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Spring bulbs

From fragrant daffodils to showy tulips in pots

Forgetting to plant spring bulbs in autumn is something we’ve all done, followed by regret at the lack of colour from February to May!

Although it can be hard work planting larger bulbs in heavy soil, it’s well worth the effort. I thought digging up the lawn was tough on a bad back. Try planting 150 daffodils in heavy clay/gravel! A long-handled bulb planter is worth its weight in gold. They dig a circular hole, then the clod of earth inside is pushed out by the next hole, and so on.

The golden rule is to plant at twice the depth of the bulb (10-15cm deep), 10-20cm apart. For miniature daffodils, space 7.5-12.5cm apart. I do have some unnamed bulbs that arrived as a free gift with an order in pots and I space these much closer.

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Daffodils from February to May

I wanted some early season scent and nothing too fancy. This is what I have in my garden, in order of expected blooming time:

  • Tete a Tete: Dwarf variety with up to three star-shaped flowers per stem, white with cream trumpets. Ht. 15cm. Flowers late February/March. For more early daffodils, check out my post here.
  • Minnow: Cream and yellow flowers. 15-20cm tall and produces two to four dainty little soft yellow flowers per stem. Well known for its ability to increase rapidly. Fragrant. Flowers March/April.
  • Pacific Coast: A yellow version of Minnow. Fragrant. Height 15-20cm. Flowers March/April.
  • Sweetness: Jonquil type, bold-shaped cups, golden yellow throughout, up to five flowers per stem. Height 40cm. Very fragrant. Flowers March/April.
  • Sun Disc: Broad, overlapping perianth segments, which fade from buttery yellow to rich cream as they mature, surround a flattened, darker yellow corona. Each stem produces 1-3 scented flowers. Height 18cm. Flowers April.
  • Triandrus Thalia: Fragrant single trumpet Narcissus, multi-headed, 30cm, flowers April/May.
  • Cheerfulness: Added in 2020, fragrant with 1-3 double flowering blooms per stem. White perianth with an ivory and lemon centre. Height 35cm. Flowers April/May.
  • Yellow Cheerfulness: As above but yellow.

Please note: these flowering times have proved to be rubbish. With our unpredictable winters, Thalia bloomed in March one year, Tete a Tete started in February, Sun Disc in May. It’s a lottery.

  • Daffodils and tulips in pots, April 22
  • April garden
  • April garden
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  • April garden
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  • April garden

Freebie bulbs to brighten up pots

Although I like named varieties of plants to plan specific colour schemes, bargain mixes have their place. This is especially true of bulbs, as you can pack them in for a bright display. When they’ve finished flowering, either put the pots out of the way until next spring or sow fast-growing annuals in for double impact. Always let the foliage die back naturally to replenish the bulbs for next year.


Tulips’ blaze of glory

It’s usually a story of diminishing returns with big, showy tulips – magnificent first year, the display getting steadily worse with each passing season. However, when buying bulbs, look out for those that are good at naturalising, so they will give a good display for more than one spring.

I treat tulips as annuals, growing them in pots. They don’t do well in my cold, clay soil, so I tend to buy bulbs in the sales each autumn (usually November to early December, to avoid the tulip fire virus). This also means I can treat myself to different colour schemes for next to nothing. By the way, late planting isn’t a sin with tulips – read all about it here.

  • Buying spring bulbs
  • Buying spring bulbs
  • Tulip Salmon Dynasty buy spring bulbs
  • Carnival de Nice - variegated leaves and pink and white flowers
  • Tulip Rems Favourite
  • Tulip Lambada
  • Tulip El Nino
  • Tulip Spring Green

My favourite spring bulbs – tulips

I’ve lost count of the varieties I’ve grown over the years but here are some of my favourites:

  • Prinses Irene (single early): A Triumph tulip I’ve grown before, with electric orange petals and purple/rust coloured stripes. They are sweetly scented and have short, sturdy stems, making them ideal for windy gardens. Flowers from late March, very long lasting. Plant 10-15cm deep in well-drained, fertile soil – ideal for pots, height 40cm.
  • Black Knight (single late): Almost black, flowering from April to May and a perfect partner to El Nino. It reaches a height of 50-60cm. Plant in full sun or partial shade in well-drained, fertile soil.
  • El Nino (Triumph): This colour-changing tulip begins golden yellow and orange, with salmon-rose appearing as wild stripes or speckles that intensify and deepen with age. No two look the same, and each one stands on a contrasting yellow-green stem with broad lance-shaped leaves. Flowers April to May, height 40cm.
  • Curly Sue: purple, fringed, flowers April-May, 50cm.
  • Lambada: orange, fringed, also flowering at the same time, 40cm.

Tulip Pinocchio
Tulip Pinocchio in the bulb’s first year

Spring bulbs – When happy accidents occur

If you dig up tulips to replace them, then like potatoes, you’re bound to miss some, known as ‘volunteers’. They don’t flower as well en masse to keep them but still manage to produce the odd bloom to ruin any plans you may have!

Two offenders in my garden are the pure white Diana and dwarf red Greigii Pinocchio. The latter has variegated leaves and a Euphorbia of unknown parentage is growing in the pot. Makes quite a nice pairing – a happy accident. I like it when that happens.


  • Tulip tarda, April 14
  • Tulip tarda garden in pictures April
  • Tulip Little Beauty garden in pictures April
  • Tulip Little Beauty
  • Tulip Lilac Wonder

No need to replant with species tulips

You can beat having to replace tulips by growing their smaller species varieties, hailing from mountainous regions in Central Asia. They’re extremely tough and can be left in the ground where they will come back year after year, forming good-sized clumps.

All they need is a sunny spot with reasonably fertile, free-draining soil. Plant November-December, 10-15cm deep and 10-15cm apart. Remove the flowers after they have faded and apply a balanced liquid fertiliser for a month before they die down.

  • Tulipa Little Beauty: upright bowl-shaped flowers. The hot pink petals often have a green flush on their outer edges, while the inside eye is a mix of creamy white and rich blue, 15cm tall.
  • Tulipa saxatilis Lilac Wonder: mauve-pink flowers, with a paler interior and a luminous, well-defined eye, 25cm tall.
  • Tulipa tarda: Lance-shaped green leaves, which in early to mid-spring are crowned with white-tipped yellow flowers, 15cm tall.

Crocus
The stunning display from 75 crocus corms, thanks to George

Spring bulbs – Crocuses that croaked it

Ever since I moved into this house in the late 1980s, one solitary white crocus has forced its way through every spring under the whitebeam. I haven’t the heart to get rid of it.

As an apology for a late order, I was sent a bag of mixed crocus. Not what I would have picked, but why not? I planted all 75 of them near the greenhouse – a little colour on a late winter’s day.

No such luck. George fettled all but about six of them, as he treats the friable soil there like a litter tray. Ah, well. They cost me nothing.

Spring bulbs updated 2023