In another week it will be the ideal time to plant tulips.
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At present they should be in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Six weeks there enhances the quality of the blooms.
Tulip bulbs are best lifted after the foliage has died down and stored until the following season, although as long as the soil is well-drained, they can be left in the ground for two or three years.
It is well worth the trouble to look after them because they bring such a riot of welcome colour to the garden after the bleakness of winter.
Different people have different ideas about how tulips should be placed.
Some say that one colour should be massed together in one bed, but I like to see a mixture of colours growing in among pansies, bluebells and forget-me-nots.
One thing is certain, they grow best in well-drained, light loam with lime added.
The soil should be deep and enriched with plenty of compost or well-rotted manure.
Blood and bone will ensure good plant growth and large flowers, and they usually do better in full sun than in half shade.
The bulbs should be planted fairly deeply - about 15 centimetres, or 10 centimetres for small bulbs.
When buying bulbs make sure they are firm to the touch, not soft and spongy, and they should be round.
If they are smallish, or flattened on one side, they might not flower in the first year.
Remember tulips can be grown very successfully in pots and will brighten your home.
Vegetable matters
Sturdy seedlings of the cabbage family planted out now should grow into strong mature plants before cold weather stops them.
It’s a bit late for sowing seeds. These will germinate all right, but will be only small plants by the time winter’s cold slows them down.
They will mark time and then in spring probably bolt to seed.
Fortnightly waterings with liquid fertiliser of all your vegetables will help them along.
A tea made from soaking manure in water is marvellous for this, but dilute it before applying to the foliage.
There is no need to pull up and store carrots, parsnips, swedes and beetroot.
They stay happily in the ground all through winter and can be pulled as required.
Potatoes too can be left until they show the first sign of sprouting.
Pumpkins can be left lying in the sun after the vines have withered.
This will toughen their skins and give them a longer storage life.
Floral focus
For a display of welcome colour in the garden next spring, or with luck even in winter, plant now seedlings of such flowers as iceland poppies, pansies, calendulas, cinerarias, primulas, polyanthus, violas, stocks, nemesia, alyssum and lobelia.
Look for punnets of small, strong, healthy plants with good green foliage, and avoid any that are lanky and have yellow leaves at the base, and roots dangling out the bottom.
The same goes for vegetable seedlings.
You don’t have to have long rows or massed beds of annual flowers for the best effect. Half-a-dozen seedlings close together, scattered around among shrubs and in any odd space, will give a delightful effect.
Food for Ferns
Ferns are not heavy feeders. In nature they grow happily only with nutrients from decomposing leaf mould or minute traces carried in soil seepage.
A safe way to feed even potted ferns is to top dress their soil carefully with a handful or so of well-crumbled, partly-rotted leaf mould.
Apply this in early spring or when new growth is appearing.
And don’t believe the old idea that the soil should be allowed to dry out between waterings – it should always be moist, but not wet.