A spot of mass bulb planting

Ah yes, planting bulbs in the dark. Another annual event.  That’s the problem with a bag of 200 bulbs. You think, I’ll  just finish the bag and then go in. But it never ends. You are forever reaching into the sack and finding even more of the plump little bulbs.

So I’m done. Done in.  Two hundred narcissus ‘Sailboat’ planted into the hedge and edge of the terrace bank.  Plus a few at the very beginning of the shade garden.

In my enthusiasm for having such a fun new variety (what, not planting Thalia again this year?) I started at the bottom of my beautifully muched shade garden.

Luckily I ducked inside for a cup of tea, thought about what I was doing and came to my senses.  They will look divine for a month. And then will die and look ghastly.

The only place for daffs is in grass. In a perfectly mulched garden among shrubs the dying leaves will look ridiculous. So I stopped at 20 each side and scuttled over to the hedge where they can hide cleverly among the tall mixed shrubs and not be an eyesore when they are over.

And here is the part where I confess just how many bulbs you can see stacked up at the hallway: 2175.  More than I’ve ever ordered before. Possibly a fault of being greedy. But I want to have a sumptuous view of my new potager in spring.

I planted some tulip white triumphator last year in one small spot on the edge of the vegetable garden. And they were divine. But they called out for a massed rank of fellow bulbs.

So I have 500 tulips to go there. Along with 100 Gladiolus communis byzantinus.

And the rest of the whopping order consists of 500 narcissus, 500 alliums, and 600 muscari, crocus, anemone, leucojum and galanthus. Phew.

I can put off the tulip planting for another month, but the clock is ticking on the narcissus and leucojums.  So when I peruse my long list of bulbs that Andrew brought up, I can tick off the Leucojum ‘Gravetye Giant’ (a snowdrop on steroids) planted in the hedge to the right of the giant oak and in front of the walnut path; the snowdrops in the shade garden. And the Sailboats.

Tomorrow I have to eschew the planting to finish off the clearing of my office for the builders. And that will give my knees and bulb planting hand a rest.