How to time travel to spring

The anticipation of cheerful spring bulbs can keep the gardener going through the dull winter months. John Hoyland advises on what to plant for every situation, from gravel to orchards, sun, shade or in pots

PART of the pleasure of gardening lies in the anticipation of future delights. At this time of year, as the garden is beginning to hunker down for autumn and before the descent into the dark days of winter, gardeners can console themselves by planting spring-flowering bulbs, envisaging the colour and cheer they will bring when the bleak days are done.

The enchantment of most kinds of spring bulbs is ephemeral, sometimes lasting only a couple of weeks, but each is a waymarker that leads the garden out of the winter and towards summer. Long-awaited snowdrops are quickly joined by aconites, which give way to crocus, before waves of daffodils and hyacinths and an explosion of tulips and alliums. Each bulb bounds into flower and then falls back, withdrawing into itself to wait, it is hoped, for a repeat performance the following spring.

Bulbs are the most dependable of plants; with the minimum of effort, they will reliably flower only a few months after planting.

Next spring's potential flowers have already developed within the bulb. How well they perform depends less on what greets them as they emerge and much more on the conditions they faced last season. Newly bought bulbs will have been pampered in nurseries or given perfect growing conditions in fields, which means they are almost guaranteed to flower. Plant over the next two months, leaving tulips until November.

Getting established bulbs to re-flower is, of course, dependent on the extent to which the growing conditions are suited to the particular species. Many of the bulbs we grow in this country come from places where winters are cold and summers are hot and dry. Usually, a bulb in the wild will build up enough energy after blooming to produce a bud for the following year, but sometimes, even in the wild, this may take a couple of seasons. Don't be disappointed if the same happens in the garden.