Bulb Season

Autumn brings with it a selection of catalogues through the post an some preasure (if you are like me, watching gardening programs) to put in the orders for spring bulbs.
Though spring bulbs are not part of a traditional Japanese garden (with the exception of Irises), this will not stop me from planting bulbs would it?
A couple of years ago I have ordered a large batch of tulips, which I spent a whole miserable November day planting (I do have clay soil, so I had to enlist the help of my other half digging the holes).
The first year's display was spectacular, but this year I had a miserable display, with only few bulbs cuming up. Digging up 100 tulips is not my idea of time well spent, so I have opted this year for two batches:

• Species Tulips - which are supposed to naturalise (we will see about that ...).


• Some more conventional varieties which I will be planting in pots, taking them out at the end of the season and storing for the following winter.

The species I will be trying out are:

1. Tulipa clusiana 'Cynthia' AGM - Slender, creamy-yellow flowers, with red marks on the outside, appear in mid-spring, 30cm tall.


2. Tulip 'Lady Jane' - White flowers, striped rosy-red on the outer sepals – peer inside and spot the yellow centre. Grows to 30cm.


3. Tulipa tarda - Flowering in early and mid-spring, the white, star-shaped flowers, often tinged green, are usually yellow on the lower half, grows to 15cm.

I will be reporting on their preformence in due course. I will be writing a nother post on the hybrid tulips I will be trying out.

P.S - AGM - Award of Garden Merit awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society to well performing plants.