Self-sufficient bulbs

Flowers that garden themselves may sound too good to be true, but Toby has high hopes for his tulips

- Toby Buckland

THERE’S only one thing more satisfying than hands-on gardening… and that’s when the garden gets off its you-knowwhat and does the work for you.

I’ve been reflecting on this while planting my newly bought box of tulips – bulbs that, once they’ve flowered, generally can’t be relied upon to come back year after year, because there are exceptions to the tulips’ ‘flower once and buy again’ rule.

The species tulips are the wild parents of the highly bred parrots, lilyflowered and triumph varieties – and not only will they self-sow, but they also bloom from smaller bulbs so they don’t take long to reach flowering size.