What are you planning for after the tulips? It always feels like a bit of a betrayal to be thinking beyond the present, perfect moment, particularly when that perfect moment happens to involve the exquisite tulips we planted last year, up at last and at their peak, but sue me, I’m fickle and planning my next move. I grow all my tulips in several large pots, and really, these are my workhorses when it comes to making any sort of a splash in my garden.
I plant them with tulips or daffs in the autumn, and then I buy bedding from the garden centre, or I order pre-sown seedlings which arrive in May…it might be cosmos, nicotiana, pelargonium, verbenas, argeranthemum, sweet peas, petunia etc…honestly, I don’t think it particularly matters as long as those pots are filled with abundance, and preferably some height.
This year it’s going to be Nicotiana, which I’ve not grown for years and remember fondly because it was one of the first annuals I ever sowed and I couldn't believe just how gigantic the plant was, compared to its minuscule seed. I’ll never forget the scent of it on my tiny balcony (this was ‘the time before’) and I would sit beneath it in the evening with my pug on my knee and a sense of achievement.
I’ve ordered plugs from Sarah Raven, who has lots of varieties. I’ve gone for N. Sylvestris ‘Only the Lonely’ and also N. Whisper Mixed, which I’m going to plant out in the flowerbed.
The garden centres are full of brilliant options right now. If you’re anything like me then it might be worth having a word with yourself about not waiting too long to get something in. Yes, the sweet pea varieties at your local garden centre might not be the exact ones you had dreamed about, but let’s face it, you haven’t sown any, you won’t sow any and how on EARTH will you live without any sweet peas at all? See? Something is always always preferable to nothing, and done is better than perfect blah blah.
I took a few pictures yesterday at my local garden centre to give you an idea of all the lovely things you could plant to take over from the tulips in containers.
You could also do Gladiolus callianthus, (first pic) which some people call Acidanthera mureliae (which I think is more correct). This plant is really, truly a joy, sending up spears of perfect translucent leaves and then producing white, nodding lily-like blooms with a deep purple blotch at the centre. The smell is off the charts. I wouldn’t be without it.
Just a few ideas - do please heart this if you found it useful or good, and consider sharing too? What are your plans for your containers? Are you in option paralysis? Let’s chat.
Back soon
x Laetitia
Do you think I could be SUPER lazy & plant the bulbs deeply.
Leaving them in situ with annuals planted above?
Or is that just a step too far?
I think 'option paralysis' is my natural state so this is very helpful, thank you. I did sow some seeds a few weeks ago, without any sort of a plan about where they were going to go. As it happens that isn't going to be a problem since over half didn't germinate (old seed and perhaps I am just rubbish at growing from seed). The cosmos purity did well though, so there's that...