As the garden pulls out of the winter we see many flowering bulbs come and go through the month of March. Dependant on the temperatures and amount of available light, the timing of the bulbs varies each year, and will of course be weeks apart between the southern and northern ends of the British Isles.
Many of the Snowdrops have flowered and already gone to seed. They have had the garden to themselves for many weeks, and will slowly disappear, but a few late flowerers are still hanging on and it’s useful to have a spread of different varieties to transition into spring.
March 1st is St David’s Day, and is therefore the time of Daffodils. They are just coming into flower here though like many other areas we have had some that flowered in autumn as the plants tried to work out where they were in the calendar. In another week we will have vibrant yellow carpets weaving their way through many parts of the garden.
Bulbs are essentially compressed stems and leaves of a plant, which are held below ground during the colder months to protect the plant. This is clearly seen in Daffodil bulbs where the stem grows from a central point, and the various layers of the bulb are adapted leaves covering that growing point. This makes it possible to take cuttings of the bulb by cutting between the leaves/layers ensuring a piece of the base plate/rooting area is attached to each. In this way a bulb can be cut into small pieces, each with at least two leaves/layers, and will in time grow into a new bulb.
Bulbs naturally reproduce either by offsets in essence creating clonal copies of themselves, or by seed, which will produce more varied offspring determined by the parental genetics. Both of these methods are useful in creating Tulips, which will be starting to bloom toward the end of March.
Offsets are a faster way to bulk up stocks and the only way of ensuring that the eventual bulbs will be the desired shape and colour. For those Tulips with ‘breaking’/patternation on their petals it helps ensure that it is retained. The highly-prized patterning on Tulip petals is caused by a virus that must be physically transferred between bulbs/offsets.
Seeds are a good way of producing many eventual bulbs, though it will take several years before they flower. Species plants will readily set seed allowing them to naturalise through flower beds and grasslands. Seeds also enable one to experiment with new colours, shapes, and patternation by cross-breeding between different parents.
The end of March sees the start of the Tulip explosion, but also brings the Snakes Head Fritillaries to the Wild Area. These provide a subtle drift of colour below the trees and intermingled with the grass. Many hundreds of these bulbs have been planted over the years, and they have subsequently naturalised well through the space.
By the end of the month many of the other plants will have begun to catch up, but these initial flowering bulbs seem to almost lift the life out of the soil as spring is set in motion.
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