Eleanor Hartley
Why Autumn Is the Best-Kept Secret of Spring
There is no easier bargain in gardening than a paper bag of bulbs in October. Spend a modest sum now, put in an honest hour with a trowel, and by February you will have a garden that looks as though it has been planned for months. Nothing else you plant gives so much colour for so little effort, and nothing else asks so little of your soil, your time or your skill.
The window matters more than most people realise. Daffodils and snowdrops want to be in the ground while the soil is still warm — from early September through to the end of October. Tulips are the contrarians: plant them in November, even into early December, and they reward you by dodging the worst of the fungal troubles that plague early plantings. If you buy bulbs and life gets in the way, don't panic. Store them somewhere cool, dark and airy, and get them in as soon as you can.
Choosing Bulbs: Daffodils, Tulips and Snowdrops
Buy bulbs that feel heavy for their size, with firm, unblemished skins. Squeeze them — a bulb that gives under your thumb is a bulb that will rot rather than flower. A few reliable choices for a British cottage garden:
- Daffodils: 'Tête-à-Tête' for pots and small borders, 'Thalia' for elegant ivory-white flowers, 'February Gold' for the earliest colour of the year. They naturalise beautifully in grass.
- Tulips: 'Purissima' and 'Spring Green' for soft, old-fashioned charm; species tulips such as Tulipa turkestanica for gravel and rockery spots where they will come back year after year.
- Snowdrops: humble, tough and utterly charming. Dry bulbs can be planted in autumn, but they establish far better if you buy them in the green in late winter, lifted and moved while still in leaf.
Add a handful of crocus, muscari and alliums if you have room. They knit the display together and fill the gap between the first snowdrops and the late tulips.
The Rule That Saves You From Rot: Three Times Their Depth
Every bulb comes with a built-in instruction manual, and the rule is simple: plant at three times the bulb's own depth. Measure from the base of the bulb to the soil surface, which leaves the top of the bulb sitting roughly two bulb-heights below ground. For a chunky daffodil bulb, that means about 15cm deep; for a small snowdrop, 7–8cm is plenty.
Loosen the soil below the planting hole so roots can push down freely, then set the bulb in pointy end up. If you cannot tell which end is which, lay it on its side — it will right itself. Space bulbs roughly two to three bulb-widths apart so they have room to swell without crowding.
Drainage is the one thing bulbs will not forgive. On heavy clay, fork in plenty of garden compost and a good handful of horticultural grit per planting hole. A bulb sitting in cold, wet soil over winter will simply turn to mush.
Grouping Them in Borders
The single biggest mistake is dotting bulbs about in ones and twos. Bulbs look best in drifts and clumps — odd numbers, planted close, so they read as one generous splash of colour rather than a scatter of lonely dots. Fifteen to twenty bulbs in a group the size of a dinner plate is about right for daffodils.
In a mixed border, plant them between herbaceous perennials. The bulbs flower while the perennials are still asleep, then the perennials grow up and hide the yellowing foliage exactly when it starts to look tired. Try daffodils under roses, tulips among wallflowers, and snowdrops beneath deciduous shrubs where the bare winter ground would otherwise show nothing at all.
For a naturalised look in grass, throw a handful of bulbs gently into the air and plant them where they land. That randomness looks far more convincing than anything you could plan.
Pots and Containers for a Cheerful Doorstep
Pots give you the earliest colour of all, because the compost warms faster than the open ground. Use a container at least 20cm deep, fill it with fresh peat-free multipurpose compost, and plant in layers: tulips deepest, daffodils in the middle, crocus and muscari on top. Water them in, then leave the pot somewhere cool and sheltered.
Two things to remember with pots. First, they must never dry out completely — check them monthly through winter. Second, squirrels adore freshly planted bulbs and will dig them out overnight. Lay a piece of chicken wire over the surface, weighed down with a couple of stones, and lift it once shoots appear. A layer of sharp grit on top helps too.
After the Flowers Fade
Deadhead daffodils and tulips as the blooms go over, so energy goes into the bulb rather than seed. Then comes the part that tests everyone's patience: leave the foliage alone. It needs around six weeks to yellow and collapse naturally, feeding the bulb for next spring. Do not tie it in knots, and do not cut it back early — that is precisely how you get a disappointing display the following year.
Give them a liquid tomato feed fortnightly while the leaves are green, and mark the spots with a discreet label so you don't slice through them with a fork later in the season. Come February, when the first green noses push through the cold soil, you will be very glad you spent that October afternoon with a trowel.
