Summer bulbs and Hebe.

hi all,
Im new here, and new to gardening, I’ve never had a garden before!
Ive got 150 summer bulbs currently sitting in my kitchen waiting to be planted. Obviously it’s been quite cold, and now the garden is really wet again. It’s also a new build so there’s not a huge amount of soil on to of some kind of gravel. I’m going to dig some compost into it.
I’ve also got 3 hebes to plant, I’m wondering if they can go in yet too.
Thanks in advance

 

Welcome Siennamiller
I pot up my bulbs and plant them out later just where I want them. Anyway, you have a lot of colour to come from them. I prefer them in groups of 3 or 5 too. Better too to have them outside rather than on your windowsill and protect them with fleece or cloches. Do you have a greenhouse?
What bulbs do you have?
Those hebes? Soil is still cold so better to delay planting for a few weeks. How big are they? If they are of decent size, say 2 or 3 litres or more, you could plant out when soil is a bit warmer. If they are smaller than this I would put into bigger pots for a month or so and then plant out.
Excellent that you are using compost .....as much as possible really. And a mulch of compost too after you have planted.....helps conserve moisture, provides nutrients and looks good too
Enjoy your garden

 

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately no greenhouse, and no pots at present .

Lots of different bulbs, inc freesia oxalis, crocosmia, allium amongst others?
Hebe are reasonably big, about 45/50cm tall? They seem happy living in my kitchen at the mo.

 

Cheap pots are easy enough to come by. Look in places like Poundland, B&M, Wilkinson etc. Make sure you keep all the pots from the plants you buy. You never know when you might need one.

G.

 

Get the allium's in asap, you may only get foliage this year as quite late now

 

Thanks everyone. Alliums are in, fingers crossed.

 

My alliums are shooting well and have been for a while. I have 3 different varieties planted. It will be interesting to see what comes up.



G.

 

The Alliums should flower this year as they are a " true " bulb.
A true bulb ( as opposed to corns/tubers etc ) produces the embryo flowers the year before and they are stored in the bulb.

 

Just a thought....some alliums are superb and eye catching like Purple Sensation whilst others are weedy and not garden desirable I think. Worth checking what you have. In the same vein, oxalis are mostly invasive too. As a very keen emerging gardener a few years back, I persuaded the local gc manager to supply oxalis triangularis purpureum; he clearly was unaware of its tendency to spread and seed seeing only a very pretty purple leaved specimen. Gradually I eliminated it from my garden but it took a few years

 

My Alliums aren't showing yet. I've planted another 25 of the Superglobe mixed from J Parkers. Should look lovely by mid-May