NOTES from. the garden // bulb ordering

Back from holiday and I'm still not able to access my garden yet due to ongoing damp-proofing works but August is a great month to plan for future blooms from autumn sown perennials to spring bulbs

If you haven’t ordered any bulbs yet then it’s likely you will be persuaded by one marketing campaign or the other before long. Many promotional emails fall some where between deaf ears and exceedingly irritating, but the ones that point towards a blooming spring are welcome offerings, especially when a bit of armchair shopping is required to stave off the August blues.

On that note I’m scrolling through images taken over the past year to see which bulbs and seed-sown perennials, biennials and annuals caught my fancy. Blue seems to be a common denominator from the elegant blue Siberian irises found near Carpenter’s Lock at the Olympic Park to the proliferation of grape hyacinths that I managed to bring over from my old house in various sized pots, to clusters of cornflowers popping up on Wanstead Flats.

Keeping the pastel theme, my mind drifts back to the Chelsea Flower Show and Sarah Price’s wonderful garden for Benton End, in hues of lemon, terracotta, violet, cerise pink, and velvety black. I’m not sure my patch is big enough for such majestic irises as those inspired by Cedric Morris’s collection at the Garden Museum’s new acquisition (can’t wait for this to open). But those colours I can do via the faint butter tones of Narcissus ‘Thalia’, coffee-toned Tulipa ‘La Belle Epoque’ and the regally cloaked ‘Queen of the Night’, my Apothecary’s rose providing a late spring pop of pink.

Searching for bulb specimens I haven’t tried before, I stumble across the equally pretty Tulipa ‘Silk Road’ via Sarah Raven, along with the early-flowering, perennial Tulipa ‘Concerto’ with its long compact flowerheads. Into the basket they go alongside snowdrops and crocuses. I’m sure there will be more to come but it’s lovely to make a start on what lies ahead.