Chancing my luck with echiums

Now, I know you can buy early varieties of daffodils and snowdrops, but I’ve never grown them outside their traditional flowering season. So it was some surprise to find daffodils poking their noses out of the soil in early November. I’ll watch with interest to see how they perform over the next few months.

The past few mornings have been cold and with heavy frost due at any time I’m in a quandary as to what to do with my echiums. While they are supposed to be hardy in this country, in my experience echiums are anything but and go into mush if hit by frost. I will never forget the first time I saw these sky-high spires covered in blue flowers. They were growing in Margaret Rea’s lovely garden outside Cahir and I was smitten. So too were the bees that literally covered the spires from top to bottom.

Margaret generously sent me home with a bag of seedlings. What I hadn’t realised is that you need patience and kind weather to grow echiums. They are great to self-seed but their roots are shallow and fibrous and don’t take kindly to being moved. What they really like is plenty of sun and free-draining soil.

The first year sees echiums grow to about 20cm in height and then you have to get them through the winter frosts. They might flower the following summer but more than likely it will take a full two years before you are rewarded with the flowering spires.

One year, I transplanted summer-grown seedlings into pots and left them see out the winter in a sheltered corner of the garden. They flowered alright but didn’t grow very tall. So this year I’m going to transplant some into pots and house them in the glasshouse for the winter. I’ll leave the rest where they have seeded and cross my fingers that a good percentage will make it through the winter.

Time to….

Get fallen leaves picked up. This is a job I hate but it must be done. To get you through just think of all that lovely leaf mould you’ll have for the garden.

While the ground is still warm, now is a good time to move herbaceous perennials that have outgrown their allotted space. For me, it was an acanthus mollis better known as ‘bear’s breeches’ a striking-looking plant with long-lasting flower spikes. Ours was planted in a patio bed and it was only when we dug it out that we realised how huge it had become. The empty space has been planted up with spring bulbs and next I’ll plant geranium ‘Roxanne’ to trail over the patio wall.

I love to grow bulbs. I love them because when I was a child I spent a lot of time with my granduncle at his big old house on the shores of Lough Derg. It was built in 1764 and when my aunt Ruby Biggs married she planted the numerals 1764 in snowdrops and they multiplied beautifully. I was about nine-years-old and they intrigued me.

Aunt Ruby brought me to old houses along the lake and they all had flowering bulbs. We were living in Dublin and only had a tiny garden, so I had to put all thoughts of bulb meadows out of my head until I had a garden of my own.

I developed a particular fondness for snowdrops and old daffodils because of their elegant stance and lovely aroma. At the time they were impossible to buy.

About eight years ago I planted tulip ‘Red Shine’ in grass and the tulips are still coming and I’m replenishing this meadow now. Two years ago, my cousin convinced me to join her at an Alpine spa and after two days of it I was bored stiff.

So I took the car up the mountains and what did I find only meadows of the ‘Pheasants Eye’ daffodil, red tulips and pale primulas – much like our cowslips. I only had a knife from the hotel but I dug up one of each, and don’t worry they are not protected.

I developed a particular fondness for snowdrops and old daffodils because of their elegant stance and lovely aroma. At the time they were impossible to buy

Now I’m planning a meadow of the blue camassia that looks most like our bluebells, along with tulips, daffodils and the Irish ox-slip. In another meadow I have cyclamen – great to set seed, the ‘Tommie’ crocus and violets which are great to multiply. I can’t wait to see them all in flower.

Angela Jupe is a retired landscape architect and full-time gardener.

Her garden at Bellefield Shinrone is open to the public from 31 January through the first week of February will be open to celebrate the snowdrop and other spring bulbs.

News from the nursery

November is traditionally viewed as the time to plant tulips. The rationale – as I’ve been informed – behind planting in November is that the average ground temperature is at or below 10°C. Amongst the types of bulbs for which it’s a good time to plant are narcissus, muscari, allium and fritillaria. What can be surprisingly rewarding is a mix of all of the above.

You can plant for either an explosion of types and colours in March/April, or for a staged display from February, through March, April and into May and possibly even June.

Choosing complementary colours, for example Muscari Armeniacum and Tulip Hakuun, can be a nice April break from the blast of yellow trumpet daffodils on display on every street corner.

Extend that display earlier and later by adding some mixed species and large flowering crocus to flower in March. Some pink (Menton), pink blushed white (Holland Chic) and dark (Queen of Night) tulips for May. Stretch it even further by adding some Allium Purple Rain (Purple) and Allium Nigrum (White).

Layering

Going with the longer display uses layering known as the ‘lasagne technique’ and helps you get more bulbs into a smaller space.

A simple rule of thumb for this technique is that the last flowering bulb is the first to go into the pot – bulb right side up, each layer with the top of the bulb peeking up. The next layer of bulbs should be offset from the one below to avoid sitting directly on top of it. A layer for each month, top it off with some winter bedding, find a good spot for it and wait for spring.

Thanks to Damien McHugh of Beechill Bulbs, Tullamore Co Offaly. Call 057- 932 2956 or email@bulbs.ie