Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
USING BULBS IN THE GARDEN
Look around – there are so many ways to make a statement!
If you have a pathway leading to the front door, concentrate your efforts there. Plant a deep path-bordering swathe of one variety – try tulips or daffodils – and then repeat the same bulb in large tubs either side of the front door. You can either go for a single colour scheme, or a lovely duo, such as cream and yellow, or pink and mauve. Bulbs look wonderful planted in clumps, and the gaps at the front of an existing shrub bed offer ideal planting spots. In spring you’ll enjoy bright pops of flowers splashed against a background of green. So that they all bloom at around the same time, restrict your choices to just one or two favourite bulb varieties.
Create a mixed display of bulbs and annuals by over-planting with low growing annuals, such as pansies and violas. In mild climates, these will flower right through winter, so you’ll enjoy colour for many months. Or, plant spring annuals that bloom at the same time as the bulbs – tulips with forget-me-nots, or daffodils with the common daisy (Bellis perennis) – are classic combinations.
So you can enjoy the pleasures of bulbs every spring, include a few varieties that naturalise in the garden, reappearing year a er year. Jonquils are great for this, as are snowflakes (Leucojum sp.), freesias, sparaxis, ipheion and Spanish bluebells. As with all bulbs, remember where they’re planted, so you don’t dig them up during their dormant period over summer.
Under lightly foliaged deciduous trees, where the lawn is thin and patchy, consider creating a woodland planting of bulbs. Sca er them by the handful and plant them where they land (top tip, use a bulb planter to make the job easier). Some of the best varieties for this landscape style are those that are happy in light shade, including bluebells, daffodils, snowflakes and snowdrops. A er their foliage dies off at the end of spring, you can start mowing the grass again.
6 a sweet spectacle
A simple path can become a magical journey when you plant an array of tulips and yellow poppies amid the flourish of pink honesty and blue forget-me-nots.