Easy but rewarding.

It’s time to choose those summer flowering bulbs – gorgeous begonias, dahlias, irises, liliums, crocosmia, freesias and so many more… ready for planting in early spring when everything begins to wake up and the wet weather (hopefully) subsides. The risk of bulbs rotting in waterlogged ground should be all but gone by then, leaving you able to focus on plans for great colour displays…

Ensure the soil is well prepared with adequate drainage and then dig a hole around three times the length of your bulb from base to tip and place the bulbs in the hole with their ‘nose’ or shoot facing upwards. Space them at least twice the bulb’s width apart and then replace the soil, gently firming down with the back of a rake. Avoid treading on the soil where you’ve just planted if they’re in the ground – you may damage the bulbs.

With more showy flowers, try making a statement in pots or containers,  or take advantage of dramatic tall summer blooms, which can also create a wonderful sensory display with their fantastic scent – while taking up relatively little valuable space.

Often overshadowed by their earlier spring flowering counterparts, summer flowering bulbs don’t always get the publicity and limelight they deserve. Granted, the daffodil and tulip create a special first display of much-needed colour after a fairly colourless winter, but the pleasure summer flowering bulbs can bring to the garden, in combination with complementing shrubs, perennials and annuals shouldn’t be underestimated.