Bulbs for turf

Brighten lawns, rough grass and meadows with spring flowers. The best ones will push through the grasses to flower year after year

- Anne Swithinbank

FROM lowly crocus to stately camassias, many plants that grow from bulbs, corms and tubers are happy to thrive in grass, from lawns to swaying meadows.

Their flowers add colour against a green backdrop and attract pollinating insects. Many are planted from early autumn to bloom next spring and now is a good time to order or buy bulbs.

Both hoop petticoat daffodil and pheasant’s-eye narcissus benefit from a late August planting and should be in place by October. Snowdrop bulbs dislike being dried out and are best planted early and promptly, or left until they are ‘in the green’. Match plants to the type of soil, position and grass available, manage them well and they will ‘naturalise’. This means settling down to bloom every year, with colonies expanding by multiplication or seed.

Leave the foliage 

Adding bulbs to lawns that are usually mown closely works well, as long as you don’t mind part of the lawn growing long while leaves refuelling the bulbs for flowering the following year. For example, once the flowers have faded on your ‘February Gold’ daffodils, their foliage requires at least six weeks of growth, preferably until they die back, before the area is mown. Neat clumps of daffodils can become congested over time. Lift, divide and replant after flowering to extend their group.

Timing the cut