Every spring, I eagerly wait for beautiful tulips to appear in my garden, and when they come up “leaves only”, I remember that I didn’t plant anything new the previous fall!
Well, this September I’m going to invest a bit more thought and cash and replenish my poor depleted bulbs.
Most of my daffodils and small bulbs – snowdrops, scilla, and iris reticulata and iris danfordiae - are still in pretty good shape. (I must make a note, though, to fertilize the bulbs after flowering next spring – something I always neglect to do! And I forget to mark where they are!)
I’m going to designate 8 small niches in my present garden to feature new bulb groupings.
Even though I always imagine seeing hundreds of new tulips in my garden, I must remind myself that tulips are a squirrel’s favourite lunch! Nothing is more frustrating than seeing all your hard work undone by hungry, pesky squirrels a day or two after planting!! Nope – I’ll stick with daffodils, crocus, allium, muscari and puschkinia – the bulbs that the little rodents don’t like.
First area:
Some early colour right beside the driveway: purple and yellow crocus in among the dark purple ajuga, along with some white snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) and Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa gigantea alleni.)
Second area:
8” ‘Tete a Tete’ (Jack Snipes) golden yellow daffodils with 14” white, fragrant ‘Thalia’ daffodils – both so tiny and dainty surrounded by anemone blanda “Blue Star’ (St. Brigid) and pale blue, striped Puschkinia scilloides (libanotica). If I feel bold, I may throw in some bright red 8” kaufmanniana ‘Showwinner’ tulips.
Third area:
3 great daffodils: lemon yellow ‘Baby Moon’ (7”), white ‘February Silver’(10”), fabulously fragrant ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (16”), in a sea of blue and white muscari mixture.
Fourth area:
Strong, tall 16” white ‘Mount Hood’ and 20” bright yellow ‘King Alfred’ with dark blue-purple muscari armeniacum.
Fifth area:
Here are some of the double early tulips I cannot resist: soft pink-on-pink ‘Angelique’
(16-18”) and double white 12” ‘Schoonoord’. They look like baby peonies, come a month early! I could plant dark purple Johnny Jump-ups around them.
Sixth area:
Well, this September I’m going to invest a bit more thought and cash and replenish my poor depleted bulbs.
Most of my daffodils and small bulbs – snowdrops, scilla, and iris reticulata and iris danfordiae - are still in pretty good shape. (I must make a note, though, to fertilize the bulbs after flowering next spring – something I always neglect to do! And I forget to mark where they are!)
I’m going to designate 8 small niches in my present garden to feature new bulb groupings.
Even though I always imagine seeing hundreds of new tulips in my garden, I must remind myself that tulips are a squirrel’s favourite lunch! Nothing is more frustrating than seeing all your hard work undone by hungry, pesky squirrels a day or two after planting!! Nope – I’ll stick with daffodils, crocus, allium, muscari and puschkinia – the bulbs that the little rodents don’t like.
First area:
Some early colour right beside the driveway: purple and yellow crocus in among the dark purple ajuga, along with some white snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) and Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa gigantea alleni.)
Second area:
8” ‘Tete a Tete’ (Jack Snipes) golden yellow daffodils with 14” white, fragrant ‘Thalia’ daffodils – both so tiny and dainty surrounded by anemone blanda “Blue Star’ (St. Brigid) and pale blue, striped Puschkinia scilloides (libanotica). If I feel bold, I may throw in some bright red 8” kaufmanniana ‘Showwinner’ tulips.
Third area:
3 great daffodils: lemon yellow ‘Baby Moon’ (7”), white ‘February Silver’(10”), fabulously fragrant ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (16”), in a sea of blue and white muscari mixture.
Fourth area:
Strong, tall 16” white ‘Mount Hood’ and 20” bright yellow ‘King Alfred’ with dark blue-purple muscari armeniacum.
Fifth area:
Here are some of the double early tulips I cannot resist: soft pink-on-pink ‘Angelique’
(16-18”) and double white 12” ‘Schoonoord’. They look like baby peonies, come a month early! I could plant dark purple Johnny Jump-ups around them.
Sixth area:
A section devoted to peach and pink daffodils, which I will plant in the shade so they don’t turn yellow-ish: 16” ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ (this used to be THE pink daffodil from the 1920’s and 1930’s); 16” white with pink corona ‘Accent’ and the 12-18” ‘Easter Bonnet’.Seventh area:
Sorry – I can’t resist – this one’s going to be a squirrel’s buffet, just like the double earlies: 3 beloved tulips: (26” deep rose pink) Renown, (30” ivory) Maureen and (26” soft pink) Menton, surrounded by dark purple pansies and a sea of white perennial candytuft.
Eighth area:
I used to have a lot of these and they truly deserve to planted again: 24” ‘Estella Rijnveld’, white and red striped parrot tulips, 30” ‘Queen of the Night’, the it’s-so-dark-purple-it-almost-looks-black! tulip, 24” Lily-flowered tulip ‘White Triumphator’ and super tall (3 ½’!) Allium giganteum ‘Globemaster’. Maybe I could plant them near the lilac bush.Wowee!! Am I going to love spring 2006!!
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