Many of us love flowering bulbs, they herald the coming of spring.
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This is an unusual thing to say at the beginning of autumn – but your preparation for a spring display begins now.
If you’ve thought of having freesias, tulips, hyacinths, bluebells and daffodils ablaze in your garden beds, guess what? The preparation work needs to begin now.
Let’s concentrate on daffodils and jonquils.
Daffodil and jonquil bulbs are now available for planting in the ground, though only plant them when the soil has cooled and the heat of summer has disappeared.
Get your bulbs and plant them when you’ve had a few good downpours of rain.
It’s important to dig over the area, dig down about the depth of a spit.
That’s another strange horticultural term – a spit is about the depth of soil that can be cut with a spade - a spade’s depth.
Incorporate compost or well-rotted manure.
A well-drained soil is absolutely vital for healthy daffodils.
Water-logged soil will rot your bulbs.
Plant your daffodil bulbs about 15 centimetres deep with the pointy end facing up and the hard yards are done.
Daffodils like a position with full sun to part-shade and are perfect for planting under deciduous trees.
While the bulbs are dormant and not growing you don’t need to water them, so no water during late spring and summer.
They grow very well during autumn and spring with the regular rain that falls – so really they’re an incredibly water-wise addition to any garden.
Gardeners eagerly await the first flowers and I think these plants are sensational when mass planted.
Like most other garden plants, the number of available varieties keeps increasing.
Some available varieties include; Sir Winston Churchill, fortune, ice follies and ice king.
Don’t forget to visit your local nursery if you’re looking for a gift.
For someone born in March, why not give them a container of bulbs and a hand trowel.
Bulbs would be a gift that will just keep on giving.
Diary
The growing friends of the Albury Botanic Gardens wish to advise that its nursery is open for sales from 9.30am to noon each Tuesday and Thursday. The nursery is situated behind the curator’s cottage at the Albury Botanic Gardens.
If you have an event you would like mentioned in this section email details to ddelahunty@wodongatafe.edu.au.
Deb Delahunty is a horticulture teacher at Wodonga TAFE.