HOW TO GROW BULBS IN THE GREEN

Anne Swithinbank explains the best to plant this spring

MY favourite garden design is the simple classic of formality and exotic plantings up by the house, with some breathing space in the middle, and a spot of wilderness towards the end. This works well in plots both large and small, creating plenty of different habitats for plants.

In the wilder parts of the garden, spring bulbs are great for filling gaps between trees and shrubs. They’ll thread themselves through turf, beds and pots, growing, flowering and dying back before leaves shade the ground. From February to May, sheets of yellow aconites and snowdrops, clumps of yellow narcissus, carpets of fragrant bluebells and banks of wood anemones also provide nectar and pollen for bees and other insects.

While the majority of spring-flowering bulbs are bought and planted during autumn while dry and dormant, there are a few that suffer if kept out of the ground too long. Snowdrops, bluebells and winter aconites tend to dry out too much, and can struggle to regain vigour and put down roots. A good option here is buying them ‘in the green’, when they are lifted and sent out in growth, usually during or just after flowering in spring. Handled carefully and planted promptly on arrival, these growing plants should establish quickly and many will bloom the following year.

Be sure to order wild, dainty English bluebells and not the clunkier Spanish sort, as these hybridise with our natives, producing fertile offspring. Bluebells will seed themselves around, and while I don’t mind them popping up here and there (and they tidy themselves away by dying back for summer), some tidyminded gardeners consider them weeds. One can order wild garlic (Allium

ursinum or ramsons) ‘in the green’, but think twice before introducing them. While fresh young leaves make tasty pesto, an underground thicket of bulbs and shading foliage above will swamp finer bulbs and woodland plants.

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) bulbs in particular benefit from being planted in the green ‘In the green’ is also a good time to lift, divide and replant clumps of existing bulbs; these Galanthus ‘Dionysus’ were forked up by accident and although only just sprouting, they are being divided into five groups of bulbs for replanting Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) bulbs struggle to put down roots, and so planting in the green helps them to establish quickly

Choose English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), with their distinctive nod