Historical and Rare Bulbs - DGS Talk 2 November 2009

Octavia Tulloch from Heritage bulbs gave a talk to our Garden Society. She brought with her a wide selection of bulbs for members to buy. Most were sold by the end of the evening!

She specialises in supplying rare bulbs and collections. Her talk was wide ranging covering the flowering seasons and when to plant the following:

Ø Tulips, early to mid - mid to late
Ø Narcissi: for naturalising
Ø Camassia and Fritillaries
Ø Winter flowering: Snowdrops, Bluebells and Crocuses –
Ø Alliums: every shape, colour & height
Ø Woodlanders: Anemones, Cyclamen, Erythronium, Scilla, Bluebells & Aconites

Octavia talked about the vivid yellow, red, pink, purple, and orange flowers of tulips after the long winter season. Although closely associated with Holland, the tulip originally came from Central Asia: Persia and Turkey (Tulip Clusiana known as Lady Tulip) where the word means "turban"—describing the flower shape. She said they were are literally hundreds of tulip varieties to choose from, grouped by flower form, height, and bloom time. Choosing which ones to grow is dependent on where you live, where you're planting, and the desired effect. A discussion followed on growing conditions in Donegal and what bulbs had been successful. Basically she divided the tulips into early, mid and late flowering.

Early tulips:

	Fosteriana Tulips –Orange Emperor, wonderful colour grows to 14 to 16 inches, spacing 4-5
	Early Double Tulips: Verona, Yellow colour grows 14 – 16 inches, spacing 4-5
	Greigi Tulips: Key Largo, pink colour grows 16-18 inches spacing 5-6

Tulip Turkestanica: very elegant wild form of Tulip with 5 to 9 blooms per stem. The flowers are creamy-white with an orange yellow centre. Bulb Size - 7/8cm. Originates from the Mediterranean and the Far East. Very popular in rockeries and wild gardens. These Specie Tulips can be naturalised.

Mid Season Tulips:

Darwin Tulip: Apledoorn Golden Tulip, superior tulip returns year after year. Elegant form and colour, brightest bicolour tulip with tall extra-sturdy stems. Produces large bulbs and yields huge flowers.

Lily Flowered Tulip "Maytime" A beautiful lily-flowered tulip with purple-violet, reflexed petals with a narrow margin of creamy-white. This is a particularly sturdy variety, despite looking quite delicate. It is a neat border plant that looks great planted out in bedding displays, or potted up into containers.

Late Season Tulips:

Angelique: Fragrant, double flowers with shorter, stronger stems stand up to blustery spring weathers but not sure whether they would survive a west coast storm. Apparently good for forcing - indoor bloom.
Queen of the Night: single flowering late variety that flowers in May. Popularly known as "Cottage tulip" because of its versatility and long pedigree. Distinctive deep maroon petals almost black in some lights, making it quite the darkest of any tulip.

Design ideas

Tulips said Octavia, look best when planted in informal groups, or as a block of colour with 20 or more bulbs planted just a few inches apart. Choose varieties with different flowering times to extend the bloom season.

Tulips look great planted in combination with annual and perennial flowers. She suggested planting tulips with annuals and early flowering perennials such as bleeding heart (Dicentra), basket-of-gold (Aurinia), and columbine also match up well with tulips. Other spring flowering bulbs such as Muscari, Scilla, and Fritillaries will add contrast and stretch the bloom season in the bulb bed.

Planting and Care

Purchase the larger the bulb size, the bigger and better the flower you'll get. Tulips are hardy, you may need to chill the bulbs before planting, or choose specific varieties, such as the Darwin hybrids, that don't need a long winter dormancy before blooming. To chill tulip bulbs, refrigerate them for 8 weeks. Plant after Nov. 1, placing bulbs 6 to 8 inches deep in a lightly shady area so the bulbs remain as cool as possible. The best planting time in Ireland is in November.

The most important consideration when planting tulips is drainage which she acknowledged could be a problem in Donegal with its high rainfall. Tulips prefer a sandy, well-drained soil. She suggested that if your soil is wet and/or very heavy, add compost and peat moss. You can also mound the soil up into a raised bed, which will help the soil dry out and will also help raise the temperature of the soil. For everywhere else, choose a full-sun location with well-drained soil for best performance. Plant after the soil has cooled and cultivate the soil to a depth of one foot and work in some bulb fertilizer. Set the bulbs pointed-end-up about 4 to 6 inches deep. Tulips flower best the first spring after planting. Fertilizing all tulips once or twice a year, in fall or early spring, will encourage them to flower well for several years. If you want to try for a second year of bloom, cut back the tulip flower stalk after blooming, but leave the foliage to naturally yellow and die. The foliage will produce the food energy the plant needs to form the next year's flower.

Narcissus

"Daffodils are the harbingers of spring" said Octavia Tulloch. They tell you when the winter is over. There are literally thousands of different types of Narcissus (29,000 types – 13 divisions of narcissus).

Types mentioned were:

Narcissus Cotinga: Lovely narcissus with ivory petals and soft peachy cup.

Narcissus Trevithian: is a fragrant, early blooming, deep yellow "jonquilla hybrid"

Narcissus Golden Harvest: Golden Harvest is an old Heirloom variety, in culture for more than 50 years, it is also one of the earliest daffodils to bloom heralding the return of spring, it has deep golden flowers with frilly golden cups. They flower profusely year after year.

Narcissus Topolino: Lovely mini daffodil with petals which arch backwards. The petals are creamy white and the trumpet is bright golden. They flower mid season and remain very compact 30-40 cm. "Topolino" is suitable for border-rock garden and planters.

Narcissus Hawera: miniature but is a late flowering. This is a mid-season, flowered cultivar with a delicate lemon-yellow petals and trumpet - an excellent choice for containers

Narcissus February Gold: looks stunning when planted in bold groups. It has bright yellow blooms, with outer petals that are slightly swept back from the darker yellow trumpets. 'February Gold' can tolerate most soils that are well-drained but moist during the growing season.


Narcissus bulbocodium known as the Hoop petticoat. These were introduced into Britain in the 16th century. unusual low growing narcissus produces bright golden, trumpet flowers that open wide giving the appearance of hoop petticoats. It is commonly known as the hoop-petticoat daffodil because of the shape of its flowers - golden yellow conical trumpets, with narrow, pointed petals. It makes an excellent species to naturalise in lawns where the soil is moist. It is also good for naturalising in rough grass. It can tolerate most soils that are well-drained but moist during the growing season.

Daffodils look best planted in clumps or large groups, either in beds or naturalized in your garden. Consider planting them among spring-flowering shrubs, such as azaleas and rhododendrons. They're also nice among perennials, such as primrose, as well as other perennial bulbs, such as grape hyacinths and early-blooming tulips. They are great companions for Hostas and Daylilies, which cover their fading foliage.

Alliums

Alliums include a wide range of plants, from chives and small bulbs with tiny flowers to drumsticks with stout vertical stems topped with balls of colour. They add impact to a border and come in a wide range of colours including purple such as the wonderful "Purple Sensation" - a tall flowers appear in summer, showing off rounded heads full of deep violet flowers.

Add architectural dimension to your garden with white Allium "Mount Everest". These giant, fragrant flowers are made up of thousands of tiny florets, they can grow up to 120cm and make long lasting cut flowers. What makes this allium unique is it keeps its foliage during its blooming time. Winter hardy they will rebloom again the following year.

Also mentioned:

"Allium Firmanent": A superb, deep purple A. Cristophii hybrid with 5" umbels of glistening, rather metallic flowers. Later flowering than most.Height: 30" Flowers June

Allium Karavatiense: A very ornamental plant with broad grey-green leaves and dense flowers of dull pink. Height: 8"
Flowers: May-June also Allium karataviense "Ivory Queen", Similar to the above but with white flowers. Height: 8"Flowers: May-June

Other bulbs:

Bulbs suggested that may thrive in Donegal wet climate and heavy soils were:

Leucojum aesthum: The spring snowflake is much larger than its relation the snowdrop, the flowers are held on long stems that droop gracefully. Whereas snowdrops have three main petals and three more tiny inner ones, the six petals of this snowflake are all the same length, with conspicuous markings at their tips. It is an easy-to-grow plant that multiplies freely in most gardens provided the soil is moist enough. Plants have been known to withstand flooding and standing water, and it is an ideal choice for bog gardens and pond-side plantings. (Ideal in Donegal!)

Iris Bucharica: This choice spring-flowering iris produces white flowers with yellow falls at the top of leafy stems. It's a vigorous plant that grows wild in North-East Afghanistan and Central Asia.. Plant bulbs 10-15cm (4-6in) apart and twice their height deep. Lift and separate bulbs in autumn.

Erythronium Pagoda: They are beautiful plants, easily grown if provided with the moist soil and leafy woodland conditions they are used to in the wild. Described as the most graceful of all spring-flowering bulbs, their reflexed blooms resemble small Turk's-cap lilies in the way they are suspended on elegantly arching stems. The bulbous plants develop young offsets freely and sometimes underground runners, so they build steadily into impressive clumps that are best left undisturbed in woodland walks.

Lilium Henryi: Discovered by an Irish plantsman Augustine Henry in the 1880s . Vigorous lily is easy to grow in neutral to alkaline soil in a partially shaded spot, such as under trees. It is found growing wild in Central China and produces tall stems of lightly scented, deep orange flowers, with dark red anthers, in late summer. As a stem rooting type of lily, the bulbs need to be planted at a depth of at least three times the bulb height.

 

Fritillaria Melagris, Snakes Head: Native to the British isles e.g. Thames Estuary they always excite attention wherever they are seen. The Romans called them Chequerboard Lilies. It is unmistakable colouring of its bell-shaped flowers makes it unusual and distinctive. They are various shades of purple, always with a pronounced checked pattern all over, and even the luminous white form has a faint check pattern like a watermark. Plants are extremely hardy and trouble-free in free-draining soil, and love the light shade of woodland conditions - planted in drifts under shrubs or naturalised in grass.

Snowdrops: Galanthus Flore Pleno and Elweiss – for Donegal an ideal bulb as it is hardy, especially the common species, and can be depended on to flower very early whatever the weather - the colder and gloomier it is, the longer the blooms last, but in a sunny warm season they are comparatively fleeting, so always plant in light shade. They grow in most soils, but make the best plants in heavier moist soils. They are most successfully transplanted while growing (in the green), and dry bulbs often take a season to settle down before flowering. 'Flore Pleno' is a robust, vigorous variety with double, white flowers.

Camassia Leichtlini "Caerulea": Bolt upright flower spikes of star-shaped, creamy flowers push through the grassy leaves of this elegant bulbous perennial in late spring. It's vigorous enough to use in a wildflower meadow but it needs damp soil. Bulbs can be planted in autumn, arranging in drifts for a natural effect.

Scilla siberica: 'Spring Beauty' has deep blue, nodding, bell-shaped flowers. Planted at the edge of trees and hedges, or liberally in grass, it will quickly spread into large colonies without being too invasive. Also Scilla Tubergenia and Scilla Chionodoxa "Glory of the snow" which naturally grows alongside Juniper.

Muscari – "White Magic" Most grape hyacinths are so reliable and undemanding that they are taken for granted. They need no special care and, once planted, will flower and spread freely, so that division may be necessary every few years. This is a vigorous species with attractive bright blue flower spikes in spring. Goes well with Narcissus Sailboat.

Cardiocrinum Giganteum:
Although classed as a lily for many years, this aristocratic woodland plant from the Himalayas is unmistakably different. The bulbs are about 20cm (8in) across, and are planted with their tips at or near the surface. A rosette of leaves then appears for 2 to 4 years before an astonishing and stately flower spike erupts, with up to 2015cm (6in) glistening white trumpets. Grows up to 12 feet in height. After that the main bulb dies, leaving many smaller ones that take a few years to reach flowering size, so planting a few every year is the way to build up an impressive clump and ensure annual flowering.

Cyclamen Repandeum: produces its dainty blooms from late winter to early spring. The leaves, which have silver patterning over dark green, and the flowers appear at the same time from tubers underground.

Dahlia "Autumn Fairy": A compact, semi-cactus border Dahlia. Height 20-24in. Plant 15- 18 in apart. Plant out tubers in May for mid to late summer flowering.

Hemerocallis: "Sweet Hot Chocolate": Daylilies are available in a wider colour range including pink and red, and with many named varieties. Although each flower only lasts for a day, there are several buds on each stem, and new flowers open daily. The arching, strap-shaped stems provide good foliage to back up other flowers for the rest of the season, and being evergreen should not be cut back in autumn - just tidy up dead or damaged leaves.

When to Plant:

Refer to Heritage Bulbs website: http://www.heritagegardening.com/

Conclusion: A most comprehensive and very interesting talk much appreciated by members who attended on a stormy rainswept evening. Octavia had many questions put to her; she coped supremely well with her wide ranging knowledge of bulbs in their habitat.

(Report by John Sneddon)

Kind permission given for part reproduction of Heritage website and talk given by Octavia Tulloch of Heritage Bulbs.