March is an expensive month - I'm often tempted to order far too many summer bulbs from both mail-order companies and the internet.
I'm a sucker for summer-flowering bulbs, and at this time of year I always get carried away. March is an expensive month — I'm often tempted to order far too many summer bulbs from both mail-order companies and the internet.
I use the term 'bulb' as a general catch-all term for those plants that can be grown from dormant bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes. Among my regular favourites are begonias, dahlias, canna lilies and eucomis, the pineapple flower. Then there's galtonia, the summer hyacinth, an easy-to-grow bulb that produces flowers during August, filling that colour gap between summer perennials that have passed their best and autumn ones that are yet to start flowering.
My lilies have already been planted, but bulbs may still be available, usually with shoots emerging. Then there are delightful acidanthera, bright but short-lived tigridia, climbing glory lily (gloriosa), and weird arisaema. Good garden centres may stock popular bulb ranges, but for something more unusual you really do need to do a little research, and that's the joy of the internet. Within a few minutes you can discover bulbs you've never seen before — just show some restraint before pressing the 'buy' button!
Many of these summer flowering bulbs are tender exotics that really need to be planted in pots of compost rather than directly into the garden. Coming from warm and tropical regions of the world also means they enjoy warm growing conditions, so a greenhouse or conservatory really is helpful to provide the protection needed to get them started.
I'm off to unpack a large box that the postman has just delivered. It seems I got carried away ... again.
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