TULIPS

TULIPS

This must be one of the best ever years for spring flowering bulbs. In normal years we get a spring flush when a few really sunny warm days all come along together, but there has been none of that this year. Instead the long cool spell has been a boon as flowers are slow to open but remain in place for much longer than normal. Thus the tulips are having a great time alongside the daffodils and narcissi which are continuing to flower well past their season.

The garden is now seeing the benefits of flower bulb recycling over the years, as all bulbs used in flower beds, pots, tubs and baskets are replanted all over the garden and allowed to naturalise. Left to do their own thing without disturbance, and given a wee dressing of well rotted garden compost in early winter they seem to thrive and clumps build up over time to create magnificent drifts of mixed colours.

Tulip Carnaval du Nice

Last autumn flower tubs were planted up with polyanthus and winter pansies all underplanted with tulips, hyacinths and crocus. The tulips used were all dwarf early types so the flowers would show just above the bedding plants. Some of my favourite tulips included Monsella, Red Riding Hood, Peach Blossom and Abba. One large wooden tub has a group of scented oriental lilies for summer colour and fragrance. To give some spring colour the tub was also planted with Iceland poppies and a yellow single early tulip Cape Town. These will all be left to naturalise, but if the Iceland poppies begin to go over in mid summer they will be replaced with another late summer bedding plant.

I have always experimented with companion planting, so I thought it would be great to start the show early with tulips flowering alongside other garden plants. Tulip Scarlet Baby, an early flowering kaufmaniana type was planted adjacent to a large established drift of lemon yellow saxifrage. This year timing was perfect as they both came out together in early April, but my plan to add early orange tulips into a drift of blue pulmonaria is another story. I used a dwarf early variety, Monte Orange which never opened up till the end of April while the Pulmonaria was in full flower at the beginning of April. Just can’t win them all. This autumn I must find an earlier tulip.

Tulip Monsella

However my triumph tulip Negrita a deep purple growing 18 inches tall was just perfect mixed amongst a new planting of yellow Doronicums. Both are flowering together this year so I will leave them to naturalise, hoping next year they will still flower at the same time.

Last year I found a highly scented white tulip, Purissima. The scent was very pleasant so after some research I discovered there are quite a few scented tulips so I thought I would try several scented tulips to see if this feature had any prominence.

I bought another batch of Purissima, a fosteriana type frowering in mid April, some William of Orange, Abba and Monte Orange. I cannot say I got one whiff of scent from any of them, unless they need a warm humid atmosphere to give off their perfume. Even my own established Purissima let me down. Maybe it is just too cold this year for exotic scented tulips.

Up at the allotment I have a flower bed next to the main path to brighten up the plot. It has a permanent planting of a few roses, flag iris and Iceland poppies, with bulbs between them. It is

Tulip Aperdoorn

packed with daffodils, crocus, aconites and tulips so I get a continuous show from spring till autumn. The bulbs have been in the ground for many years and I add more whenever I see a wee gap. It is no longer possible to cultivate the soil so I just add some garden compost in autumn and the worms do the rest.

Wee jobs around the garden

As cold north winds continue to blow and frosty nights remain a problem, watch out for growth on early potatoes and earth up to give them some protection. My Casablanca appeared above ground in mid April one month after planting, but now towards the end of April there is still little sign of warm spring days. Similarly, early sown peas such as Kelvedon Wonder is now showing the tips breaking through the soil, so if frost threatens the either cover them with fleece or some soil.

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SPRING SOWING AND PLANTING

SPRING SOWING AND PLANTING

Sunny days are arriving so now we can get down to some serious sowing and planting on the vegetable patch. A lot of plants have been ready to plant, but it was necessary to wait till the soil had warmed up as cold north winds continue to dominate our spring weather.

Broad beans however are quite hardy so these were planted at the end of March and are now getting established, though the late cold weather did not help them.

Onions sown at the end of February had to wait a fair bit in the cold greenhouse to thicken up before they were big enough to plant out near the end of April.

Pea Kelvedon Wonder was sown at the beginning of April, but more in the hope that warmer weather was just round the corner. I am sure they will appear and grow just fine, but weather forecasts keep warning us of cold winds coming from the north, so I will be ready to give them a wee earth up if necessary.

John with lettuce ready to plant

Lettuce, radish, spring onions and beetroot grown in cellular trays eventually made some decent plants to plant out on my plot under a low polythene tunnel. This protection should bring them on fast, so salad days will soon be with us, though I am still getting plenty of use from my overwintered lettuce, spring onions and rocket. The rocket may be running up to seed, but the plants are still producing plenty of fresh leaves to use. Swiss chard sown last autumn has overwintered just fine and is now growing strongly so the row will get thinned out.

Other overwintered crops are now either finished such as my Swedes, sprouts and leeks but there is still plenty kale, cabbage, parsnips and soon my cauliflower Aalsmeer will be hearting up.

Turnips and parsnips have now been sown as we have had quite a few dry sunny but cool days when working the soil has been good.

My first green manure crop of clover has been sown on the ground allocated to my pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn as these will not get planted till early June. I hope to get a good cover then dig it in a week before planting. Some people prefer to cut off the top growth and compost it in case it hinders planting. This ground has been well composted in winter as pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn are heavy feeders and need fertile soil. The sweet corn has now been potted up into final pots to grow into bigger plants ahead of planting.

Sweet corn potted up

The greenhouse has been a hive of activity as plants get potted up and need more room so anything that is hardy goes outside. My tuberous begonia collection just gets bigger every year and although growth is well behind they still take up a lot of space. So young cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts plants are now all outdoors getting hardened off. The greenhouse border got a load of well rotted garden compost added and dug in to get ready for tomato planting direct into the border.

Sweet peas are also quite hardy so they went outdoors in mid April for planting out in very fertile soil at the end of April.

Geraniums are another hardy flower and several got so big I just had to get them planted into some tubs, at present full of pansies and tulips. So I had to remove some pansies to a flower border to make room. I now have geraniums in flower with a group of tulips waiting to open up. I’ve not tried that combination before.

Wee jobs around the garden

Rhubarb is now in full growth as the ground is still moist and warmer days appearing every so often, so start pulling off some sticks for immediate use and if you get a heavier crop than you can use then put some in the freezer. Remove any flower stalks as soon as they appear. Rhubarb used to be the poor man’s fruit as it was easy to grow and very cheap, but now research has shown it to be very important for good health. It is packed with vitamins C, K and B and the minerals calcium, potassium, manganese and magnesium. It should be eaten all year round and is just about reaching superfood status.

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DAFFODILS

DAFFODILS

The cool spring weather has been a bonus for spring flowers coming out a lot later than normal, but lasting a long time. We have had the snowdrops and aconites, then the crocus took over but now it is the turn of the narcissi and daffodils, though all the flowering bulbs are overlapping each other with some colder areas having their snowdrops still in flower in April.

Daffodil Westward

My daffodil season usually starts with February Gold, but a bit later this year in early April. This is followed on with the large yellow trumpets of King Alfred and Golden Harvest and the white Mount Hood. These are all scented like most narcissi though some have very pronounced scent such as the Cheerfulness group as well as the smaller flowered Jonquils. Daffodils have been around for a very long time and have been very popular with plant breeders so there are hundreds of varieties to choose from with new ones appearing every year.

Daffodils play a very important role in brightening up towns and villages as it was the custom to mass plant them in parks and verges in more prosperous times in the past before cut backs were created. Dundee has a wealth of spring colour from drifts of daffodils all over the town, and as new developments take place I hope the impact of this flower will continue to hold its place.

Narcissus Cheerfulness

They also brighten up our gardens letting us know that spring is here, and if you can spare some from the garden they make a great scented cut flower for the house. They are also very showy when grown in pots and tubs. They respond best when kept in a cool spot (against a north facing wall) after planting in autumn for a few months. This will help the roots to grow well ahead of the rest of the bulb so the plant flowers earlier in spring. When flowers are finished slowly dry off the bulbs and replant them somewhere else in the garden as they will come up again the following year.

This is a good time to note what is flowering, which colours you prefer and what empty spaces can do with planting next autumn. Plan ahead now so you can make sure you get your preferred bulbs while stocks last. There will also be some new varieties to try out.

New shrub borders always have a plenty of bare soil for several years as the shrubs slowly take up the space and this provides an ideal opportunity for bulb planting. If the shrubs are deciduous then the daffodils and narcissus can be a permanent feature and the leaves can die down and dry off as the shrub foliage grows in summer.

Field of daffodils

Daffodils make a greater impact if planted in large drifts where they can naturalise and increase as time goes by. Allow about six inches apart when planting in drifts. After flowering, the plant foliage remains green for a couple of months depending on weather. They will go yellow and dry off quicker in periods of dry warm weather. Do not be in a hurry to remove the foliage as this is what builds up the bulb for flowering the next year, but once the leaves have been removed disturb the soil surface to fill in any holes left by the dying leaves as this helps to deter the narcissus fly maggots from burrowing down into the soil to infect the dormant bulbs.

Wee jobs around the garden

Warmer days have started to arrive and young tomato plants are filling up their pots so they can now be planted out in the greenhouse. You can grow them in large pots, growbags or directly into a well prepared border. Traditionally I always used growbags, but always up for something different, two years ago I planted them out into my greenhouse soil border which I had dug over incorporating good garden compost. I got a great crop so I repeated the idea last year and got an even bigger crop, so I am again going to run with this idea. I will remove a few inches of topsoil and dig in plenty compost before planting out. Time will tell how they perform. I am growing Alicante as my maincrop, Sweet Million as my cherry, Sungold as my yellow tomato and Costoluto Fiorentino as my beafstake tomato.

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BUSY TIMES IN THE GARDEN

BUSY TIMES IN THE GARDEN

Spring seems to be a wee bit late this year. It has not been very cold, but the lack of a few really warm days is holding plant growth back. The ground outside is taking a long time to warm up so there is little point in making an early start to seed sowing and planting. However in some ways we still use the calendar to determine sowing times hoping the weather will behave and not drift too far off normal. Some plants are just fine but others can be very sensitive to low temperatures and lack of sunshine. Tomatoes are all now in the cold greenhouse, but seem quite happy and although most need potting up I will wait until we get better growing conditions.

Picking early rhubarb

Cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts have all been pricked out into cellular trays and are well established but not really growing well at present. Early sowings of lettuce are fine, but beetroot in cellular trays is looking decidedly cold and not really wanting to grow.

Onion Globo gave a brilliant germination on the windowsill, but then after transferring to the cold greenhouse look very unhappy. The tips are turning yellow suggesting poor compost or just not enough sunny days. I gave them a general liquid feed, and put on the greenhouse heater for a few days to cheer them up.

Sweet peas have all had the tops pinched out after three leaves and once new shoots put on a bit of growth they will go outside for hardening off.

Broad beans ready for planting

Broad beans have been hardened off for several weeks, and normally I would have planted them out, but the soil is still too cold to get them well established.

Geraniums retained from last year and potted up have been outdoors for two weeks hardening off, but the strong winds blowing them over and thunderstorms with hailstones is not doing them any favours. Smaller geraniums grown on from cuttings are now ready to pot up and should make strong sturdy plants for tubs, beds and baskets by mid May.

Last month a couple of nice days encouraged me to plant my row of first early potatoes Casablanca, but cold weather followed so no sign of any growth as yet. My other potatoes will all get planted whenever we get a few dry days as it is time for planting by the calendar, if not the temperature.
However all is not gloomy, as the rhubarb is quick to push out new fresh bright red sticks, perfect for pulling for the kitchen, and a row of rocket and over wintered lettuce are both ready for cutting. With the mild winter I have been able to pick rocket continuously since last summer.

Leeks and parsnips are still plentiful, though they will need to get used up before they run to seed.

Sowings of turnip, peas, outdoor salads, leeks, kale, chard and parsley are due for sowing once the rain stops, and the sun reappears.

Sweet corn gave a good germination of thirty plants from forty seeds, but will need to grow for another couple of weeks before potting up into bigger pots.

Once the ground warms up I will be sowing green manure crops on the land allocated to pumpkins, courgettes and sweet corn which do not get planted till early June. My favourite has always been clover which has very fibrous root systems that help to break up the soil and the nitrogen fixing bacteria on the roots adds nutrients once the clover rots down after digging in.

The fruit garden is also suffering from lack of warm days. Flower buds are swelling on the apples and pears, but my new peach, Avalon Pride and plum Victoria are only just beginning to grow.

Outdoor grape vines remain dormant, but under glass all the vines are in leaf.

The cool weather does have some advantages with spring flowers that seem to last a lot longer with dazzling daffodils and early tulips.

Wee jobs around the garden

Pot up chrysanthemum cuttings that have now rooted and continue to take more as the old stools keep growing. Dahlia tubers boxed up a few weeks ago are now growing and surplus shoots can be used to increase the stock.

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