Sonya’s Top Summer Bulbs

Mon - Fri 8.30am - 5.00pm
Sat 8.30am - 5.00pm
Sun 9.30am - 4.00pm (Tills open 10am)

Think ahead to the summer and your borders and pots could be bursting with colourful summer flowering bulbs. Go bold and bright or soft and subtle with colours to suit your favourite schemes. All you need is a little planning ahead. Plant them in the ground or pots now and by summer your garden will be full of beautiful blooms.

As well as being our houseplant manager Sonya also orders all of our seasonal spring and summer flowering bulbs. (We don’t know how on earth she manages to decide which ones to order with so many to choose from!). Sonya is an experienced gardener with a beautiful garden at home and has picked out a few of her favourites to mention here.

Dahlias produce bold, showy flowers over a long period through the summer into the autumn and light up garden borders and containers with their wonderful colours, sizes and shapes. They like fertile, well drained soil and a warm, sunny, sheltered position. Regular watering, feeding and dead-heading will ensure the best displays. Dahlias make excellent cut flowers and are often grown for competitive shows.

Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda

Choosing one Dahlia from the huge selection we offer was difficult, but Sonya went for Waltzing Mathilda which she grows in her own garden. This gorgeous semi-double dahlia has attractive dark foliage and pink flowers with a red edge. Waltzing Mathilda has an RHS Award Of Garden Merit and is also an RHS Plant For Pollinators. It flowers all summer long at a height of 90cm/36”.

download (1).gif

Tigridia

Another of Sonya’s favourites and pictured growing in her garden are Tigridias which are also known as the Tiger Flower. With their bold colour combinations these exotic looking flowers will certainly create impact in the garden when they bloom in June/July at a height of 50cm/20”. Tigridias like lots of sunshine which will encourage flowering and ripen the bulbs to produce glorious displays the following year. Keep the plants well watered during the summer and lift and store over the winter in a frost-free place.

Bearded Iris Louder Still

This unusual two-tone burgundy and golden yellow delicately scented bearded Iris flowers in May/June at a height of 80cm/32”. Plant in full sun in rich, well drained soil leaving the top of the rhizome just about soil level.

download (2).gif

download (3).gif

Nerines

Plan ahead and ensure that your displays continue by planting Nerines. These delightful plants produce pretty lily-shaped blooms that flower from early to mid-autumn in hues of pink and white, making them ideal for adding late-season colour to your garden. Nerines create impressive displays that are particularly stunning when showcased in greenhouses or conservatories.

Bulb Starter

Sonya recommends using Bulb Starter which is biologically active and designed to promote strong, healthy plants that you can enjoy year after year. The rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi in Bulb Starter will quickly establish a vast secondary root system supplying extra nutrients and water to the plant ensuring optimum flowering. Bulb Starter also contains vermiculite to improve drainage and soil aeration and seaweed meal for a source of natural auxins that stimulate root growth.

download (4).gif