the Alpine bed.

I'm actually quite excited about those orange & purple combos now. Admittedly I was expecting white in there, which would've been a bit classier, but this mix-up should yield striking results :)

Topping off

Once the bulbs were all in position, I carefully added the rest of the compost, gently around the bulbs first to keep them in position, & then on top. I press the compost down & top it up again a few times until there's about an inch left to the top of the pot.

Finally I topped them off with some more of the gravel.

Topping off with gravel & labelling up

The gravel is great at suppressing weeds & retaining moisture. Plus it gives a nice colour contrast against the plants, showing them off they nicely.

Finally the labels. I've been crap with labels in the past, but I'm trying to be more diligent cos I keep losing things. This time, some of the labels will need modifying later when I unravel the Tête/Minnow & Allium mix-ups.

A little bit of water over the top & we're done. I've put some pots the yard & some in the garden by the bench under the window. If they don't get clobbered when the snow falls off the roof this Winter, it should be a very bonny Spring.