Well as far as bulbs are concerned it’s our in between season at the moment. We do have these magnificent Alliums making a statement in the front border but other than that we are awaiting our summer bulbs producing some blooms.
Allium Purple Sensation
I’ve started to plant up my hanging baskets and as well as the usual lobelia and hanging geraniums and fushchias, they’ve all got a couple of pendula begonias in them. Hanging basket begonias give a fantastic display throughout the summer and come in numerous colours to will fit in with any planting scheme.
Our lilies are also starting to bud, some further on than others and these will flowering in the next few weeks. By planning the bulbs that you plant, you can get 10 months of glorious colour in the garden as the end of the spring flowering bulbs (alliums) merges into the summer flowering bulbs (lilies).
We started our canna bulbs in the greenhouse in March and they are now showing a good 4-5 inches of growth and we will be looking to plant them out into the borders and shrubs soon, especially as they enjoy the sunshine of which we are getting plently of at the moment.
My children are earning their pocket money at the moment as they get paid extra to remove lily beetles from the plants. These are so easy to see – they are bright red and make a clicking noise if you listen carefully!
The adults and their young (black, excrement covered larvae) are voracious defoliators of lilies and fritillarias. Adult beetles are active from March to October and can be removed by hand if you only have a small amount of plants or you can spray with insecticide.
Direct Bulbs Gardening Blog 