From unassuming bulbs come some of the brightest and most colourful flowers of all. Create an electrifying display in your own garden with suggestions from five bulb aficionados
Sarah Pajwani
Sarah’s two-acre country garden, St Timothee near Maidenhead in Berkshire, is skilfully planted to provide year-round interest. Bulbs play a key role in her beautiful colour-themed borders
Narcissus ‘Elka’ is of the earliest, prettiest and longest-flowering daffodils with soft white petals and a lemon-yellow trumpet that fades to ivory. At six inches high it combines well with taller varieties and multiplies over the years to create mini drifts.
N. ‘Jack Snipe’ is another small, early daffodil with creamy white petals and a yellow trumpet but with the distinct swept-back petals of cyclamineus types. Also known as the swan’s neck daffodil,
N. moschatus hangs its head demurely. This graceful beauty is short in stature and looks best in woodland areas where it can naturalise. N. ‘Firebrand’ is possibly my favourite daffodil of all with its star-shaped wavy lemon petals and a small fiery red cup. It is a late-flowering old variety.
Hyacinths are a great way to inject an early burst of colour and
Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Woodstock’, with its vivid magenta-plum blooms, brings excitement and energy to the more traditional blues and creams of spring. Mid-blue H. ‘Anastasia’ is a multiflora hyacinth with fabulous, although slightly lax, dark stems. To me it’s more like a vigorous bluebell than a traditional hyacinth.
Tulipa ‘Paul Scherer’ is a late-flowering black tulip that has proved highly perennial and disease resistant. It brings a touch of drama and sophistication when combined with brighter colours. By contrast, T. ‘Rosalie’ is a soft pink, highly perennial tulip that multiplies well when left undisturbed in a border.
Used as an early spring groundcover, muscari are less messy than forget-me-nots, and Muscari armeniacum ‘Valerie Finnis’ has flowers of a pale porcelain-blue that lifts many other colour combinations. It also multiplies well, so it is never a problem if you dig up the odd bulb.
Fritillaria raddeana is one of the earliest fritillaries, blooming at the start of March and bringing height and a touch of the exotic to the garden. It’s regal and resplendent, yet soft and understated, with a gentle creamy colour tinged with green.
Sarah is hosting two ‘Talk and Walk’ events at St Timothee in early 2024: ‘The Winter
