Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
- EP268- Summer Colour Planning With Bulbs, Seeds and Bareroots To Plant Now!!
Ready to transform your garden into a symphony of summer color? This episode reveals exactly what you need to plant now for months of vibrant blooms ahead.
After weeks of unusually dry weather in Ireland, we're exploring the perfect timing to establish summer-flowering plants that will reward you with an avalanche of color. The secret? A strategic mix of bulbs, bare root perennials, and carefully selected seeds that offer maximum impact for minimal investment.
Discover the world of summer-flowering bulbs - from the show-stopping dinner plate dahlias with their 22cm blooms to elegant lilies that return year after year. We explore why now is the perfect time to snag bare root peonies at a fraction of their potted price, and how to position gladioli for best effect in cottage-style borders. You'll learn which bulbs offer the most reliable performance (including some underrated gems like Nerien's) and how to manage enthusiastic spreaders like Crocosmia.
For the budget-conscious gardener, we reveal why bare root perennials represent exceptional value compared to container-grown plants, and share tips on scoring end-of-season bargains from online suppliers. Whether you're planning a formal border or dreaming of a meadow filled with wildflowers, this episode provides practical guidance on creating spectacular summer displays.
The gardening calendar is turning rapidly toward planting season - grab your trowel and get ready to create your most colorful garden yet! And don't miss next week when we'll be tackling the art of pruning fruit trees.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
how's it going everybody, and welcome to episode 268 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode, we're looking at the subject of summer color and what we can do now to ensure that we have lots of summer colour in the coming weeks. And there is lots we can be doing now and I suppose over the last few weeks we've been here in Ireland we've been very pleasantly surprised with a really nice dry spell. It has been quite cold but nonetheless we've had dry weather, weather almost no rain in around a month now, and that has meant that the ground has dried up quite a lot. As I say, we don't have a huge amount of growth yet because it's still quite cold, but at the same time it has been possible to get a huge amount of work done and you know, conditions have been nice and dry for for people who are out and about in their gardens and that has certainly been a really welcome, really welcome boost, getting a little bit of warmer weather this week now. So I'm expecting kind of growth levels to pick up and everything to really start to kick off. But yeah, in general it's been a beautiful few weeks and to see sunshine, which is something we hadn't seen a whole lot of to see sunshine of late has been. Hadn't seen a whole lot of to see sunshine of late has been has been really really nice and welcome. Uh, still quite early, you know, in terms of seedlings and stuff like that. So they're still going to need a lot of uh watching and protecting because we're still in march of many weathers and sometimes april can be, can be something similar. So just have to keep keep an eye on it and fingers crossed it continues in the in the vein that it is. At the moment we're getting this nice sunny weather and hoping for a little bit more warmth coming up.
Speaker 1:But in terms of summer color and you know it's it's obviously the time of the year when it's possible to have the most vibrant colors. All you know, from summertime right through into autumn time and that's typically it can be from your perennials, your annuals and things like bulbs, and that's what we're going to kind of focus on. You know, what plants, what bulbs, what seeds can we be getting now? That's going to kind of ensure this. I suppose avalanche of of summer color as the year goes on, and you know we speak about bulbs quite a lot, particularly in the autumn time, because that's the time of the year, the. You know, the autumn planting season is kind of a bigger season in terms of, in terms of bulbs, you know, you have all your, your, your ones that are flowering now, basically everything from snowdrops to crocuses to daffodils, you know, and so on and so on, and that's in terms of availability of, of of the the range. There's a lot more sort of varieties available at that stage, but there's still some really really good ones in the springs and spring flowering bulbs are. They give huge impact, albeit that there's a smaller array of of variety out there.
Speaker 1:So what are we looking at in terms of? We're going to look at bulbs first, and then we look at seeds, maybe, and then we look at other things, bare roots and plants and so on. So, initially, what? What? The main ones that we're talking about? You're looking at dahlias, you're looking at lilies, gladioli, peonies, crocosmias, noreens, freesias and that sort of thing, and they're they're your bulbs that you can buy at the moment, and these are going to be basically, they're a bulb in a bag for anyone that hasn't grown like this before. They're a bulb in a bag you. You plant them when temperatures are warm enough, which could be in a couple of weeks time, but in the meantime you can, if you have a greenhouse, you can get them potted up there or put them into an area where they can be protected. You're looking for kind of ground temperatures, a little bit like sowing potatoes. You're looking for ground temperatures to be up 10 12 degrees consistently and you're not looking for too much frost and then they'll kick into life, essentially, and they'll grow on and flower this summer. And they really are. They really are phenomenal easy way of, you know, having flower over a long period of time, really, really, really, really cost-effective way as well of flowering up over a long period.
Speaker 1:So to look at these kind of bulbs, first, dahlias there is thousands of varieties from what I believe there's. You know, approximately 2,000 varieties of dahlias have been named and they're a phenomenal source of summer color. Dahlias have been named and they're a phenomenal source of summer color and you know, when you go to your, your super, your, your garden centers at the moment or your nurseries at the moment, you will see dahlia bulbs. Essentially, there's different types of dahlia bulbs as well. There's seven or eight different types of them and within that then you'll have a kind of a style of flower or a style of growth. So there's there's asiatic bulbs, there's dinner plate ones.
Speaker 1:Dinner plates are really interesting so they're essentially, as the name suggests, they're, a dinner plate size head on them. So really huge flower and some really nice ones there. Something like like Thomas Edison is a really nice one. It's huge, huge flower, so up to sort of nine or 10 inches in width. You know, which is what's that? 20, 22 centimeters in width of a flower head. So huge flowers and really really nice for, you know, for for bouquets and so on. That's so dinner plate is a really really good one.
Speaker 1:Then you have obviously pom-pom ones. Don't particularly like them. I think they're a little bit uh, sort of fussy, looking like the more natural, like the more open ones, the traditional ones, like bishop's children, uh, bishop of landorff. I like all of those type of traditional ones. I just prefer to flower on them. But there is some fantastic ones and last year at one of the garden fairs I can't remember which one it was now, but I bought some bulbs at that, or dahlia tubers, should I say at that and got the Café Olé and a pink version of it. So they were beautiful, really good. Now, the pink version was a phenomenal flower. Again, I can't remember exactly the variety, but it was a pink version of the cafe au lait.
Speaker 1:It was an interesting one actually in the summertime because the flower was phenomenal on it. It was just so vibrant, flowered for a long period of time, was really vigorous. Lots of flower on them were perfect for taking in and putting into a vase, so for cut flowers they were brilliant. But it was an interesting one because wasps actually there was some kind of a sap coming off the stem of them and the wasps really went mad for it. So during the height of the summer there was you know 20, 30 wasps all around the, the stem of it, sucking on the, on the sap.
Speaker 1:Obviously, uh, I think, and it was just, it was just phenomenal to see, but they never, they never bothered much with anything else in the area. But whatever it was was really attract. It was really attracting in the wasps there but they didn't, didn't cause any issues. It was around the patio, they didn't cause any issues there. They just seemed to be so content just taking in the, taking in the sap or whatever it was they were doing from from this particular dahlia. So those dahlia's I. I left in the ground it was their first year being planted I kind of mulched them heavily.
Speaker 1:So fingers crossed, once the weather starts to improve or the temperatures start to improve, that we'll see them peeping up again, hoping to get another great display. And then next autumn I will dig them and sort of try and multiply the plants a little bit. But dahl dale is, as I said, over 2000 varieties available. It's absolutely endless. And then the various different types. So, uh, dinner plate as I say they're, they're typically really big ones. And then for me, I like the traditional, the traditional ones, and they can be grown for the likes of, you know, bishops, children or bishop land, of any of those. They can be grown from seed now quite easily as well. So once you start getting into late march, early april still loads of time to sow them from seed and you will have flower this year. That's, that's the beauty of of of those at this stage now, it'll be late summer, into autumn, when you, when you get that flower but it will be will be fantastic. And then, once you have them produced, you can, as I say, you can dig up, up the tubers and you can multiply, apply your plants over time. So, like the the autumn planting bulbs, you know bulbs at this stage of the year are great investment and give great I I suppose, return for your spend.
Speaker 1:The other kind of big category of bulbs at this stage is lilies, and again you have seven or eight different types of lilies. You know there's the trumpet lilies, there's the tree lilies and all of that, but in general it's the trumpet ones that are kind of the traditional type and again they're the ones that I particularly like. There's oriental ones which have you know sort of more pintier flowers, and I don't overly love those. But any of the lilies, again they're going to be hardy, again they're going to give you a flower over a long period of time. They're going to last for years and years and years and they really are again give a great show over a period of time and you will, over time the clump, particularly of the trumpet lilies, the clumps do get bigger and you'll be able to separate out some of those as well. So that's lilies.
Speaker 1:Another one is gladioli, and these are a bit of a funny one because they're they're seen to be a little bit old-fashioned, but they're still actually quite a good they're. They're seen to be a little bit old-fashioned but they're still actually quite a good they're. They're a very good flower actually. They're very much suited to being in a border and to be peeping up through other plants. They're not not so good, you know, standing on their own, because they're a little bit the the stems and that the lower part of the plant is very stocky looking as opposed to. You know, if it's in the middle of a border it can peep up and you get this flower above, above a kind of canopy of growth, and it's a little bit nicer that way. So they're suited to being in the cottage style, heavier type planting as opposed to being sort of standing on their own. But they're really. They are old-fashioned, you would admit that, but they're definitely, you know, they're definitely a really nice flower and they do last. And in that setting where they're within a bed, within a border and peeping through, they give great, great flower and, again, they will grow absolutely anywhere. They're really easy to grow and, yeah, maybe a little bit old-fashioned, but I still think there's a great place for them and you won't be disappointed in that setting where you have them among other plants, particularly, you know, peeping through along with roses, along with grasses. You know that kind of cottage style planting. They can look really, really well at this time of year.
Speaker 1:Then we're looking at peonies. So peonies are a brilliant one to get at this time of the year, so you'll get them. You'll get them either a kind of as a bare root plant or, and that it really is a brilliant, a brilliant time to get them, because peony plants now to get a good-sized peony plant, any of the nice varieties like Cicera Bernat or any of those they're going to be really nice and a good-sized plant is going to probably cost you anything from 15 to 25 euro, 30 euro, euro thereabouts, and you'll get. You get the same sort of uh, bare root plant or or tuber at this stage of the year and it'll be maybe anything from four to seven or eight euro, depending on the size of it. But it's a brilliant, brilliant way of getting a really really nice plant, getting it established and getting flower pretty much straight away with it. So that's another good one at this stage of the year. Again, there's lots of different varieties, lots of different types as well, but peonies is a another good and easy one to grow at this time of year.
Speaker 1:Next one is a bit, is a bit like the gladioli some, some people love it, some hate it, some people call it a weed. But crocosmia definitely has a big impact, particularly over time. It will spread and I think this is why people kind of call it a weed. If it gets, if it gets neglected, it will start to take over, start to spread. But if you're able to keep splitting it, keep taking some bit away and just keep it in check, I guess it doesn't necessarily take over but you can get some great color from it.
Speaker 1:The likes of the crocosmia lucifer, really bright, vibrant, red, hardy, will grow pretty much anywhere as well. Again, more of a border plant. So the the bottom half of the plant is quite underwhelming, to be honest. It's just, you know, green, kind of stocky growth again. But up top you get these really nice red, vibrant flowers and again, if they're, if they're above a canopy of of foliage, they can look really really well. So they have their place, sort of mid-border, that's kind of their their place. And, yeah, krokosmia is. There's lovely orange ones as well. There's um, I can't think of variety now, but there's some beautiful, really deep orange ones that that again will look well in most borders. So you get. You get different colors in them and they're, they're, they're a fantastic plant.
Speaker 1:Another one which is again would be, would be seen, as you know, sort of cottage style, older style planting, but again really really good, solid performer is noreens slightly underrated, I think, as a plant, so noreens are really really hardy. Come back every year, multiply flower pretty much without fail and, yeah, they're just, they're just a nice, a nice flower, and again they suit that cottage style planting. So you know, so there's kind of four or five that you'll get at the moment from kind of bulbs or carms or tubers, whatever you want to call them. You have dahlias, you have lilies, you've daddy all I, you've peonies, you've crocosmia and noreens. Don't forget you're from for dahlias, you can grow quite well from seeds as well at this stage of the year. So that's, that's another big possibility and the other thing that you'll see more so with the you'll see it in in some of the bigger garden centers and you'll see it with the online bulb sellers.
Speaker 1:You can get a huge amount of perennials as sort of bare root plants at this stage of the year and I've used this before again. You know in terms of, in terms of, you know value for money they're. They're superb value for money versus going out and buying you know a, a big plant in a three liter pot or whatever. They're superb value and essentially, what what you're going to get here is is pretty much any perennial plant that you can think of, so it's everything from the one. The last ones that I got were still bees. There was a certain variety that I was looking for, couldn't find seed, couldn't find plants, but then found them on forget which. One of the online bulk people had them as a you know, sort of bare root plant and they were starting to starting to sprout. So it was around this time last year or the year before they were starting to sprout and then just, yeah, really, really good plants from them pretty much straight away. So you get them into the ground, make sure you give them good watering at the start, a little bit of seaweed to get them established, and they'll just really kick off and give great, great return in year one and then, obviously, going forward year after year. So still, bees is a great one.
Speaker 1:You can also get, um, pretty much, as I say, pretty much any of the perennials you can buy like this at this time of the year. So agapanthus thing with agapanthus is they can be very slow, so you'll buy them and they will just take a little bit longer than say they still bees or whatever. Uh, agelias, agastacheas, dahlias we mentioned, you know, pretty any echinaceas, any of the perennials that you would sow, and again, we would have spoken about sowing seeds in the autumn time, which is the best time to sow perennial seeds. But if you haven't done that, you can get your sort of bare root plants now and again you'll have great flower this year. So that's a huge, huge advantage.
Speaker 1:You can still sow seeds of any of these. You just won't get flower in this coming year, or at least it'll be. You won't get much flower. It's really going to be next year before you see the benefit of the typical perennial types. So they're some of the ones like but perennials from Beirut plants at this stage of the year is, yeah, hugely, hugely beneficial and a great way of getting a lot of plants, you know, for if you're doing a big barber or something like that, it's a great way to get a lot of plants and watch out as the, as the end of the berry season comes, a lot of the, particularly the online people. They may not have availability of everything, but they'll certainly be doing kind of 50 off a lot of the, particularly the online people. They may not have availability of everything, but they'll certainly be doing kind of 50% off a lot of the, a lot of the different ones at that stage. So, yeah, there's, there's great opportunities, great opportunities to to get a lot of flower. Then you can still sow a lot of the perennial seeds, as I say, but you won't get necessarily any flower this this summer and autumn of them, but they're still well worth doing at this stage.
Speaker 1:And, of course, there's the annuals and annuals. While certain annuals I don't think they're, you know, they're the the right way to be doing it. So, for example, certain bedding plants. I don't know that it's a great way of going out and buying plants. You know, when you think of the energy and the, the, I suppose, the effort, the amount of inputs that goes into producing really small tray of plants that last for a very small window of time, not sure whether that makes huge sense, but in terms of sown seed, you can definitely sow any of those yourself. All you need is, you know, windowsill greenhouse, if you have it, and and, yeah, you'll be able to. You'll be able to grow nearly all of those really really quickly at this stage of the year, once the temperatures start to come up. There's a lot of seeds that you can direct sow as well, the likes of cornflowers and things like that. You can. You can direct sow those into your beds.
Speaker 1:For me I'll be sown the likes of cosmos, brilliant variety, cosmos. Last year I can't remember the name of it at all, but it was. It was a fantastic pink and purple shaded one. Uh, the way the way it grew, the way it it ended up, it created kind of a hedge of cosmos which was really gorgeous where it was. Uh, trying to find that same variety again. I've looked twice now and haven't seen it, but, um, I'll know it when I see it. I don't remember the name, but I know that the picture when I see it. So, trying to get those. It was a thompson and morgan seed, so I'll be keeping my eye out for those. They need to get sewn. Have some sewn already but definitely need to get that one if I can, because it was just, it was just spectacular.
Speaker 1:And yes, then pretty much any of the, any of the perennials, as I say can be got from from Beirut to this stage of the year. But do, do, look out, do keep an eye out for the kind of end of season sales, particularly on the online people. You get your, you know your your 50 off as they try to exit their stock before the window closes. And it's a great time to gather up plants and once you're able to mine them and keep them watered over the coming months, they'll be perfect and getting near the end as well. But, like things like bare root roses for the next few weeks as well, there's still an opportunity there to do that and, again, they're going to give you flower this year maybe not full flower, but you'll get decent flower off those.
Speaker 1:And, of course, you know you have your, your wild flower meadows that can be sown in the next couple of weeks as well, and another, another great way of of getting getting seed into your garden. If it's not a wild flower meadow you're going for, a floral meadow is another option. So floral meadows are cultivated flowers and that's an option again for sowing over the coming weeks and it's a great way of flowering up, I suppose, a bigger area really, really quickly and it's, you know, it's something that will give you flower definitely over the next kind of five, six months. So loads of opportunities for for flower at this stage that you know for later on in the summer that even if you haven't for flower at this stage, that you know for later on in the summer, that even if you haven't anything done at this stage, you can still do this. And so that's your summer flowering bulbs, your sowing of seed of certain ones like dahlias. Again, you'll have huge success with them. Get the dahlias sown next couple of weeks, pot them up into a slightly bigger pot. So you sew them in a seed tray. You'll move them to a slightly bigger pot, like a nine centimeter pot. You'll prick them out into that. A couple of weeks later you'll move them into a slightly bigger pot again and by the end of sort of mid-may, end of may, they'll be fantastic plants, ready to go out into any border and they will flower very, very well this year. So, yeah, great opportunities there. And then, obviously, your your bare root plants, your bare root perennials that are going to be available and are still available in a lot of garden centers and a lot of the online bud people. So great way of of, as I say, flowering up spaces over the over the coming months.
Speaker 1:Next week's episode is an episode on pruning of fruit trees, so that'll be a really interesting one. Looking forward to that. And, yeah, lots of guest interviews coming up over the next few weeks and we'll have our usual sewing guides. And open gardens are starting to come back in over the next couple of weeks. Try to cover those during the summertime, you know, when the gardens themselves are open. So we'll chat to some of those open garden people in, as I say, over the next couple of months and bring you ones that are worth catching, worth seeing. So that's been this week's episode. Looking forward to seeing how you get on with all your summer flowers. So get out, get planting, get sowing and, yeah, look forward to the avalanche of color later on the year. That's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.