If you want a garden filled with flowers in spring, plant bulbs and tubers in autumn. As they rest beneath the soil during winter, they are getting ready to shine in spring.

Beauty sleep

Spring-flowering bulbs need a cold period to be able to bloom in spring. That is why you should plant them in autumn, before the first frost, in your garden or in containers and pots. Planting them in autumn gives the bulbs plenty of time to develop strong roots and get ready for lavish flowering in the spring.

Shining in spring

You can plant bulbs in groups or in a random mixed pattern, to create a natural look in the garden. To achieve this effect, choose different types of bulbs and scatter them around your garden. Plant the bulbs in the soil wherever they end up landing. The explosion of flowers in spring will be something to behold.

Coming back better every year

Flower bulbs that come back year after year are called naturalising bulbs. You can simply leave them in the soil after flowering. They will flower again the following year, and they can even multiply. If you want to have naturalising bulbs in your garden, keep an eye out for them in the shop. The packaging will often state this.

Storing your bulb beauties

Not all bulbs can be left in the soil. But if you want to enjoy the bulbs again the following year, you can cut off the wilted flowers. Once the stem and leaves have also died off, remove the bulbs from the soil and put them in a cardboard box. Before storing, remove the old roots and skin from the bulbs and place them in a dark, dry and cool place such as a cellar, separated with newspaper. You can then plant the bulbs again in the autumn, ready for flowering next spring.

Tips

• Go for loads of bulbs if you are after a real sea of flowers in your garden in spring.
• To make sure you have flowers in the garden for a long period of time, you can match different bulbs based on their flowering period. You could alternate with early bloomers such as crocuses (January/February) and late bloomers such as alliums (May/June).
• Plant the bulbs twice as deep as they are tall, with the tip up.