Susie’s Garden

Now is the time to start planting bulbs for a colourful spring show of flowers – our Susie gives you tips on the best ones

Ihave a stack of plant catalogues just waiting for a rainy day when it’s a treat to sit with a cup of tea and leaf through them. I scribble marks against the seeds that catch my eye, especially new varieties or ones I’ve not grown before. There’s less hurry to order these, but there are bulbs that need planting now.

Autumn is the time to plant spring and hardy summer-flowering bulbs. Tender summer-flowering bulbs such as gladioli should be planted in spring, with autumn-flowering bulbs, like nerines, planted in summer. Daffodils and crocus should really be in the soil by the end of September so I need to get on with this quickly! Tulips, though, should wait until November as this lessens the chance of getting the disease tulip fire. In one very frosty winter I even planted tulips in January and they flowered about the same time as usual.

I like the effect of growing bulbs in grass, though you do have to wait until all the leaves have yellowed in spring before mowing. It’s worth it, though, to have the pretty effect of daffodils or tulips growing up through greenery instead of the brown earth of a border. You can naturalise daffodils in this way and one of the daintiest is the hooppetti-coat daffodil, Narcissus bulbocodium which will also self-seed.

There are so many different daffodils that it’s hard to choose, so I’ve been concentrating on planting white ones such as “Thalia”, “Segovia” and “Paperwhite”. This helps me to focus when tempted by the catalogue photos and means that there’s cohesion in the borders. As daffodils fade, the erythroniums then emerge in my semi-shaded border.

Commonly known as dog’s tooth violets, one of the best is “Pagoda” with rich yellow nodding flowers. They like moist soil enriched with humus, as do the delightful snake’s head fritillaries of damp meadows. A good colour scheme is to grow them with grape hyacinths, the yellows and blues making a cheerful and vibrant spring combination.

Snake’s head fritillary – Nodding wildflowers with prettily chequered lanterns, they will self seed in a border that stays moist in summer

Lilies – do well both in pots and in the ground. Just add coarse grit to help drainage, and remember that lilies are poisonous to cats