Lilium 'Robina' in Bloom in my parent's garden in Kerry
At this time of year, we often revist gardens with our clients to undertake bulb planting. We usually put together specific bulb planting plans within our overall garden designs, as along with winter planting of bare-root trees, bulbs are a great way of achieving impact with minimal outlay and care. The benefits of bulb-planting to garden design are manifold:
- they are often the missing links in creating a real succession of colour through the year in the garden
- they will flourish in most types of well-drained soil
- they will thrive in almost every conceivable position or situation in the garden, whether sun or partial shade
- they offer infinite variety in colour, form, height and texture – all qualities that garden designers seek out
- their flowers last well and often make good cut flowers
- bulbs are relatively easy to cultivate giving a high success rate for beginner gardeners
And if you plant bulbs just think you are carrying on a great garden design tradition with early recordings of bulb cultivation dating back to the Egyptians eighteen centuries before Christ, to the Greeks and the Romans. This is not surprising since the natural habitat for many of our commonest bulbs is in parts of the world with hot, dry summers.
