IT’S time to order bulbs for next spring, one of my favourite gardening moments.
Despite the ease and appeal of trawling through bulb offers online, in my world nothing beats sinking into a chair with a hot coffee and a heap of catalogues.
I’m happy to order online, it’s easier and quicker, but when it comes to choosing bulbs, give me a large, glossy, colourful brochure any day, it triggers my imagination far faster.
I start with hyacinths as I plant these first, in pots, to give to our daughters – together with a few for ourselves - to brighten all our kitchens in mid-winter. A staggered planting ensures weeks of heavenly scent. If you plant hyacinths out in the garden as they fade, they’ll grow and multiply though the flowers will shrink over time.
As hyacinth blooms are rather a stiff and awkward shape I try to disguise this by planting three of one colour together in one 10 x 12 centimetre pot. Although this means treating the bulbs as annuals, it’s tremendous fun, especially for children, to watch roots forming and flowers emerging.
Store all indoor bulbs in a dark cupboard for 6-8 weeks until flower spikes reach about 50 millimetres. Remember to keep bulbs in pots damp.
Daffodils and jonquils are classics for winter and early spring and you can never have too many. They soon increase so by ordering a few new varieties each year you quickly build a collection.
I have acquired many favourites over time. Pheasant’s Eye has single, snowy white flowers with a dark red and gold heart and lovely scent. Diggers also offer a pack of mixed, fragrant winter daffodils (50 bulbs for $40.80) that includes 20 of the powerfully scented Eerlicheer, the earliest double jonquil to flower in my Central Tablelands garden.
Tesselaars come up with something new every season. This year it’s the turn of Dutch iris: Eye of the Tiger, rich bronze/purple, and Lion King, deep tawny brown and gold.
My only slight reservation is dark, richly tinted Dutch irises are neither so long lasting nor so quick to multiply as old favourites Apollo, and Professor Blaauw.
Never mind, like all gardeners I’m convinced that one day reality will match the dream. I’ve left tulips to last as they’re the final bulbs I plant, in early May just before time runs out. If you haven’t grown tulips before, start with easy Darwin hybrids in a wide choice of colours from Tasmanian growers Vogelvry.
Passionate tulip aficionados might like to try Vogelvry’s Lily Flowering hybrids, whose elegant, narrow-waisted flowers flare into pointed petals, also in a wide choice of colours including pure white and soft pink.
