Flower bulbs for a contemporary garden
If you want a sleek, elegant, uncluttered garden featuring the latest colours and shapes, the obvious choice would be a contemporary garden. A contemporary garden design often limits the number of colours to no more than three. This flower bulb recipe will give you this kind of look. It uses white, yellow and blue as the three colours, but you might want to use pink, lilac and very deep purple – or, if you’re bolder – go for pink, deep red and orange. Contrasting two closely related colours (like blue and purple) with a really vivid colour (like bright orange) will give the most beautiful effect.
Ingredients:
20 daffodil (Narcissus) ‘Goblet’
30 tulip (Tulipa) ‘White Dream’
40 hyacinth (Hyacinthus) ‘White Festival’
40 grape hyacinth (Muscari) aucheri ‘Mont Blanc’ (purple grape hyacinths with a white top)
Preparation method:
This recipe is suitable for a border measuring 6 square metres. Mix the varieties of bulbs and distribute them evenly over the surface. Then plant them at a depth of around 12 centimetres. The best planting time for flower bulbs is from September through December.
Flower bulbs for a traditional garden
A traditional spring garden is all about flower bulbs and spring-flowering plants such as forget-me-nots. Using both of these kinds of plants will result in absolutely wonderful creations. Several kinds of flower bulbs are even suitable for ‘perennialising’: ornamental onions (Allium) and grape hyacinths (Muscari) will return year after year if planted in a sunny place.
Ingredients:
20 ornamental onion (Allium) atropurpureum
30 nodding star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum) ‘White Star’
60 hyacinth (Hyacinthus) ‘Aiolos’
30 white forget-me-nots
Preparation method:
This recipe is suitable for a border measuring 6 square metres. The time to plant can be anywhere from September through December. Divide the Allium and Ornithogalum bulbs into groups of three to five flower bulbs and plant them per variety in the border. In the empty spaces between these clusters, scatter the hyacinth bulbs. Next spring, carefully plant the forget-me-nots between the emerging flower bulbs. Provide some fertiliser as soon as the shoots produced by the flower bulbs emerge.
Flower bulbs for a charming garden
If you want a garden overflowing with plants, the perfect choice would be a charming garden. The natural use of vegetation in this kind of garden often produces intriguing shady spots. It might seem strange, but certain flower bulbs deliver wonderful results in shady places such as beneath trees. And so will the following recipe.
Ingredients:
30 hyacinth (Hyacinthus) ‘Prince Jewel’
30 tulip (Tulipa) ‘Hollywood’
30 tulip (Tulipa) ‘Montreux’
Preparation method:
This recipe is intended for a border measuring 6 square metres. Mix all the tulip bulbs in a large container or wheelbarrow. Then scatter them among the perennials and plant them where they have landed to produce a charming, nonchalant look. The best time to plant flower bulbs is from September through December.
