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Home > Flower and garden articles > Autumn in the Garden
Autumn in the Garden
When you suddenly see those fabulous belladonnas (…or “beautiful ladies!”) showing off their gorgeous pink flowers held high on tall stems, you know it’s Autumn! They seem to appear almost overnight, magically creating stands of fresh flowers in the sunburnt, dry gardens of Summer’s end and reminding us of the amazing ability that bulbs have to bring colour into our gardens through all the seasons.
And as the cooler evenings and misty mornings of Autumn in Melbourne start to put in their appearance, it’s time to start thinking about planting our bulbs for a fabulous colourful display for Winter and Spring.
Though the days are still hot and dry, gardeners everywhere know that a little bit of time and effort in Autumn will reward us many times over with a wonderful array of colour around the garden during the cooler seasons.
No matter what region of Australia you live in, now is the perfect time to plan your garden beds, pots and containers to brighten the days of winter… and to let you know when Spring is just around the corner too!
Many bulbs such as daffodils, jonquils, freesias, dutch iris, ixias, watsonias and crocus can be planted as soon as the soil has enough moisture content to make it easy to work with. The late warm days of Summer won’t harm these bulbs at all, in fact most bulbs can be planted this month.
However, don’t be tempted to plant Tulips yet….this is a definite NO-NO! Make sure you remember to place your Tulip bulbs in the crisper of your fridge now, if you haven’t already done so, as ideally they should have 6 weeks of artificial winter in your fridge before planting. An easy way to do this is to place your tulip bulbs in used cardboard egg cartons, marking the name of the variety on the cartons, then store in the bottom of your fridge until you are ready to plant your Tulips. The ideal time to plant them is mid to late May.
Planting out your large bulbs is a breeze with a bulb planter – if you haven’t already used one of these handy tools, now is the time to have a go. You’ll find you can get your bulb planting done so much more easily with the right tool for the job…..and it is much kinder on your hands and wrists too!
Smaller bulbs can be easily planted at the right depth with a small trowel, or a dibber. Generally speaking, your bulbs should be planted at least twice as deep as the height of the bulb. Gardeners in the warmer regions can afford to plant a little deeper, to assist with protecting bulbs from high temperatures.
There is no limit to the colours and combinations available with Spring flowering bulbs……..every gardener can create their own perfect combination of colour, shape and form to please the eye and warm the heart with the satisfaction of seeing the garden come to life again after its Winter rest.
Try some of the smaller flowering varieties to create a blanket of colour across your garden beds, planting in bold clumps for solid colour, or create drifts of flowers beneath deciduous trees for a traditional woodland effect. The soft blues of spring star flowers are magical when allowed to spread beneath silver birch trees, or use the brilliant purple or gold dutch crocus and vivid lachenalias (or Soldier Boys) beneath cherry trees to brighten the dull days of Winter before the cherry blossoms appear.
Harlequin flowers and ixias can create hotspots in your Spring garden with their amazing colour combinations, and the flamboyant Picasso ranunculus are shameless show-offs with their eye catching colours. Cut their bright flowers for vases in your home, and you will be rewarded with yet more blooms in your garden!
Cottage gladioli are exquisite Spring flowers, and unlike the large varieties they require no staking. The gorgeous colours of anemones can be used in any spot in your garden, and you’ll be amazed at their ability to flower for months on end. And for the romantic types, the subtle shades of bluebells and hyacinths bring soft and fragrant blooms to a cottage garden.
Fantastically fragrant freesias are essential in any Spring garden, and can be easily grown in containers to give you a rainbow of colourful blooms to enjoy in vases and fill your home with their fragrance.
For a traditional look, daffodils, jonquils and old fashioned freesias can be planted at random through lawn and grass areas, and can be left to naturalise, but ONLY if you don’t mind leaving mowing the grass until their foliage has died back - this requires willpower! In fact, all Spring flowering bulbs should NOT have their foliage removed until it has died back naturally, as it may prevent them from flowering next year. In fact, when flowering has finished, it’s the ideal time to fertilise your bulbs to provide the nutrients for next year’s flowers.
So plan out your Spring colour scheme and get busy planting now…… for many years of enjoyment in your Spring garden.
by Jenny Waldock
Tesselaar Mail Order
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