Final Fling

While at this time of year most of us are scrambling to buy and plant out bulbs for spring, Frank finds time to stop and marvel at the beauty of autumn bulbs and corms

- Frank Ronan

Autumn is a manic time for bulbs. Either you are bulb rich and time poor and unopened boxes are sitting in the boot room, or you haven’t ordered enough or ordered in time and friends are making you jealous with reports of their unopened boxes and now you are trawling the internet for the last 50 of anything acceptable in existence. It is all about spring and our imaginations have leapfrogged the winter months. It is not that we are unaware of October’s charm, but we look up to the glowing trees and across to the burning horizons to see them. It is swansong in our minds when, really, the plants themselves have no such philosophy.

Perhaps we associate bulbs and spring because that is when they have the bare earth to themselves. Now it is all a little bit fusty and decayed at ground level and it is a hard task for a mere crocus to freshen a summer’s growth decaying. But that is simply a matter of presentation, which is our job and not that of the bulb. When autumn bulbs are done well there is nothing better.