A little muck and magic to produce bucket loads of blooms

Say the words “bulb planting” to most gardeners and a curious look comes over their face that can be described only as a mixture of 49 per cent dread and 51 per cent anticipation.

Let’s start with the dread, which is easily explained. After all, who really wants to schlepp around in a chilly, damp autumnal garden, digging hole after hole in order to plant flower bulb after flower bulb deep into the cool wet earth? Worse still, it’s not like you can sit back to immediately admire the fruits of your labour as you might with, say, a freshly-planted tree or a newly weeded border.

No. Instead, all the diligent bulb planter has achieved in the short term is some bare, muddy patches of ground, a sore back and – if you’ve got an awful lot of bulbs to plant – possibly some work-blistered hands. Which brings me to that 51 per cent anticipation, which – like so much of gardening – goes hand in hand with the idea of delayed gratification.

In the case of autumn bulb planting, this means resisting the understandable temptation to stay snug indoors, instead venturing resolutely outside, trowel/bulb planter firmly in one hand and those neatly labelled bags of bulbs in the other. Because a little muck and magic is exactly what’s needed right now if you want to produce bucket loads of blooms for next spring and early summer.

And I do mean bucket loads – this week’s column is a guide to some of the best varieties to grow as cut flowers for the home, rather than simply for the garden. Not that they won’t also ornament your garden, but these will look and smell utterly drop-dead gorgeous in a vase or a bouquet on those gloomy, dark, damp days when all you want to do is stay snugindoors . . . See what I mean about delayed gratification?

Daffodils (Narcissus)

While there are countless gorgeous varieties of daffodils that will thrive in an Irish garden, the following have the sort of frilly, frothy beauty that looks right at home in a vase, plus they’re really long-lasting as cut flowers: Narcissus ‘Obdam’ (creamy-white, scented double flowers that have been compared to a gardenia, on 40cm stems, April-flowering); Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness’ (another April-flowering daffodil, this heritage variety produces clusters of pale, scented, ruffled blooms with an egg-yolk yellow eye on 35cm stems); Narcissus ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (another fragrant, double variety with clusters of dainty white flowers flecked with orange, on 40cm stems, March-April flowering); ‘Narcissus Double Poet’ (another heritage variety with pure-white double flowers on 45cm stems that appear in April/May).

Tulips

While almost all tulips make great cut flowers, the frilly, flouncy kinds can look a little artificial in a garden setting but are perfect in a vase. These include ‘Mount Tacoma’ (double-white, peony-like flowers on 45-60cm stems, appearing in April/May); Angelique (double-pink, peony-like flowers on 45-60cm stems, in April/May); ‘La Belle Epoque’ (double, peony-like flowers of the most exquisite pale apricot/dusty pink, in April/May); ‘Rococo’ (brilliant-red frilled flowers overlaid with a silver sheen,which appear in May, on 45-50cm stems); and ‘Ego Parrot’ (the name is a clue to this show-off of a tulip whose burnt-orange, frilled flowers are flushed with plum and appear, on 55cm stems, in April/May).

Alliums

This mainly late spring/early summer flowering genus includes many species/ cultivars that make perfect cut flowers. In particular, look out for

Allium roseum

(pale-rose flowers that appear in May on 50-60cm tall stems);

Allium cristophii

(pale purple, firework-like flowers on 60cm stems, in June/July); and

Allium schubertii

(another firework-like flower, with pink-purple blooms appearing in June/July).

All of the above aside, there are a host of other spring flowering bulbs whose dainty blooms provide rich pickings for the home. These include the snake's head fritillary (Fritallaria meleagris), both in its natural purple-and-white chequered form and the pure white 'Alba'; the grape hyacinth (along with the widely available Muscari armeniacum, whose 15cm tall spikes of scented blue flowers appear in April/May, look out for the white form 'Alba' and the more moody Muscari latifolia); and the spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) whose pale, lightly scented, bell-shaped flowers look a little like a tall, more robust snowdrop and appear in March/April.

All of these bulbs should be ordered now, for planting as soon as possible into fertile, moist but free draining soil in full sun or light shade – the only exception being tulips, in which case delay planting until late autumn to avoid disease.

Recommended stockists include Mr Middleton (mrmiddleton.com); Beechill Bulbs (bulbs.ie); UK-based Peter Nyssen (peternyssen.com); and UK-based Sarah Raven (sarahraven.com).