Bulbs To Plant In Spring

Christopher Lloyd looks at outdoor bulbs you can plant in the first months of the year

- Christopher Lloyd

MANY gardeners have the idea that bulbs are planted in autumn or not at all. But there are a number that are best planted in spring and these fall into two groups. First, those that you buy dry and plant soon in the expectation that they will flower this coming summer or autumn. Second, those that you plant green, immediately they have finished flowering, because this is the best time to move them.

To take this second group first, snowdrops hate being dried off for sale in the autumn, but if you plant them while their leaves and roots are still active, they settle down at once and you have no losses. Most bulb firms prefer to handle dried material only, but a few specialists do cater for the best interests of the bulb rather than of their own marketing organisation, and from them you can buy snowdrops in the spring.

It is the same with spring snowflakes. The earliest of them, Leucojum vernum, will be in flower this month [February]; it has large bells on short stems. This is quickly followed in March and April by L. aestivum, a strongly growing species that can be associated with daffodils and has much the same sort of leaf. It has three or four white, green-tipped bells to a stem and these open in succession. The more substantial-flowered ‘Gravetye Giant’ is worth buying rather than the wild type.

A very different cup of tea, L. Autumnale [Acis autumnalis], which flowers in August and September, is only 6in (15cm) tall and should be given a sunny position on a rock ledge. Its white bells are flushed pink and carried on almost black stems.

Winter aconites establish most easily in spring, and if you want to split and increase or move any crocuses in your own garden, whether they are autumn or spring flowering, spring is the best time to do it, while their ‘grass’ is green.

Bulbs for summer and autumn