Beginner with Bulbs
 

Hi everyone

I have just joined the forum and am a total gardening beginner.

I don't know if I need to tell you but I live in Southern England.

I got myself a patch and spent much of last summer digging it over. I am trying to create a cottage garden.

I planted 36 hardy perennials end of last August and the little things lived through the snow etc. I was really proud. Because my plugs were so small, I didn't know the difference between a plug and a weed so paid a gardener to come in and do some weeding last week. The idiot dug up all my plugs, threw them away and claimed they were weeds. I was heartbroken to say the least.

I have been given a load of bulbs which I have been told are summer flowering. If I plant these bulbs now, will they flower this summer and also, are these plants very invasive as I will be planting loads of other plants soon? The bulbs I have been given are ...... gayfeather, ladys mantle, golden rod, allium moly, gladiolus nova lux and astilbe spirea.

Thank you for your help in sorting out my confusion.

Oh dear this is making things more confusing. They came in a container with what looks like dry earth in it - I took it that they are bulbs.

There is so much to learn with gardening.

Beginner with Bulbs
 

"pipistrollers" wrote in message
...


I have been given a load of bulbs which I have been told are summer
flowering. If I plant these bulbs now, will they flower this summer and
also, are these plants very invasive as I will be planting loads of
other plants soon? The bulbs I have been given are ...... gayfeather,
ladys mantle, golden rod, allium moly, gladiolus nova lux and astilbe
spirea.

Thank you for your help in sorting out my confusion.

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid of as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It also
self-seeds everywhere.

--

Jeff

Beginner with Bulbs
 

On 16 Mar, 13:05, "Jeff Layman" wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. *But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). *

They are attractive, though.

Snowdrops can spread like buggery too, but who cares? They are lovely
at the moment.

Beginner with Bulbs
 

Jeff Layman wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid of as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It also
self-seeds everywhere.

I'll second that.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

Beginner with Bulbs
 

Chris J Dixon wrote:
At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

I think I can confirm that - I was just thinking at the weekend (having
spotted my first iris on someone's naturalised grass) that mind haven't done
much so far this year, and last year they were up and huge by mid-Feb (cos
we wanted to move them, and they got away from us before we got a chance!)

Beginner with Bulbs
 

On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:54:50 -0400, pipistrollers
wrote:


Anne Welsh Jackson;880320 Wrote:
pipistrollers wrote:
-
ladys mantle, golden rod, and astilbe spirea.-

These are not bulbs.

--
AnneJ



Oh dear this is making things more confusing. They came in a container
with what looks like dry earth in it -

That's exactly how Bareroot plants are delivered.
Instructions are normally to plant them straight out into the garden
provided that the soil is not waterlogged or frozen.

Were planting instructions not included?



--
(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯)

Beginner with Bulbs
 

"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Jeff Layman wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid of
as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It also
self-seeds everywhere.

I'll second that.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

Chris

A bit. In IME they tend to die away slowly. Small irises don't compare
with crocuses for reliability every year, unfortunately.

The real devil is Iris danfordiae. This has attractive yellow flowers but
it breaks up into much smaller bulblets after flowering. These never seem
to get to flowering size again. The usual advice is to plant them deeply
which prevents them breaking up. Didn't work when I tried it.

--

Jeff

Beginner with Bulbs
 

"bobharvey" wrote in message
...
On 16 Mar, 13:05, "Jeff Layman" wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth).

They are attractive, though.

Someone once though Japanese knotweed attractive enough to merit space in
the garden...

Snowdrops can spread like buggery too, but who cares? They are lovely
at the moment.

Snowdrops and muscari are like the tortoise and the hare when it comes to
spreading.

--

Jeff

No planting instructions whatsoever which is why I ended up so confused. I don't think I have ever seen a bare root plant before.

I am really proud as my crocuses have come up lovely. I also have 2 of my snowdrops and waiting for May for my bluebells.

I was devastated when the so called gardener paid to come and weed dug all my plug plants up - poor things were alive and growing. It will be off to the nursery to buy plants now. It will be nice when its done and I will have my cottage garden patch

Beginner with Bulbs
 

On 16/03/2010 16:39, Jeff Layman wrote:
"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Jeff Layman wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid
of as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It
also
self-seeds everywhere.

I'll second that.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

Chris

A bit. In IME they tend to die away slowly. Small irises don't compare
with crocuses for reliability every year, unfortunately.

The real devil is Iris danfordiae. This has attractive yellow flowers
but it breaks up into much smaller bulblets after flowering. These never
seem to get to flowering size again. The usual advice is to plant them
deeply which prevents them breaking up. Didn't work when I tried it.



I've heard this about I. reticulata and I. danfordiae. I've read that
they both break up into small bulblets and so fail to flower. I've also
read the 'plant deeply' advice but not tried it. I lose most of my
small irises to slugs.

On the subject of invading bulbous plants, I would advise caution with
some of the small ranunculus.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Beginner with Bulbs
 

"Sacha" wrote in message
...

On the subject of invading bulbous plants, I would advise caution with
some of the small ranunculus.

And Crocosmia, much as I like it.
--

I do agree, although I understand that some species/varieties are much more
well-behaved.

Shame I only ever seem to get the variety "bête noire"...

--

Jeff

Beginner with Bulbs
 

On 16/03/2010 23:25, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-03-16 22:57:28 +0000, Spider said:

On 16/03/2010 16:39, Jeff Layman wrote:
"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Jeff Layman wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But
one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you
have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid
of as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It
also
self-seeds everywhere.

I'll second that.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

Chris

A bit. In IME they tend to die away slowly. Small irises don't compare
with crocuses for reliability every year, unfortunately.

The real devil is Iris danfordiae. This has attractive yellow flowers
but it breaks up into much smaller bulblets after flowering. These never
seem to get to flowering size again. The usual advice is to plant them
deeply which prevents them breaking up. Didn't work when I tried it.



I've heard this about I. reticulata and I. danfordiae. I've read that
they both break up into small bulblets and so fail to flower. I've
also read the 'plant deeply' advice but not tried it. I lose most of
my small irises to slugs.

On the subject of invading bulbous plants, I would advise caution with
some of the small ranunculus.

And Crocosmia, much as I like it.


Quite true. I spent months getting rid of my bog-standard Crocosmias
from a border. I now only buy named cvs.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Beginner with Bulbs
 

"Sacha" wrote in message
...

Which reminds me........I have some other things to send you but did I
ever send you our C. Krakatoa?
--
Sacha

Explodes all over the garden, does it?! ;-)

--

Jeff

Beginner with Bulbs
 

Jeff Layman wrote:
"Sacha" wrote in message
...

Which reminds me........I have some other things to send you but did
I ever send you our C. Krakatoa?
--
Sacha

Explodes all over the garden, does it?! ;-)

Boom, boom!

There was an appetising article on Crocosmias in _The Garden_...last
year, I think.

--
Mike.