Janet Baraclough26/11/03 11:16

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

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So do you lift them every year?

I have in the past before I tried the deep-planting wheeze; and I've
tried planting them in containers, and in raised beds in the veg garden
just for cutting for the house. Now I've just resigned myself to their
short lifespan with me. At least they are pretty cheap, and it's an
excuse to try somethng new each time. This autumn I've planted Estella
Rijnfeld.

At our last place I tried to have red tulips naturalised in grass
among the white narcissi in the wildflower meadow, but that was a total
failure because they were in the deer zone and got scoffed as soon as
they appeared. I think I've read since that Prince Charles "naturalised"
meadow tulips at Highgrove are replanted regularly.

Cheating! But I wonder if we *can* naturalise them in this country. There
are masses that flower every spring in Crete but while it's very wet there
in winter, they are also in sharply drained places, steep places.

Thanks, Janet. I'm intrigued by this because not only did I read this deep
planting thing in some book or other about living in France (I think) but I
have just remembered that I was told the same thing by an old gardener
several years ago. The ones that seem to have performed best for us over 3
years are Angelique but planted in pots. Given the amount of rain we get
here, I'll be interested to see how those planted in beds do. We order all
ours through Van Tubergen who have a wide range. I'm a push over for the
very exotic, parrot type but also love the rather cool looking lily
varieties. It's now pitch dark and I'm not going out to the Nursery to look
at the ones we've got but will have a look tomorrow and post the list. Then
next year, I'll have to report on whether or not they come up again! ;-)

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the 'x' to email me)