FORCING SPRING

      Getting spring to come early here in the North East is a passion of mine.
I have spent many years forcing branches and bulbs for flower shows and for my self.
Here are a few tips for forcing bulbs.

Plan ahead! Make sure you keep your bulbs in a dark and cold(35 degrees) place for the minimum time, daffodils need a good 6 weeks of cold.

Pot them up with good potting soil and come compost and a table spoon of bone meat for an 8 inch pot.

Keep the bulbs at the surface of the pot so the roots have all the room, and crowed then in next to each other so you will get a full pot of blooms.

Keep them watered but never soggy! Bulbs will rot easily if they don't have a chance to dry out each week.

When plants start to sprout move your bulbs to a full sun window, or the growth will get leggy, week and flop if the plants are not getting enough light.

In no time you will have flowers and fragrance that sooth the winter blues.

PLANT NOW FOR SPRING BLOOM, THE BULB

FALL BULBS

PLANT NOW FOR SPRING BLOOM

THE BULB

This picture of Biltmore in April says it all, the man in the foreground has stopped in his tracks at the site of thousands of Tulips, Hyacinths and Pansies in bloom. While this may not be practical for most gardeners there is lots of room to layer bulbs into our borders. Mixing them in with ornamental grasses is a great way to extend the season of interest, when grasses are cut low to the ground in early spring the bulbs are just starting out and quickly fill in. 

  

These snowdrops are coming up through English Ivy in an untended garden and bringing cheer to a dreary late winter day. Bulbs in ground cover is another good combination as long as there is enough sunlight. I have Alliums that come up through my Ivy. 

Here is a great combination of tulips and Hellebores at Great Dixter in East Sussex England.

The small shots of color stand out against the sculptural masses of yew topiary.

Here someone has planted a child in this field of Daffodil at Great Dixter, as the dillies fade the orchard grass will take over and the dying leaves of the Daffodil will be covered and the whole thing can be mowed by June.

The best part about Daffodil is nothing eats them! 

Not even children.