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February 9, 2006
Naturalising bulbs
Bulbs are becoming an expensive commodity and gardeners are turning to the limited but affordable varieties which are indigenously produced ,writes Zahrah Nasir
Those of you who have planted flowering bulbs this season will now have begun to enjoy the gorgeous rewards you have earned. But how many of you will then dig up these bulbs after they have finished flowering and then either store them for next season or simply throw them away?
It never ceases to amaze me just how many people absolutely refuse to leave their bulbs in the ground throughout the year for one reason or another. Bulbs are an increasingly expensive commodity, so much so in fact that some gardeners have totally stopped purchasing the ultra-expensive imported varieties and now solely depend on the extremely limited range of indigenously produced ones, which, strangely enough, they are quite prepared to leave in the ground unlike their foreign counterparts.
Let’s face it! Certain species of bulbs and corms such as fritillaria, narcissus, scilla, tulips, ranunculus, muscari, alliums, lilies and crocus, grow wild in various areas of the country and Mother Nature certainly does not dig them up for seasonal storage or wasteful disposal.
Bulbs and corms cannot be multiplied, unless from seed, if you do not leave them in the ground all the year round so that they can naturally increase themselves over a period of time. If you dig up one fritillaria bulb for example, carefully dry it and then store it under suitable conditions, then you still have only one single bulb to plant next season…if it has managed to survive at all that is.
Whereas, if you had left it in the ground then, hopefully, it will have had ‘babies’ which will then come in to flower over the next year or two, eventually forming a very attractive clump of flowers, the bulbs of which can be divided and re-planted in other suitable spots as time goes on.
Obviously the soil conditions and planting location play an important role in leaving bulbs in the ground to naturalise and increase in number. In waterlogged soil bulbs are quite likely to rot and in an area of the garden which is repeatedly disturbed, through digging to plant annual flowers for example, then bulbs and corms will get very disturbed indeed!
A sunny, well drained location, in which the bulbs will not be disturbed, is the best. In order to be certain of this, marking their location is one way of keeping track of exactly where they are located so that they are not accidentally disturbed after their leaves have died back and disappeared. Some species keep their leaves all year but many others don’t and, therefore, need keeping track of.
Rockeries are ideal places for letting bulbs naturalise themselves and species including crocus, muscari, sparaxis, freesias, ixia and tritonia all perform quite well in most areas of the country, although crocus and muscari just may not be particularly happy in Karachi and Hyderabad.
Daffodils, narcissus, gladioli and tulips also prefer to be north of these areas, but exotic tropical and semi-tropical bulbs including achimenes –– the orchid pansy, acidanthera –– the peacock orchid, caladium, clivia, eucomis or pineapple lily and zephranthes or rain lily prefer Karachi and Hyderabad’s hot humid summers to the climate further north.
It’s all a matter of selecting the bulbs and corms which are most suitable for your own particular, local climatic conditions.
Flowering members of the allium family, be they dwarf growing varieties or very tall ones, seem to thrive all over the country. They enjoy reasonably dry, extremely hot conditions and, unlike their edible relatives, onions, garlic and chives, they do not require copious amounts of feeding –– quite the opposite in fact. Some of our wild alliums grow exceeding well in dry and dusty areas close to Charsadda in NWFP. They have formed glorious carpets of spring colour in shades of white, pink and purple over a long period of time and are an absolute delight to see.
Brightly coloured, occasionally rather glaring, sparaxis multiplies at quite an amazing rate as long as it is left completely undisturbed. It is happy on rockeries, in walls and on grassy slopes where it can be grown in an uncoordinated riot of mixed colour or in waves of individual colours rolling into each other for a maximum effect.
The same goes for that all-time favourite, the freesia, which is incredibly easy to grow and multiply. You can simply plant the bulbs in autumn and then completely forget about them for quite a few years until the bulbs need to be divided up and they will flower away, perfuming your garden to perfection each season with nothing for you to do other than keep them reasonably free of weeds.
Freesias are also very fast to flower when grown from seed, blooming in as little as eight months from the sowing time and, making it even easier to increase your bulb stock. Freesia seed is quite large and easy to collect, especially if you tie strips of fine muslin cloth around the ripening seed heads to prevent the birds harming them.
In the Mediterranean region, freesias are often grown enmasse under orchards of olives, oranges, apples and figs. The flowers are either sold in cut flower markets or left to go to seed, the seeds then are sold to seed companies and to other commercial growers.
I am growing freesias from seed for the first time myself and am desperately waiting for them to come in to bloom this spring. The germination rate was very high indeed although, unfortunately, I did lose some young plants in a vicious hailstorm last autumn.
Dutch hyacinths, exorbitantly expensive now, also naturalise quite well and, although the flowers tend to diminish in size as the years go by, for some completely unknown reason, the perfume seems to get stronger!
So....there you have it. Instead of digging up and storing or throwing your bulbs away, simply leave them in the ground to get on with what nature has intended them to do in the first place. After all, you do this with amaryllis, canna lilies, crinum and agapanthus, so why not the rest?
Send your gardening questions to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Answers will appear in a future edition of ‘The Review’.
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