Plant Some Colour Now

November is already upon us and we’re in the middle of planting up spring bulbs.

I realised how quickly the growing season had gone by when I visited a local nursery and found the owners re-ordering bulbs, so get in their fast before they all get sold!If the thought of getting down on your knees and digging endless small holes to plant the same thing time after time fills you with dread then just think what you’ll be missing come spring, when your neighbours’ gardens are blooming with yellows of Narcissus, the blues of Chinodoxa and, best of all, the pure white of Snowdrops.

I’m a big fan. They are the one sure way of getting really early colour into your garden. Plants such as Narcissus February Gold do what they say on the packet, consistently flowering in early February and sometimes even in January, even during the sort of cold winters that we’ve had over the past two years. You can plant a whole range of varieties of daffodil to get flowers right through to May. If you don’t believe me then plant some Narcissus Pheasants Eye - I’ve had them flowering in a north facing spot in my garden in Chelsea week in May.

So what else should you try? Well as much as I love big swathes of crocus coming through the lawn I’ve found that they are often destroyed by birds and squirrels. You can go to elaborate methods of planting by laying chicken wire over the top of the bulb, then topsoil and re-seeding but it might be going a bit far!For something a little more unusual I love Snakeshead Lillies, Fritillaria meleagris. They look great in a border but also plant some in a pot so that you can get right up close and see their amazing shapes and colours. They also don’t mind a little damp. The main problem with bulbs is that they can rot off in the ground if the soil is too wet – something we’ve got used to in August this year.

Bulbs like reasonably dry conditions and if you’ve got a sandy, free draining soil they’ll love it. Two of the best bulbs for this type of soil are Cyclamen and Tulips. Cyclamen coum pallidum ‘Album’ is the most fantastic clear white flower and despite it’s name is also a very simple form and easy to grow. Readers near Wimbledon Common, with its dry soil, will find them very easy to grow in relatively uncultivated soils.Tulips are also a must have. They are perfect for pots, especially the parrot tulips such as Tulipa Texas Flame and for borders I always find that the Darwin hybrids such as Tulipa Apeldoorn and Tulipa Apeldoorn’s Elite will come back year after year.

Snowdrops are the perfect flower to lift your spirits in the coldest and darkest part of the winter. Imagine clumps of strappy leaves with nodding heads of white, creamy white, even white tinged with green. The double headed Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno is a robust, double headed variety that I use every year. They are one of the earliest bulbs to show but I have left them to last because I don’t grow them from dry bulbs but buy them “in the green” in February/March from a wonderful nursery in Scotland. They are the only bulb that I’d recommend you wait to plant. Be patient and this way they’ll establish much easier than the ordinary dry bulb. For a truly stylish planting grow only white specimens of Snowdrops, Narcissus, such as the saucer sized Narcissus Mount Tacoma,and Tulips such as Tulipa Swan Wings against a backdrop of greens. On the smallest scale try these in a trough with a simple box plant.

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