Home & Garden Gardening

Early Summer Naturalized Bulbs

Both English Bluebells and camasses will naturalize where the conditions suit them, but bluebells prefer a cooler, shadier site, whereas camasses prefer a sunnier location.
Both plants, however, like moisture retentive soil.
Camasses are ideal partners for pheasant's eye, which is the last of the daffodils.
Both plants flower in late spring and provide color long after many of the spring bulbs have finished.
This daffodil originates from the deep mountain valleys of Switzerland, where it flowers after snowmelt.
Its delicacy of flower and lateness make it one of the most popular of the genus.
However, the principal drawback of naturalizing these late flowering bulbs is that you have to delay the time when you can cut the grass.
Resist the temptation to get out the lawnmower.
Wait for at least six weeks after the bulbs have finished flowering before you cut the grass.
By them, the bulbs will have completed their lifecycles and will be resting until root growth starts again in autumn.
Each bulb produces a pair of broad grey leaves, held almost horizontal, which have a metallic sheen.
This allium is suitable for a minimalist style of gardening, and looks most effective against a carpet of gravel or red granite chippings, either of which provides a sharp, clean background.
It needs a sunny spot to do well and will enjoy the additional warmth of the surrounding gravel or stone which will encourage it to self seed with ease.
The individual flowers are small but numerous, star shaped, white to pale pink, borne in umbels w to 3 inches across.
Here, allium looks very snug with the newly emerging foliage of another sun lover, whose intricate leaf shape provides a foil as the foliage of the allium dies back.


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