Planting lilies and dahlias

What? Not just planting them in the ground? No. I have some wild creatures who consider my lily bulbs as the most juicy food there is.  A tasty underground snack that makes a change from the usual diet of parsnip, carrot and fennel roots.

The mole rat.  Don’t mention the war.

I used to carefully plant the lilies in gaps in the shade garden and then wonder why they never came up.  Spot the mole run and then you will understand that the little mole rat interloper makes use of the underground tunnels.  Straight to my bulbs.

And this year I have taken delivery of a LARGE number of bulbs. So it has taken much longer, but here is my lily bed.

I have snuck them just to the left of the asparagus bed – moving the wooden marker out a bit to stop me accidently strimming the asparagus fronds when it comes to managing the top vegetable bed.

Each one in its own pot.  And with luck they can stay in these pots for a few years.  The lily bulbs don’t bulk out as much as other perennials. So as long as I can feed them now and again, and they get watered, I ought to have a stunning display this summer.

There are 41 lilies here: and forgive me but I’ll have to retrofit the names of the lilies at a later date: I’m just plum tuckered out with the clocks going forward and the body hasn’t caught up with the new routine just yet.

Sumatra, Casa Blanca, Anastasia, Mapira, Montezuma, Eodie, Regale, Black Beauty, Beverley’s Dream, Dark Spirit.

And I actually decided to plant a few down in the potager in front of the house. Also in pots – in front of the verbena bonariensis bed.

The dahlias are also going into pots.(And once again, you will get their names later.)

Sugar Diamond, Sam Hopkins, Jowey Mirelle, Chat Noir, Ambition Karma Choc, Rip City, Karma Serena, Jescot Juliee, Otto’s Thrill.

I had a bit of a rummage under the potting shed staging to find the biggest plant pots I have. And each dahlia (all odd tuberous shapes) went into their pot.  It might be fun trying to dig holes deep enough in the potager flower bed to bury the pots.  They need to be able to reach the automatic watering system I have installed.

For now they are staying into the warmth of the potting shed so they can (hopefully, fingers and toes crossed) spring into life.