SENDING off one final bulb order this week, I noticed that the supplier had craftily suggested to plantaholics like me that we might like to extend our spring and summer display with some autumn bulbs.
It's easy to forget when juggling orders for tulips, jonquils and daffodils that other flowering bulbs exist.
But there are lots that bloom in late summer and autumn and they have endless uses in the garden.
They're perfect for filling gaps left by fading flowering perennials, some will naturalise beautifully among shrubs, and others are splendid for pots, on their own or with two or three companions.
Related reading:
Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum, 40-60 centimetres) fulfil all these purposes.
Their flat, starry white flower clusters stand up well above the narrow leaves and they're excellent in a mixed planting as neither flowers nor foliage ever flops.
Their drawback (like that of many of the onion family) is a slight tendency to seed, though they often obligingly appear in just the right place, like among Sedum Autumn Joy that blooms at the same time.
I try to remember to chop the flowers down in one go when they start to fade and this seems to keep them in check.
Bill's mother's was a great fan of colchicums, especially autumn flowering C. byzantinum (15cm to 20cm.) which grew beautifully in her New England garden with summer rainfall. I need hardly add I've had no luck with it further south, which is disappointing, as I love all crocus-type flowers and colchicums are the most dramatic: large, rose-pink chalices that appear long after the prolific spring foliage has come and gone.
The spider lily, Lycoris, was another favourite of Bill's mum, with flowers similar to South African nerines but with longer, more prominent stamens.
Spider lilies are native to China and Japan and like colchicums, need year-round or at least summer rainfall. Australian growers offer several varieties, including bright gold L. aurea (45cm) and brick red L. radiata (30cm), both lovely.
Luckily I can grow nerines without difficulty. The various pink N. bowdenii (40cm to 60cm.) hybrids do well, also the lower growing, crinkly petalled, pure white N. sarniensis (30cm.).
Sadly the best of the bunch, gold dusted, scarlet N. forhergillii Major, is tricky, appearing only when it suits him, which isn't often.
I have more luck with the little autumn crocus, Sternbergia lutea (10cm to 15cm) with shiny, enamelled gold flowers.
Coming from the Mediterranean and further east, in areas of predominantly winter rainfall, it's perfect for gardeners in southern districts of NSW. It's a friend's favourite autumn bulb, blooming reliably on April 1 to tell her that cooler weather has finally arrived.
Sternbergias like full sun but if you're looking to fill a corner of dappled shade, the similarly sized rain lily (flowers after rain), South American Zephyranthes candida, has starry white flowers with a pale-yellow heart and is evergreen.
I have saved my favourite autumn bloomer to last. Tiny carpeting cyclamen (C. hederifolium) has miniature purple flowers and silver marbled foliage, the perfect ground cover among falling autumn leaves.
Subscribers have access to download our free app today from the App Store or Google Play
