The Spring Bulb Trough

Sometimes it feels like Spring came and went within a matter of a week, what with the strange heatwave we had last weekend everything’s gone a little crazy! Although it’s back to normal April weather right now with heavy showers and the woolly jumper back on…

We were selling at Firle Place Garden Show last weekend and the weather was glorious, but all I could think about was how I was missing all the Spring bulbs blooming up my allotment in the sunshine. Before we left I visited the plot to give it a good watering and spotted my last new variety of daffodil in bloom ‘Sophies Girl’, I also spied my ‘Spring Green’ tulips looking beautiful and my first ever Ranunculas was in flower. I left with a heavy heart knowing that by the time I returned all those blooms would be well past it… Luckily for me I caught the end of them just in time and when I walked down the path towards my patch of my land I couldn’t help but smile at all the colours waiting for me.

My tulip trough has been a bit of a disaster this year and it’s something I need to look into further. All the bulbs produced beautiful green foliage earlier on in the year but when half of them produced buds they rotted, turning a nasty brown colour. The rest of the varities had mottled leaves which unfortunately have appeared on the petals too, the lovely ‘Hermitage’ bloomed but with stunted stems and spotty petals and the bright yellow ‘Hocus Pocus’ also suffered with the disease. Whereas ‘La Belle Epoque’, ‘Brownie’, ‘Ice Cream’, ‘Queen of the Night’ and ‘Green Bizarre’ will never bloom and this makes me so sad. I was hoping that this was going to be the best year so far on plot 15c, that I would have a full trough full of stunning tulips and that the house would be blessed with cut flowers. It seems the only tulip to put on a beautiful show was ‘Spring Green’ which never suffered any problems or showed any signs of a disease. It’s something I’m going to look into as I find it all very strange…

On the plus side the narcissus produced an amazing display and they have made their way into my heart. All three of my new varieties bloomed beautifully and I was blown away with each and every one. ‘Sophie’s Girl’, ‘Cheerfulness’ and ‘My Story’ will definitely be grown again in the future and I’m even tempted to grow more varieties of daffodils! Another flower on the good list are the Ranunculas and they’ve surprised me this Spring. I purchased a cheap mixed bag of bulbs last November and planted them in the trough with hope and prays that they would bloom, and they did just that! The spare bulbs I potted up in the greenhouse were the first to bloom and so far they’ve all been a beautiful bright pink colour, I just adore them. They remind me of paper flowers with the delicate petals and last such a long time in a vase, a must for growing in the future! I’m also excitedly looking forward to the Alliums in front of the trough who are showing new healthy growth every time I visit.

One thing I do know is that this isn’t the last of the flowers from plot 15c, there’s lots of seedlings growing happily away in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out in the flower border. I’m so excited to see the plot brimming with flowers and I just hope the border turns out better then the trough. It just goes to show that no matter how organised you are things don’t always go to plan!

I’m waving goodbye to the plot again today as the Lavender and Leeks tour is taking us to Powderham Castle in Exeter. We’ll be setting up shop at Toby’s Garden Festival and I am so excited, his show’s are always amazing plus it just so happens to be my birthday on Saturday 🙂

Have a lovely weekend everyone!