Joys of spring

Bulb enthusiasts Rod and Jane Leeds have created a garden that is brimming with colourful exuberance

WORDS JOHN HOYLAND

WE WENT ALONG TO AN OPEN GARDEN WHERE WE SAW A GREENHOUSE SAW A GREENHOUSE THAT WAS FULL OF BEAUTIFUL BULBS AND WE WERE ENTRANCED

D riving along a narrow lane in rural Suffolk, there is no mistaking Jane and Rod Leeds’ garden. Tumbling through the fence and flowing down to the road is a cascade of colourful plants. In the spring the garden teems with trilliums, erythroniums and fritillaries; later the lilies take over before handing the relay to amaryllis and nerines.

Both Jane and Rod have been involved in the Alpine Garden Society for decades and Rod is the author of several books on growing bulbs. The couple are as full of life as their garden, and happy to share their extensive experience of bulb and alpine growing. No one leaves their garden without having a plant pressed into their hands – I came away with a very elegant autumn-flowering crocus – or benefiting from their down-to-earth, practical advice. Your garden is jam-packed full of bulbs. Where did your enthusiasm for gardening with bulbs begin? Jane Like most things in life it was serendipity. Forty-five years ago open gardens were a novelty and we went along to one out of curiosity. At the time we were living in a semi-detached house and were not really gardeners: like everyone else we grew a few daffodils and when they were finished we tied the leaves in knots. And then at this open garden we saw a greenhouse that housed Mediterranean-style plants and it was full of beautiful bulbs. We were entranced. Rod That garden was owned by plant collector Richard Britten and his enthusiasm was infectious. At about the same time we moved here to what seemed like a massive garden but it was meeting Richard that inspired us. He became a great mentor. Are you still developing the garden? Rod Yes, we’ve just acquired a strip of land just over the road so we can expand a little and we’re replanting some of the beds. After a few years a garden benefits from being rejuvenated. Plants get old and soil needs refreshing, so we’re doing that in parts of the garden. And there are new plants to study. We’ve just done a lot of work on colchicums and are now starting to get interested in Dierama, the angel’s fishing rod, because we have one plant of D. pulcherrimum and in the summer, seeing it arching over, I thought: “You are utterly beautiful, we should look at the rest of your family.” JaneWe looked through a monograph on dieramas and thought “Wow, look at all these.” And so it begins. What advice would you give to other gardeners to encourage them to use more bulbs in the garden? Rod I think that the greatest revelation to us has been discovering that there are microclimates in the garden and that every garden

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has them. So if a plant is struggling in one part of the garden try it somewhere else. Jane That some things won’t like your garden is a difficult thing to learn about gardening. People sometimes look at our plants and say “Oh, I can’t grow that.” Maybe their conditions aren’t right. Possibly no one could grow that plant in their soil in their position. You just have to find plants that do grow well for you. Rod We have some fritillaries that we can’t grow in most of the garden but in one small part they thrive and are setting seed. And for me, when a plant is setting seed it is happy. Jane Over the years there must have been an equal number of plants that haven’t grown well as have. The important thing is not to get disheartened. As well as housing lots of bulb collections the garden is very beautiful. How much work is involved? Jane We do have all these collections, but the most important thing is that the garden looks good, whether in the depths of winter or high summer. Rod Yes, we are 365-days-a-year gardeners and we enjoy frosty mornings as much as summer evenings. You learn a lot by looking at nature and also by looking at what grows well locally and how it is grown. In the early days we built a rock garden for some of our alpines and small bulbs and it looked awful. The stone didn’t look right away from Gloucestershire, so we built raised beds with old bricks and railway sleepers. They look far better here in Suffolk than rock brought from miles and miles away.

RECOMMENDED BULB SUPPLIERS • Avon Bulbs Burnt House Farm, Mid Lambrook, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5HE. Tel 01460 242177, avonbulbs.co.uk • Edrom Nurseries Coldingham, Eyemouth, Berwickshire TD14 5TZ. Tel 01890 771386, edrom-nurseries.co.uk • Jacques Amand The Nurseries, Clamp Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 3JS. Tel 020 8420 7110, jacquesamandintl.com • Pottertons Nursery Cottage Nursery, Moortown Road, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire LN7 6HX. Tel 01472 851714, pottertons.co.uk

YOU LEARN A YOU LEARN A LOT BY LOOKING AT NATURE AND ALSO BY LOOKING AT WHAT GROWS WELL LOCALLY AND HOW IT IS GROWN

In the foreground peat blocks create a home for acid-loving bulbs while behind brick-built raised beds provide additional drainage for those bulbs that need hot and dry growing conditions.

The white-flowering Magnolia salicifolia ‘Wada’s Memory’ dominates the front of the house in spring. It’s underplanted with x among the Helleborus hybridus foliage of later-flowering bulbs.