Turn planting flower bulbs into a fun activity. Do this together with the neighbours in your street, for some conviviality. Get everyone to provide some tasty snacks, hot chocolate and enjoy a crackling fire in the brazier as you get the garden ready for the coming spring.
Preparation
Choose your favourite colours and flower shapes, see what’s available in the shop, and decide where you are going to plant the bulbs. Bulbs with tall stems are best planted at the back of the border, while shorter varieties will look great at the front. Encourage everyone to take photos during planting and share your photos on social media (#plantingflowerbulbs).
Choosing spring bulbs
Spring-flowering bulbs offer an endless variety of colours, shapes and fragrances. With their unique characteristics and flowering times, each variety will make your garden a little more beautiful. A few examples of popular spring-flowering bulbs:
- Tulips: the assortment seems endless, colourful and versatile, from early-flowering to varieties that will flower until late spring.
- Daffodils: true spring bloomers that give your garden a proper spring feel. The very smallest varieties will grow ten centimetres tall, and the largest up to sixty centimetres.
- Hyacinths: fragrant and elegant, they add a spring scent to the garden. They come in pink, red, blue, purple, salmon, yellow and white.
- Blue and white grape hyacinths: one of the first flower bulbs to start flowering in spring. Can withstand springtime frost.
- Allium: this majestic and imposing flower combines beautifully with other bulbs and perennials in the garden. They are also a trusty friend to bees and butterflies.
- Crocuses: these flowers will pop up from the earth early in spring. They may look the same, but if you take a closer look at them, you will discover there are some spectacular varieties.
- Snowdrops (Galanthus): naturalising small bulbs that grow abundantly and profusely under trees and shrubs.
Read the instructions on the packaging for the right planting depth and how to care for each flower bulb variety.