Editor’s letter
It is possible to plant a lot bulbs in a small garden. Dryad Nursery in North Yorkshire is a case in point. Specialising in exquisite miniature narcissi (with an early side hustle of snowdrops), this tiny, back-garden nursery grows a muchcoveted list of small, choice flowers. Miniature narcissi instil the same fervour in enthusiasts as snowdrops, due in part perhaps to their intricacy and detail. Who doesn’t share the miniaturist’s love of small things? The perfect miniature narcissus has clear colour, graceful form and a delicacy of flower, and a single bulb can exchange hands for a several hundred pounds. There is a worldwide waiting list for the rarest bulbs.
On a site in Somerset, Avon Bulbs specialises in year-round bulbs for the flower garden. Nurserymen Alan Street and Chris Ireland-Jones grow an incredible selection of spring-flowering tulips and alliums as well as anemones, scillas and erythroniums for naturalising, and crocuses and fritillaries for early colour. Their collection has been awarded more than 30 RHS gold medals. On page 76 they highlight their favourites for early spring.
In the first of a new series of Pots of Style, Ben Preston, head gardener at York Gate garden in Leeds, shares three inspiring planting ideas for pots, combining bulbs and perennials. Planting the caramel-leafed Corydalis temulifolia ‘Chocolate Stars’, with arrow-leaved Cyclamen hederifolium Silver-leaved Group, used for its foliage rather than its flowers, the beautiful, sludgy, plaster-pink Helleborus x nigercors ‘Emma’ and early flowering
Narcissus ‘Elka’ in an aged copper pot is a wonderful way to mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
I hope you enjoy the issue,