Well, the Spring bulbs are almost over and flowering is almost at an end.  We have just a few Alliums left with a splash of purple around the garden however our Summer bulbs have literally just started to make an appearance.

We have 2 varieties of lily just coming through, Montenegro (left) and Tigrinium.

We still have an awful lot of bulbs which are still in early stages  - all the dahlias are doing well (as long as we keep the slugs at bay) as well as the begonias.

Our border is also becoming much more established.  The planting pots directly into the ground theory has worked really well, as it kept it much more tidy.  As soon as the pots had finished flowering, they were removed so there was no untidy dying foliage around and we just replaced them with newly planted containers.  We now have several varieties of dahlias in there at present and they will provide a stunning display right through to the first frosts of Autumn when they start to flower.

Well at last, despite the amazingly changeable weather we have been having, we have a fantastic display of spring flowering bulbs. These tulips below are a variety called Foxtrot and are a lovely baby pink colour. We have them in a pot on the patio and along with the other varieties such as Sir Winston Churchill and Candy Club, they brighten up the garden when the sun decides to shine!

The border has also blossomed with colour with my blue and white them coming through. Here  you can see muscari, chinodoxia and miniature daffodils.

Some of our other pots are shown below. Below is Tulip Apricot Impression and Muscari Latifolium, a fantastic bicolour variety. 

My other favourite pots are these below. I themed them blue and white as these colours are my favourite.

                                           Well we finally got around to planting up the border. We put in a mixture of plants we can leave to naturalise such as bearded iris, day lilies (hemerocallis), crinums and some heucheras.  To continue our experiment we have submerged a number of pots of spring flowering bulbs containing tulips, daffodils, muscaris and crocus to name but a few, which we will leave to flower. At the same time we have planted up in similar size pots, some of the newly introduced tango lilies and dwarf gladioli glaminis, plus dahlias to fit in with the ur scheme groups that we selected.  These will of course replace the spring flowering pots once they have finished blooming.

One section I planted was themed blue and white, which contained a variety of muscari, chinodoxia, puschkinia, white daffodils. It’s my favourite colour scheme and I am looking forward to seeing the border in bloom at this time.

Regarding our range of bulbs coming into bloom, we are now seeing signgs of some miniature tulips, dwarf narcissi and some of the hyacinths are almost blooming. See below for some of our pots of colour. 

As spring approaches, we note more articles appearing regarding the growing of summer bulbs and in particular gladioli.  See Sarah Raven’s article here

Gladioli, as are noted in many articles, are very easy to grow and excellent for using as cutflowers.  There are a huge range of colours and varieties available but our favourites have always been the single coloured tall varieties rather than bi-colours or ruffled types. 

Last year was the first time we tried growing them in our allotment, which benefits from full sun.  Previously we have tried growing them in a few areas of our garden without great success, but in hindsight it’s probably because they were grown in semi-shaded areas and did not get full sun at any time.  When we planted them in the allotment, we put the first batch of 20 corms in Early April, planting 10 at 8 inches deep and 10 at 12 inches deep.  We did further plantings with the same numbers and depths every 10 -14 days for a further month.  The reason for this was to hopefully get a longer flowering period that we then cut and displayed in the house.  By doing it this way, we acheived our prolonged period of blooms

Jo Woodland

www.directbulbs.co.uk

We have a border at the end of our garden which has been a bit neglected since we acquired the plot from one of our neighbours.   It was used as a dumping ground for many shrubs which had seen better days, but we didn’t want to get rid of.  It also tends to get the brunt of the numerous footballs that our boys spend kicking around. 

This weekend we took the first steps of our “grand plan” (well it’s grand for us!!) to turn this border into a haven of colour from the spring right through to the end of summer.  It is positioned so that it gets the sun from early morning to late afternoon.  The soil is quite heavy as it has a large clay content.  After digging the border over and removing all unwanted weeds etc, we will look to add some horticultural grit and well composted garden waste from our compost heap (two years old) and mix this in well. Our next step will be to put in a few more perennial plants but ultimately we will fill the border with predominantly daffodils, crocus and alliums which have been grown in pots over winter. These pots will then be plunged in their entirity - pot and all! into selected positions and allowed to flower as normal.  After flowering and when the leaves start to die down, they will be removed and replaced with either later flowering varieties or as soon as possible, summer flowering bulbs which have been started off in the greenhouse - such as Dahlia Stars Favourite and Double Begonia Pink.

The benefits of this, are we feel, that the border stays tidier, we can keep it refreshed with new plants and especially with summer bulbs such as dahlias and begonias which are often stripped of new growth overnight by slugs, minimise plant damage.  This is the first time we have done this to such an extent and we will keep you updated and would be very interested to hear of other’s experiences. 

Crocus Watch!!  Our crocus continue to appear and the latest arrival is ”Firefly” closely followed by ”Cream Beauty”.  Some of the miniature daffodils are on the brink of opening so we should have pictures soon. Below are the Firefly, a lovely lilac colour.

Welcome to my gardening blog at directbulbs. I run an internet flower bulb company based and delivering to addresses within the UK. There is over 25 years of horticultural experience behind our company and if you have any queries at all about bulbs of any shape, size or colour just drop us a line at directbulbs@btconnect.com - our information and experience costs nothing!!

The aim of the blog is to share our knowledge of what to plant, what is flowering and what you should be doing to prepare for the next planting season! 

Right now we have a fantastic display of Iris Reticulata Alida, which were under-planted in pots below some winter heathers and miniature chrysanthemums. The combination are set off beautifully in blue ceramic pots, they add a splash of cheer to our front door.

We also have Galanthus Elwesii coming up (Elwesii Snowdrops) as well as our naturalising single Snowdops coming up in the lawn.  Our specie crocus are also starting to show some colour and the first to show has been specie crocus Fuscotinctus.

In terms of what you can be planting now, we have an extensive range of lilies on our webiste, ranging from dwarf to oriental varieties, some of which, like Trumpet Lily Regale have a fantastic fragrance.  If you buy lilies at this time of year but don’t plant them immediately then you need to keep them in a cold, dry place that is well ventilated otherwise you will find they start sprouting very quickly. You will also note that many other types of summer flowering bulbs are now available, most except lilies we would not recommend planting outside yet, however varieties of begonias and dahlias can be started off inside greenhouses or similar places as long as they are kept free from frost.

Welcome to the Direct Bulbs Gardening Blog.