It’s time to think spring
Favourite flowerbulb collections are popping up in garden centres now
Two flowerbulb collections to be found in some garden centres this fall feature my favourite grape hyacinth — Muscari latifolium, an elegant, enduring and wellbehaved species in two tones. A slim, tidy spike of blue-black is topped by a tuft of blue flowers.
‘Casual Friday’ combines M. latifolium with pink-blushed, creamy yellow tulips. ‘Spring Cheer’ blends M. latifolium with daffodils and blue glory of the snow (Chionodoxa).
M. latifolium is one of the few grape hyacinths that hasn’t faded away over the years or turned into a really irritating weed in my garden. Consider using the basic species M. armeniacum only in wild places where it can run amok without becoming a misery. M. latifolium will increase, but in a decorous manner. My plants seem to become only more vivid and hearty with the years.
The late-flowering M.comosum ‘Plumosum’ (feather hyacinth) also endures well and is an interesting novelty with big, fluffy heads of violet blue flowers. New this year is ‘Baby’s Breath’ with tight spikes of baby blue bells. Spring bulbs, old and new. Surely one of the most versatile and popular narcissi is the dwarf Tetea-Tete, a 15-cm, bunch-flowered daffodil in sunny yellow. I often pop the bulbs into container plantings of winter pansies, where they bloom among the winter pansies in February and March.
New upon the dwarf daffodil scene is Tete Boucle (“Curly Head”), a “sport” (mutation) of Tete-a-Tete, with the same multiflowering habit but with stems bearing fully double blooms.
Not new this year, but still fairly new among tulips, is a Single Early tulip with silver-edged leaves called Pretty Princess, a gorgeous rose pink flamed in deep purple. Pretty Princess is a sport of the long popular Princess Irene (1949), an exotic blend in soft orange flushed and flamed in warm purple. This fragrant tulip remains a longtime personal favourite for garden and containers.
Princess Irene in turn is a sport of another beautiful tulip, the fragrant Couleur Cardinal (1845), a still-popular classic antique in lustrous, brilliant scarlet flushed in velvety plum.
Among the sturdy Triumph tulips, Apricot Beauty (1953) in delicate salmon pink remains on the market for its reliable loveliness. Long among the most popular cut flower tulips in Holland is the Double Late (Peony Flowered) Angelique (1959), whose baby pink petals are edged and streaked in paler tones. The lightly scented blooms age with artistry as they gradually take on deeper hues.
Viridiflora (Green Flamed) tulips are good choices for extending the tulip season into late May and even into June in some years. New among them this year is Purple Doll, an eleantly elongated flower with recurved petal tips like a Lily-Flowered tulip. The colour is tones of rosy violet with a green flame up the outside centre of each petal.
An older and still popular Viridiflora tulip is Spring Green (1969) in creamy white with a broad apple green flame on each petal. Garlic time. The period from now through mid-October is prime time for planting garlic. Every September I begin looking around for a likely spot for around 40 plants. The site needs to be in the sun, with a fertile, welldrained, humus-rich soil.
When watering begins in May, you’ll want the garlic to be in a place that will be easy to keep unwatered from late June, as the plants begin drying off, through to harvesting of the bulbs in July, when top growth is half dried. Such a spot is often to be found at a far edge of a bed.
Separate the individual cloves from the bulbs you have acquired for planting, and plant the cloves, pointed end up, 10 centimetres apart, with the tips resting about 5 centimetres beneath the soil surface. I usually plant only the largest cloves from the outer section of the bulb, and keep small ones for use in the kitchen.
GARDEN EVENT
Beekeeping. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is offering a worksop on backyard beekeeping: the first year with Gordon Mackay on Sunday, Oct. 1, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. With a focus on the beginner beekeeper planning on setting up a hive in the spring and on novice beekeepers, the workshop will cover the basics of getting started, required equipment, trouble shooting, favourite honey bee plants, and getting the bees ready for winter. Cost to HCP members $30, others $40. To register call 250-479-6162.