Winter Bedding

03 October 2008

You might think looking at the bedding plants that they would go on forever, but there is no such thing as a permanent bedding plant. The time has come to pull them up never mind how they are looking. If the frost does not get them the wind and rain will. By taking them out now there is enough time for the spring flowering bedding plants to get established.

We will dig over our beds dress them with recycled compost and a little fertiliser, rake it all in and leave the beds to settle for about two weeks .The weeds will grow like mad, then we spray them with weedol and plant the spring flowering plants, which should grow away with no weeds to bother them. Traditionally beds were planted in wallflower, tulips, stocks and polyanthus.These flowered in March and April giving a glorious show before planting summer flowering annuals in mid may .If beds are left empty then there is a big gap in the spring with no colour , we then have the problem of people wanting to plant summer bedding in April when they can get frosted.

In smaller gardens there is a demand for plants that flower longer and look good through the winter. There are now winter flowering pansies and violas, primulas that flower almost all winter, dwarf wallflowers that flower in the winter and the spring, dwarf antirrinums that flower in the winter and cyclamen that keep going to Christmas. The first bulbs start flowering in February and others keep the colour going through to April. Bulbs mixed with spring flowering bedding add a few bits of greenery like grasses, small shrubs, conifers, evergreen ferns and a wisp of ivy and all those containers that look so sad and empty all winter will brighten up the gloom of a winter’s day.

Now is also the time to be thinking bulbs. What would spring be like without their colour? Bulbs are basically flowers in waiting. The flower is already set in the bulb and all it needs is some moisture and warmth to get going. In the case of treated hyacinths the bulb spends time in cold storage and is fooled into thinking that it has been through winter, planting it now will ensure flowering at Christmas. Bulbs are almost always bound to flower, bigger bulbs produce more flowers and small bulbs may grow but not produce flowers.

There are bulbs for rockeries. Species tulips and species crocus ,dwarf daffs and snowdrops. Bulbs for shady places, anenomes, aconites, cyclamen and dog tooth violets. Bulbs for naturalising in grass, daffodils, species crocus, fritillarias. In damp places cammassias and leucojums [summer snowflakes] There are things that do not look like bulbs think of alliums and the giant foxtail Lillies which flower in the early summer. For containers and beds think of tulips of all sizes and colour, tall tulips do not blow over .The council beds on the sea front are full of tulips every year. Plant them deeper but that’s another story.