Plant bulbs now for a dazzling display later, writes Jane Powers
Nature is a dab hand at painting the ground with a hazy wash of bluebells or a dazzling drift of snowdrops. The gardener can do it, too, but a little care is needed to choose the right bulbs and a suitable location. In general, simple and wild-looking bulbs are the best candidates: snowdrops, bluebells and cyclamen, as well as uncomplicated cultivars of daffodil and crocus. Recently, big round-headed ornamental onions (often Allium 'Purple Sensation') have been used to wonderful effect when planted in broad swathes. And Camassia is appearing in meadowy plantings in some gardens.
The best places for naturalising bulbs are often the more difficult areas in your plot: an awkward slope that you don't like to mow, the wild parts around the perimeter or the dry ground under deciduous trees (perfect for cyclamen, snowdrops, crocus and anemone). If you fancy sprinklings of bulbs in your lawn, remember that you won't be able to mow until the leaves start to die off, as the foliage helps feed up the bulb, which is tired and hungry after its bout of flowering. Thomas Quearney of Mr Middleton suggests using smaller, early-flowering varieties, such as crocus, in the lawn, and holding off cutting the grass until the end of March. "If you plant daffodils in grass, you have to wait until the leaves are completely yellow before you mow, which could be the end of May."
The best approach, perhaps, with naturalised daffodils is to plant them in large groups, and to mow gracefully around them while they are replenishing themselves, leaving them to grow in islands of long grass. Seaweed, either in granulated or liquid form, is an excellent fertiliser for bulbs, says Quearney.
Distributing bulbs with the same artless hand as Mother Nature isn't difficult, says Alex Chisholm of Wild About Bulbs. "But you never want them in a straight line." If you're planting them on a slope, he advises, "arrange them as if they're flowing down in a semi-liquid way, like lava". If they're in grass, aim for "a crescent or a shoal of fish". He also advocates the "scatter" method, where you toss them across the ground and plant them where they fall. Water, he reminds us, has a very dark appearance during the chilly months, and makes a dramatic mirror for taller bulbs, such as the lanky snowflake, Leucojum 'Gravetye Giant'.
Many gardeners will plant snowdrops only when they are "in the green"; that is, in springtime, when their leaves are showing. But both Alex Chisholm and Thomas Quearney advocate autumn planting also. The key to success is to use large bulbs, recently harvested, which have not had a chance to dry out. "When you're naturalising snowdrops, the bulb is competing with grass in dry ground under trees, so a bigger size is essential," says Quearney.
Snowdrops start sprouting roots in early autumn, as do daffodils, so both need to be planted this month. The autumn-blooming saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) may also be planted now. The corms will flower in weeks, producing pretty, mauvey-purple flowers with rust-coloured stigmas that lie languorously against the petals - a fitting posture for the most expensive spice in the world.
BULBS FOR NATURALISING Allium species (ornamental onions) Anemone blanda and A. nemorosa Camassia esculenta and C. leichtlinii Chionodoxa luciliae (glory of the snow) Crocus tommasinianus and other small wild-looking crocus, including C. sativus, (saffron crocus) which blooms in autumn Cyclamen hederifolium (late summer and autumn) and C. coum Eranthis hyemalis (winter aconite) Erythronium 'Pagoda' and E. dens-canis (dog's tooth violet) Fritillaria meleagris (snake's head fritillary) Galanthus species (snowdrop) Hyacinthoides non-scripta (English bluebell) Leucojum (snowflake) Muscari armeniacum (grape hyacinth) Narcissus (daffodil) Ornithogalum nutans and O. umbellatum (star of Bethlehem) small species kinds of tulips.
DIARY DATE Today (3-6pm) and tomorrow (2-6pm), Naul & District Gardening Club 17th Annual Horticultural Show, at Clann Mhuire GAA Grounds, Naul, Co Dublin. Admission: €3.
CHARITY RAFFLE Fans of botanical painter Wendy Walsh can help the Sri Lanka Tsunami Children Fund by buying a €10 line in an upcoming raffle. Two winners will take home either a set of four botanical prints of hellebores (each is number one of an edition of 600), or an original watercolour of a hellebore. Check out koks@clubi.ie; www.srilankaorphanagefund.org