Prepare for Spring!
By Rachael Leverton
September is the time to plan your spring bulb purchases. The best selections always sell out quickly and it’s frustrating when the prettiest crocuses and tulips are not available. If you’re planting bulbs for the first time, or in a new area of the garden it helps to have a colour scheme in mind. In a boy-dominated house (three sons and a husband) I like to give some areas of my garden a more girly theme. Tulips are great for this purpose (and are some of my favourite flowers). Try ‘La Belle Epoque’, which is a frothy peony-flowered tulip with pale coffee petals flushed with pink. I would contrast the texture of its showier blooms with another more traditional tulip, Pink Diamond’ or ‘Apricot Beauty’. If you’d prefer less ‘pretty’ and more drama try the almost-black ‘Paul Scherer’, which should flower in late April or early May and makes a good foil to the aforementioned Apricot Beauty, which flowers at the same time.
I garden on quite dry limey soil, and I’ve mentioned before my love affair with Bath Chatto’s planting schemes. Sadly, she died in 2018 but her gardens and trust continue and are well worth a visit. This year on their recommendation I’m trying Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, known poetically as the spiked star of Bethlehem, and more prosaically as Bath asparagus.. It has subtle, green flowers and grows to 50-60cm tall. It pairs well with silver-leaved plants like Stachys, which grows like a weed in my garden, and best of all, once established you can harvest it like asparagus. I like to plant up a few pots this month, for some late autumn and winter colour. I favour Rust-toned heucheras, paired with miniature grasses such as Carex buchananii; Oxblood-coloured ajuga, silver-leaved thymes and small-leaved trailing ivies make great combinations too.
I have sempervivums shoved in crevices all over my garden. They are incredibly hardy and will survive all manner of frost and poor weather. We have a lovely sheltered sunny patio with a small table and chairs which is lovely to sit out on even in the winter. A few years ago, I started planting up shallow terracotta trays and a couple of old tin bowls with differing varieties of house leek. I mix one-part horticultural grit to one part peat-free multipurpose compost for the planting mix, and make sure any container has lots of drainage. Handy tip – top dress with grit or stones if you don’t want the birds to start digging around scattering your planting mix and unearthing your plants! I learned the hard way! These little flat planting bowls make a lovely table display and also make wonderful birthday and…erm…Christmas gifts.