If we have to trust advertising the best time to start
planting bulbs for spring is in September. This couldn’t be more wrong for
spring-flowering plants; the autumn-flowering bulbs are an exception! The end
of November up to half December are actually much better, providing you don’t
live in a frost pocket where the ground is too hard by that time to
get anything into the ground. So recently my closing ceremony for autumn was
performed: I’ve planted my containers with bulbs and pansies to have something
to look at through the winter months and into spring.
I cleared my pots of the summer plants, that had
completely gone over (middle) and removed the uppermost 10 centimetres of soil
in the process. I had already bought new tulips and daffodils (right) and trays
of pansies (left). Sadly no orange pansies were available.
I plant my pots with bulbs in the “lasagne style”:
first I remove 10 centimetres more of the potting compost and add in some dried
cow poop pellets. At the bottom I plant the late Parrot tulips (left). These
are covered by old compost into which I plant the early Triumph tulips. These
are covered with a mix of old and new compost. Into this the daffodils are
planted. As I found some crocuses had survived and were sprouting, I replanted
these corms amongst the daffodil bulbs (middle). I then planted the pansies
above the last layer of bulbs, making sure to fill the gaps with fresh compost.
Only days in the ground, the first signs of winter have come down resulting in
a light dusting of snow covering my pots (right). The pansies will brave even
that weather with the buds not opening until it warms up.
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