STARTING TODAY READ LEONIE CORNELIUS’S INSPIRING GARDENING COLUMN

In her brand new weekly column the RTÉ Super Garden mentor and award-winning designer talks colourful indoor bulbs, a tricky coastal balcony and copper pots as well as what’s happening in the wider world of gardens.

I am absolutely delighted to welcome you to my new weekly column here at the Irish Mail on Sunday. My page aims to be an interesting collection of inspiring stories, all about planting, garden design and all things creative. Each week I will outline a different plant, explore a fascinating event or place and give tips on products and materials. If you want to ask me a garden designbased question do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you and help in any way I can in the reader’s question section.

I hope you enjoy reading this column as much as I enjoy writing it!

Leonie

PLANT OF THE WEEK Tulipa Prominence

February is this time of the year that I really start craving warmer weather. I start remembering how lush the border was last year and can’t wait for the first tulips to come out. With this in mind I decided to plant a few indoor bulbs for my windowsill. Most of the plants on my sills are succulent in nature so the idea of planting up a few tulips in a vibrant red would be a great splash of colour at this time of the year.

The idea of forcing bulbs for indoor displays has been around for a long time. In fact the Victorians were passionate about forcing bulbs, particularly hyacinths. Forcing plants is actually easy and whether growing in water in specialist ‘forcing vases’ or in pots of soil, they can make rewarding displays of blooms any time of the year.

The key to forcing them successfully is giving them a ‘cold treatment’, which in essence imitates a dormant winter period. To do this I like to plant as many bulbs as I can without them actually touching in a pot. I used three bulbs of the Tulipa ‘Prominence’ for this display and planted them into well draining, loose soil in a lovely turquoise copper pot.

I then watered them and placed them in an unheated garage in a dark spot to simulate a winter environment for about 10-16 weeks.

I have actually heard of people even placing the pots in the fridge for this period but I would be careful to avoid any temperatures close to freezing.

Now make sure your pots remain evenly moist but avoid them becoming too wet and when the roots start to show at the bottom of the pot, and also a bit of the leaves, you can start to move them to a slightly warmer location. I put mine on a cooler windowsill in a bathroom so it doesn’t get a heat shock. After about two weeks the tulips were out in their full glory and what a gorgeous display!