Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
COURTYARDS AND BALCONIES
Take advantage of sunny spots in your entertaining area!
BE DIFFERENT
• Against a sunny balcony railing, create a spring bulb display using long trough planters. Try a combination of yellow daffodils with an edging of lower-growing grape hyacinths for a splash of blue. Or, swap out the daffodils for one of the compact tulip varieties.
• Create impact with repetition. Gather a selection of similar pots – classic terraco a look great – and plant them all up with the same bulb variety. You’ll get the impact of a massed planting, but on a mini scale. You can position the pots in a cluster, on a set of steps, or along a window ledge.
• Give your courtyard or balcony a central focus by composing a large ‘layered’ pot, filled with a mix of bulb varieties. Use a container at least 35–40cm wide, and fill with a top-quality po ing mix. Plant the bulbs at their recommended depths, staggering each layer slightly so they’re not si ing directly on top of each other. For the best effect, go for a combination of tall, medium and short growing bulbs – how about tulips, hyacinths and grape hyacinths? Glorious! • Think about going up. If it’s safe, grow your bulbs in narrow pots on the handrails of your balcony.
Anemone poppies are excellent cut flowers.
7 simply the best
You don’t have to overdo your spring plants – especially if your garden has striking features like a rusted steel, fern-pa erned wall panel and distressed, cubed wooden seats. Let your spring garden say “hooray!” with a couple of irises that add colour to the mass of greenery on the hostas.
8 pressed for time
Keep those spring bulbs forever by pressing them onto cards. Try snowdrops, dwarf daffodils, fritillaries, crocuses and irises. You can use them as personalised and unique cards for birthdays, anniversaries and even Christmas!
9 tucked in tight
For maximum impact, mass-plant tulips in groups of 50 or more bulbs. For the ideal dense look, space the bulbs 5-7cm apart. Any further and the display will look stretched and the impact will be lost.
10 bring them indoors
Growing tulips indoors in a vase of water is a different way to make an impression! Keep the water level very low – avoid ge ing the bulb wet – to encourage roots to grow and be sure to change the water daily.